Kevin Leffler, of Davison, produced "Shooting Michael Moore," which criticizes his former downstate schoolmate and Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker. Carmike Cinemas scheduled a week-long run of Leffler's film at Traverse City's Horizon Cinemas, but canceled it days before the Friday start. Local Moore supporters said the title promoted violence toward Moore but backed off their protest plans after Carmike shelved the movie.
(Welcome back LG Cherry! - promoted by wizardkitten)
Pam and I started our day at Thornton's Restaurant in St. Joseph. A friendly, family restaurant, Thornton's breakfast menu features a signature item-Big Bob's Big Bomb. The Big Bomb is an outrageously huge omelet whose consumption will earn you a place on Thornton's Hall of Fame. I passed up the opportunity to leave a historical mark at Thornton's, but we had a great breakfast anyways.
After breakfast we headed to Muskegon. The name "Muskegon" comes from the Ottawa Indian term "Masquigon" which refers to a marshy river or swamp. The area was home to native Americans from the earliest of times. Wikipedia points out that when the Wisconsinian glaciations retreated "nomadic; Paleo-Indian hunters" moved into the area. Subsequently in time, Muskegon became inhabited by the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes.
Muskegon Lake, our first stop, can be found at the mouth of the Muskegon River. During the lumbering era, the banks of Muskegon Lake, which served as a natural harbor on the Lake Michigan shoreline, became a site for a number of sawmills for logs floated down the Muskegon River. Later as the State industrialized, factories replaced the sawmills. The legacy of the area is a body of water contaminated by toxic sediments, industrial waste, and the filling of shallow water habitat and wetlands.
First let me apologize for posting this so late - I ended up staying longer than originally planned to help with the "tear down" operation.
This was a weekend that I, and many other people, will never forget. Michigan played host to the National Governors Association 2007 Annual Meeting in Traverse City. The theme of this year's meeting was Innovation America and the main purpose of the event was for the nation's governors to come together and discuss how states can adequately adapt and succeed in the 21st Century economy. Governors shared information on successful strategies and progress they had made in their own states, business leaders explained what they needed from state government in order to foster a competitive business climate, and various luminaries - including former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor - gave insight on myriad issues ranging from energy policy to education standard to states' rights. The conferences were productive and extremely interesting to watch; you can check them out in C-SPAN's video archives.
But I wanted to give you a little bit of a behind-the-scenes perspective. There are great articles from newspapers across the state that covered the business of the event and we'll get those all up in our news section. I want to give a brief summary of the things that didn't get the MSM's (MainStream Media if you're new to the blogs) attention.
This weekend, governors from states across the country will be meeting in Traverse City, Michigan for the National Governors Association (NGA) 2007 Annual Summer Meeting. It will be a weekend full of meetings for governors, policymakers and business leaders to share ideas, and chart a course for the coming year. And, for Michigan, it will be a chance to showcase our many splendors -- from fresh Michigan corn on the cob and cherries, to the beautiful waters of lake Michigan, to our world class golf courses and activities. And it will be a chance to highlight our innovative responses to economic challenges, including the 21st Century Jobs fund, our rigorous new high school curriculum and the Governors proposed No Worker Left Behind program.
First, there's all the great things about Michigan - and there are a lot of them...
