The White House has announced that President Barack Obama and representatives from the departments of Health and Human Services and Education will participate in a conference to address bullying in the U.S.

Chris Geidner of the Washington D.C. based Metro Weekly reports on the planned conference and the president’s participation:

Calling it an issue “very near and dear to the president and first lady’s heart,” [White House Domestic Policy Advisor Melody] Barnes noted that the president had recorded an “It Gets Better” video and said that the conference would include “students and parents and teachers and others impacted by bullying” and address, among other topics, “ways to take action to address [bullying] in their communities.”

The announcement was good news to Kevin Epling, co-chair of Bully Police U.S.A. The East Lansing resident lost his teenage son, Matt, in a bullying related suicide in 2002. Since then, Epling and his wife Tammy have been actively engaged in pushing the state legislature to pass a comprehensive anti-bullying bill.

Michigan is one of only five states that does not have an anti-bullying law. Legislation has been stonewalled by Republican leadership for years.

“I am very happy that President Obama has called this conference so this invisible epidemic will get the attention it deserves. We have lost far too many children to one of the most preventable things in our schools: peer to peer abuse,” Epling tells Michigan Messenger. “My hope is that an important voice will be there at the table along with educators; Parents who have lost children to bullycide who can help guide the change by actually exploring past problems and not just ‘theorizing’ what could happen. Ask those who have lived and have already been working with schools. .

“Honestly it should have never taken so long for this to happen, but it has because adults are the ones who don’t want to change. If you ask the students they are tired of the bullying they want things to change but the biggest problem with anti-bullying is the adults,” he continued. “Adults who are afraid of change even when the prognosis is very good.”

The White House is responding to a string of highly publicized bullying related suicides across the country. Those suicides gave birth to the “It Gets Better” campaign — an internet driven program wherein adults video words of support for teenagers who are being targeted with bullying.

President Barack Obama is one of many politicians who released a video for the program. Vice President Joe Biden also released a video.

(Check out the shot of Biden wolfing down the coney — as Gov. Jennifer Granholm watches and daintily sips a soda — by the Detroit Free Press photographer Andre Jackson.)

The back-to-back fundraisers held at the MGM Grand Detroit Casino for U.S. Reps. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township and Mark Schauer of Battle Creek were a high-dollar success — netting an estimated $318,000 combined.

In 2010, first-term Democrats Peters and Schauer are expected to be targeted by the GOP.

But both seem well on their way to boasting well-funded reelection campaigns — Peters’ campaign reported $1.1 million in cash at the end of the third quarter, while Schauer’s campaign reported $900,000.

According to CQ Politics, Schauer’s 7th Congressional District leans Democratic while Peters’ 9th Congressional is rated as likely Democratic.

From a White House press release, Vice President Joe Biden had this to say about the awards:

“A big part of the Recovery Act is about building communities – making them as strong as they can be, allowing every American family to live a better life than the one they are leading now. And we can’t achieve the goal of stronger communities without supporting those who keep our streets safe.”

Under the program, Detroit received funding for 50 officers, the City of Kalamazoo and the City of Dearborn both received funding for 10 officers, Grand Rapids got funding for nine officers and Flint got funding for eight officers. A complete list of cities receiving funding, and how much funding they will receive can be found here.

The Michigan State Police did not receive any funds, even though they laid off 100 troopers earlier this summer. The lay offs have been part of a controversy over the consolidation of services to a new downtown Lansing building for the MSP.

And even though he might be new to Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Mark Schauer might be one of the engineers that helps make high speed rail in Michigan — long talked about but never adequately funded — a reality.

The freshman Democrat from Battle Creek is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and its subcommittee on railroads, pipelines and hazardous materials, committee assignments that “puts me at the table in the high speed rail discussion,” he said in a recent interview.

Schauer told Michigan Messenger that he’s had several conversations with Vice President Biden and other senior White House officials about securing for Michigan funds the administration recently set-aside for the development of high speed rail throughout the country.

The congressman also arranged discussions between Gov. Jennifer Granholm, officials at the Michigan Department of Transportation and U.S. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to discuss Michigan’s place in the high-speed rail push.

One of the first things Schauer said he did on his first day on the job in January was to have a discussion with U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph) — who he called “a champion of high speed rail” — about high speed rail in Michigan. A majority of the Michigan section of track on the Chicago-Detroit Amtrak corridor lies in the two congressman’s districts, which combined extends from Lake Michigan east to the outskirts of Ann Arbor.

“This is a high priority for me,” Schauer said of high speed rail in the state. “My [committee assignments] puts me in contact with the rail community. I’m optimistic about our chances.”

Citing the job creation, long-term positive economic impact and environmentally-friendly aspects of high-speed rail, the Obama administration said it plans to invest $13 billion in federal money — $8 billion in stimulus funds this year and an additional $1 billion per year over the next five years — for the development of high-speed rail infrastructure in 10 corridors around the country, but mostly in areas east of the Mississippi River.

Another reason to be optimistic, Schauer said, is that the state — and region — already has a high-speed rail plan in place.

