Showing posts with label President Barack Obama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President Barack Obama. Show all posts
President Barack Obama is coming to the Motor City for a $1 million pizza party being thrown for him compliments of Denise Ilitch, daughter of Little Caesars’ founders Mike and Marian Ilitch.
Ilitch is opening her home April 18 for the fundraiser where movers and shakers are being asked to pony up thousands to add to his re-election coffer while getting a chance to rub shoulders with the most powerful man on the planet.
“I’m honored to have been asked,” by the Obama campaign to host,” Ilitch said of the event she and husband, Jim Scalici, will hold at their Metro Detroit home. She made the comments on “Michigan Matters” when asked about media reports.
http://wnba.com/ President Barack Obama will honor the 2008 WNBA Champion Detroit Shock for their accomplishments both on and off the court at a ceremony on South Portico of the White House on Monday, July 27, 2009. The ceremony will include a gift presentation from the Shock to the president.
Prior to the ceremony, the WNBA and the Shock will join forces with United We Serve – a national effort launched by President Obama to engage more Americans in serving in their communities this summer – to host a special WNBA FIT Clinic at the Richard England Boys & Girls Club in Washington, D.C..
The entire team, along with WNBA Legend, Community Ambassador and fitness expert, Jennifer Azzi, will promote fitness, nutrition, and self-confidence to 80 boys and girls at the club through interactive stations and positive messaging. WNBA FIT is part of the league’s social responsibility initiative, WNBA Cares, which supports educational programming, promotes hands-on community service and inspires young people and women of all ages to learn about the importance of physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle.
On July 14, President Obama visited Macomb Community College and announced the 12 billion dollar American Graduation Initiative, a historic investment in our community colleges that will help prepare Americans for the jobs of the 21st century. This plan will help an additional 5 million Americans graduate from community college in the next decade.
http://michiganmessenger.com
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be traveling to Charlotte in Eaton County next week as part of an Obama administration tour of rural areas to showcase what’s been done with federal stimulus dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to benefit local communities through agricultural development.
U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer, who represents Eaton County and much of south central Michigan, and U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow will host Vilsack, a former Iowa governor, at the Monday afternoon event at Country Mill Farm, which will include a forum for local residents to discuss federal agricultural policy.
President Obama will be in Warren at Macomb County Community College on Tuesday for a town hall meeting.
ABC NewsPresident Obama has scheduled three Town Hall meetings for July to discuss Health Care Reform. The third meeting will be held in Detroit on July 14th, after the president returns from a scheduled foreign trip to the G8 summit, Moscow for nuclear arms reduction talks, and Accra, Ghana, his first presidential visit to Africa..
TODD SPANGLER
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF
WASHINGTON -- Just how much will the $825-billion financial stimulus plan being bandied about in Congress be worth to hard-hit Michigan?
We’re starting to find out.
For instance, the Congressional Research Service -- which figures these sorts of things out for legislators in Washington -- has divvied up the $38 billion in aid for local school districts across the country and found that Michigan stands to receive about $1.4 billion.
And when it comes to the $43 billion for “shovel ready” infrastructure projects, it looks like the state will get somewhere in the neighborhood of $1.2 billion for highway and bridge work, mass transit and clean water projects.
All of it is in addition to the usual federal budget, which carries billions of dollars of aid to the states already.
On another front, Washington, D.C.-based research group the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has estimated the number of taxpayers in each state likely to benefit from President Barack Obama’s Making Work Pay tax credit, which will refund $500 to individuals making less than $100,000 and $1,000 to couples making less than $200,000.
In Michigan, some 3.5 million people would be expected to benefit.
All of these numbers are estimates and, with the legislation still being marked up in the House, much could still change before the stimulus plan becomes law.
But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- who expects to bring the bill to the House floor next week -- has said she wants to deliver the bill to Obama’s desk by mid-February, meaning Democrats will try to keep alterations to a minimum.
Still, the early figures should be taken as more of a guide than a promise to individual school districts.
The CRS numbers on the school allotments indicate Detroit’s troubled school system could be a huge winner -- with some $300 million this year and nearly $430 million total over the next two years combined.
The reason is that much of the funding -- $11 billion nationwide over two years’ time -- is in Title 1 funding, which provides help to school districts based on the population of low-income families living there.
And the construction funding -- $14 billion in grants to help modernize schools -- will also come through the Title 1 formula, the idea being that those districts have the highest need.
Opening the formula, in turn, could lead to a political fight over how money is allocated that would pit district against district, town against town, state against state.
Another $13 billion over two years would be committed in IDEA funding -- specially targeted to help cover the costs of education kids with disabilities.
In metro Detroit, the funding via those formulas would vary widely. Pontiac could receive nearly $20 million over two years’ time; Dearborn City Schools, $27.4 million. Birmingham schools, by contrast, would see $2.5 million in additional funds. Rochester Community Schools could get $4.2 million.
The increase in federal funding would come at a crucial time for Michigan school districts. Many are seeing their enrollment decline and aren’t anticipating an increase in state aid for the 2009-2010 school year, yet they say their costs are increasing at rapid paces.
“Every district, including our own, is struggling,” said Janet Roberts, spokeswoman for Huron Valley Schools. “That struggle is getting worse and worse every year … so any relief would be a godsend.”
