Props to the Senate GOP who organized a hearing of the Judiciary committee in Jackson last night to discuss the potential impact of Jennifer Granholm's plan to cut loose 1,500 more felons while firing 400 law enforcement officers.  Not the way to balance the budget, Madame Governor.

Here's more bad news of an entirely different kind for Michigan.  FREEP reports that nationally the sales of new homes are starting to decline.  It was said on the campaign trail last fall that Michigan was in danger of missing an entire economic recovery.  Remember, the rest of the nation has been going gang-busters, adding millions of jobs.  Michigan has moved out of our single state recession right smack dab into a single state depression.  All of the pain and adjustment we're going through is a completely foreign concept in Mississippi, Oregon, Rhode Island.  It's just us, folks.  

So bad economic news nationally is terrifying.  You think we've got things bad right now?  Just wait.  

On the upside, I'm house hunting right now and hoping to be in a new spot by the first of May so at least I'm guaranteed to get a pretty fantastic deal, right?  (I'm a glass half-full kinda guy.  Sometimes.)

And more rough news, college tuition in Michigan is up 37% in the last four years.  In fact, last year's hike was the highest in the nation.  DetNews reports that the middle-class is in danger of being shut out of the higher education game.  Not surprising.  Despite all of her huffing and puffing about the importance of education, and her nice little promises for larger scholarships (after trying to cut payments and failing to gain support) and free community college for folks who lose their jobs under her watch, Jennifer Granholm has always cut higher education before just about anything else.

At a time when the state budget has ballooned over $3 billion since she took office, she's cut university funding by $250 million.  That's a lot of credit hours.

Come 2010 I've got this gut feeling Granholm's going to have a lot of legacies she doesn't want.  This might be one of the worst.  Pricing the middle-class out of the possibility of a college education in the state that gave the nation the middle-class?  That's not very nice.  And to think, all it ever would have taken was a little leadership on the economy and a couple of tough decisions.  

Speaking of tough decisions, Ford's going to be spending over $11 billion in their restructuring plan.  How does that money break down?  Well, according to the AP:

"$5.96 billion on a jobs bank and other "personnel-reduction programs," $2.74 billion to scale back its pensions, $2.2 billion for fixed asset impairment charges and $281 million to idle plants."

$6 billion on jobs banks?!  That's not cool.  I mean, it's cool for the guys getting paid to sit around and play checkers all day, but it's not cool for the bottom line or for the future of the company.  

Of course the union bosses don't really care about that, as long as they've got their powerbase and influence in Lansing and DC.  So long as their pockets are lined who cares about the guys on the line, right?

Right.

And finally, since we're having a thunderstorm right now it must be spring right?  Just to prove it, the Tigers won their first spring training game yesterday, 5-4!  

There weren't many folks from the World Series line-up in the game but everyone played well.  Except Neifi Perez.  He's struggled defensively.  But whatever, first game of the spring.  I'll let it slide.