Future shock: Michigan’s uncertain prospects in solar energy

More bad news for auto sales as the automakers release their sales figures for December and compare them to sales from the previous year. Ford was the first to release their data and the numbers show a sharp decline.

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President-elect Barack Obama has released the names of several nominees for key positions in the Department of Justice. The most prominent is Elena Kagan, current dean of Harvard Law School, to replace Paul Clement as Solicitor General. I don’t know much about Kagan as an actual courtroom advocate, but she certainly has all the credentials as a legal scholar.

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Chief Justice Cliff Taylor worked his final day on the state Supreme Court last week. The woman who defeated him, Diane Hathaway, will be sworn in this week and the balance of power on the court should shift as a result.

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Former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, long a favorite of religious conservatives, is gaining support from that group and others in his campaign to be the next chair of the Republican National Committee. Politico reports:

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When Michigan passed aggressive tax breaks to attract the film and television industry to Michigan in early 2008, the hope was that this would lead to strong investment in the state from the movie business. That hope appears to be coming true:

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Michigan Messenger’s Todd Heywood is attending the Medical Marijuana proposed rules hearing this morning in Lansing at the Michigan State Secondary Complex. About 200 people are in attendance.

Approximately forty-five minutes into the hearing, the state employees conducting the hearing directed persons offering testimony about rules not to provide any comments that might duplicate concerns expressed by other attendees; a ten-minute time limit per comment had been established as the meeting began. As a public hearing conducted by a state agency, the meeting should be conducted following Michigan’s Open Meetings Act; the time limit is normal during public hearings on controversial topics, but the direction limiting the content of comments appears to violate the Open Meetings Act.

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Diane Bukowki at the Michigan Citizen is reporting that Detroit mayoral candidate Dave Bing is a member of a business group that is urging the sale of part of the city water system.

Unions and residents are upset with the quiet move to sell off city infrastructure, Bukowski reports, and Bing (who as a former basketball star and businessman is among the better known mayoral candidates) has not yet responded to questions about his involvement in the matter.

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