Ken Siver, deputy superintendent for Southfield Public Schools, today was compiling a list projects that could be addressed with the additional construction dollars, a list he said the state has requested of every district.
“I had a lot of projects I had in the works, and they were sort of on hold, depending on money,” Siver said.
The projects include replacing the floor at Southfield-Lathrup Middle School and reconfiguring the space at the district’s alternative school to add six new classrooms. Some, though, are projects that need to be done, like replacing the chiller at Thompson Middle School, and would require using general fund money.
“Then there’s less money for instruction,” Siver said.
“Some see education and economic development as separate issues, but they are really one in the same,” said U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, a Bloomfield Township Democrat who released the figures from CRS. “Investing in the modernization of our schools will create jobs now, provide our kids with the tools to succeed in a 21st Century economy and make America’s workforce more globally competitive.”
On the infrastructure investment, the breakdown -- based on existing highway formulas -- breaks down like this for Michigan: $875 million for highway and bridge work; $121 million for transit capital; $1 million for rail (and buses that operate on controlled rights of way); and $250 million for water and sewage projects.
Taken together, that $1.2 billion would be more than all but nine states -- California ($4.5 billion), New York ($3.3 billion), Texas ($3 billion), Florida ($1.9 billion), Pennsylvania ($1.9 billion), Illinois ($1.8 billion), Ohio ($1.5 billion), New Jersey ($1.4 billion) and Georgia ($1.3 billion).
Bill McGrawDetroit Free Press
Paris? No.
Milan? No.
New York? No.
Detroit? Yes!
Aretha Franklin's bow-tied, gift-wrapped, jewel-studded, $179 inaugural hat was designed, produced and sold to the Queen of Soul by Mr. Song Millinery, a family-owned business on Woodward Avenue just south of West Grand Boulevard.
Starting minutes after Franklin finished her distinctive rendition of "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" on Tuesday, the store's phones started ringing.
By Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Song had sold hundreds of hats. A store in Dallas had sold 500 more, and the material was running out.
"People are calling from England, asking for the hat," said Luke Song, who designed Franklin's chapeau. "I'm shocked. I had no idea. We did not expect this."
The hat has gone crazy in the media and cyberspace. Everyone from Jon Stewart on "The Daily Show" to the women on "The View" talked about it Tuesday and Wednesday. Stewart poked fun at it; the women seemed more appreciative. On Wednesday's "The Ellen Show," host Ellen DeGeneres wore an exaggerated hat similar to Franklin's.
People have created dozens of Web sites devoted to the hat and have placed it on mug shots of Dick Cheney, assorted dogs and the heads of Mt. Rushmore, among many others.
On the Los Angeles Times blog page Wednesday, a poster named Sarah Hart wrote: "Loved that hat! She is the Queen and she rocked that hat and made that old staid anthem new and powerful!"
Song said Franklin, a longtime customer, came to him and wanted something to go with a coat she had picked out for the inauguration of President Barack Obama.
"She had in mind what she wanted," Song said. "She said, 'I want it altered this way.' That's what we do most of the time with the client. We meet them halfway."
The heather-gray hat was done in wool felt. The sparkly things are Swarovski crystals.
The hat Song was selling to customers Wednesday is not the custom hat Franklin wore, but it's very close.
Song, 36, of Southfield chatted Wednesday and took calls from around the globe, surrounded by about 1,000 vibrantly colored hats in the store, which sits on a stretch of Woodward that has evolved into a funky avenue of fashion.
The hat store was started in 1982 by Song's mother, Jin, an immigrant from South Korea. Luke Song, who graduated from Birmingham Seaholm High School and Parsons the New School for Design in New York, is the designer.
"It's an art form for me," Song said. "For me, hats define a culture."
Mr. Song Millinery's clientele is 90% African-American, churchgoing women, Song said. His wholesale business supplies hats to shops in other cities with large African-American communities, and the merchandise sells especially well in California, Houston and Dallas. He designs 100 hat styles every six months.
Business was good before the hat appeared on one of the most-watched spectacles in recent years. But now, Franklin's flamboyant headpiece has "taken on a life of its own."
By Patricia MontemurriDetroit Free Press
ROYAL OAK, Mich. — As Barack Obama finished his inauguration speech, a dozen artists at the 323 East Art Boutique here erupted into applause and cheers as they stood near their collected portraits of the new president.
"It was empowering and inspirational," said Mike Mac-Kool, 25, of Detroit, one of the gallery owners. "He's a man of majestic nature. It makes me feel pretty hopeful."
The noonday sun pouring into the narrow studio reflected on portraits of Obama in many moods: smiling, pensive, jubilant, somber.
His profile was evoked in bright neon hues or muted shades.
The artists, whose work is displayed on the website, http://www.323east.com/, said they were influenced by the times.
A sturdy rectangle of cardboard was Andrew Alexander's canvas to depict a thoughtful Obama. The president's name is written on the work in a graffiti style.
"I'm using what we can to make the best of the times," said Alexander, 25, of Highland, referring to his use of a mundane medium like cardboard. He called Obama's speech inspiring.
"I liked the explanation of intentions of what he wants to do," Alexander said. "You know that you're in a bad time, but why let that stop you? That's when the most influential things have been forged in our country."
MacKool said art and history have always gone hand-in-hand.
"Embrace this moment," he urged, "through the eyes of artists."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)