A proposal to increase the speed limit of trains has been debated since the early 2000s, when railroad officials and governors from nine states, including Michigan, participated in the Midwest Regional Rail Initiative. They sought to improve and update railroad infrastructure and increase passenger train speeds on some lines to 110 mph, including rail from Chicago to Detroit.

“The potential economic benefits of high-speed rail to Michigan are tremendous,” said Upton. “We are working together as a bipartisan delegation and in coordination with Governor Granholm to ensure that the Detroit-to-Chicago corridor is of utmost priority.”

The initiative is a $3.4 billion multi-phase plan with Chicago as the central hub, and it would include 3,000 miles of current rail lines for trains traveling 110 mph. The first phase would include the Amtrak line that links Chicago, Detroit and Pontiac.

Having a plan in place “increases our position,” Schauer said. “We’re in a good position.”

But after a report on the initiative was released in 2004, state transportation departments had difficulty securing funding to make the plan a reality. Now officials are hoping the billions set aside will inject new life into the plan.

But Michigan is already home to one stretch of high-speed rail.

Building on prior investments in infrastructure in the Chicago to Detroit corridor by the state, Amtrak and other parties, a pilot project has allowed speeds of 90 mph on a 43-mile stretch between Kalamazoo and Niles since January 2002, and 95 mph since September 2005. Final testing is under way for approval to increase speeds to 110 mph in the near future, MDOT officials said. It is the only stretch of track outside of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor where trains can reach such speeds. Most of that railroad right of way is controlled by Amtrak.

In most other parts of the country, Amtrak must vie with freight rail, which usually gets priority over inter-city passenger rail, which can lead to big delays, like the ones that lead to the situation involving a Grand Rapids-bound Amtrak train from Chicago that was stranded during a blizzard in Holland last December. That 16-hour ordeal wasn’t caused necessarily because of weather, but because the train was initially delayed in Indiana to let a freight train go by. By the time the train made it to Holland hours behind schedule, Amtrak’s rail crew had already worked its maximum number of mandated hours, and passengers had to wait for a fresh crew to finish the final 30 miles to Grand Rapids.

As momentum builds at the federal level to make high-speed rail work in the Midwest, there are still many details at the state-level that need to be worked out. “It’s hard to know what is exactly going to happen right now,” said Rick Harnish, executive director of the Chicago-based Midwest High Speed Rail Association. “The rules haven’t been laid out yet. States are working on it.”

The rules should be drafted by late May or early June, Harnish said. After that, applications for portions of the $8 billion would be due in August and money would start flowing in September, he said. Funds would be used to improve stretches of track to enable high-speed train travel and to purchase additional track right-of-way and updated rail car rolling stock.

“This is huge, it’s really huge,” Harnish said of the president’s announcement. “We’re happy to see it.”

And although he said he couldn’t speak specifically to how much money Michigan might receive for high-speed rail projects, he did say that the Midwest region stands to receive “a substantial amount of the funds.”

“A third of the nation’s population lives within a 500-mile radius of Chicago,” he said.

“We’re going to put Recovery Act dollars to work deploying cleaner, greener vehicles in cities and towns across the nation that will cut costs, reduce pollution and create the jobs that will drive our economic recovery,” he said.

State and local governments and transit agencies are eligible to apply for the funds, though they must agree to match half the amount they are allocated.

The money can be put toward the purchase of hybrid, fuel cell and natural gas vehicles and finance the infrastructure to fuel them. The money also can be spent on public awareness campaigns and training programs on advanced technology vehicles.

Detroit officials say they will apply for a $15 million grant to buy 150 hybrid vehicles.

In recent weeks, some Republican governors like South Carolina’s Mark Sanford, Alaska’s Sarah Palin and Texas’ Rick Perry have indicated they would not accept portions of the federal stimulus funding heading to their states.

On Friday, Sanford became the last governor to accept stimulus funding, $8 billion, but said he would continue to contest $700 million worth of education and law enforcement money.

South Carolina has the nation’s second-largest unemployment rate, following Michigan.

Just yesterday, a new poll was released on the presidential race in Michigan and it tells us what Michigan Republicans already knew—this race is close! The new numbers show McCain-Palin down by only 5 points to Obama-Biden—within the margin of error! Please, click here now to rush an online contribution to the Michigan Republican Party. Your support will help us show that the race is far from over in Michigan!

The new poll, conducted by Denno-Noor for the Rossman Group and MIRS Newsletter, also showed McCain leading in Oakland County 45-33! McCain and Obama are tied at 38% among voters age 18-35, and McCain is only down by 2 points (33%-31%) among independents—with a huge 29% of independents still undecided! This is promising news for McCain-Palin and our entire Michigan ticket!

Here’s a link to the poll results. Of course, he picks the one recent poll that looks even remotely favorable to their ticket and ignores the numerous other polls that show the opposite. The two other recent polls listed at RealClearPolitics show Obama with a 10 and 13 point lead respectively.

Adding up all the recent polls gives Obama a 7 point lead on average and that lead has been increasing over the last few weeks. As the chart on that page shows, on September 9-10 the two campaigns were virtually tied at 45%. A week later, the average was 47-45. A week after that it was 48-43. Now it’s at 49-42.

And we can safely assume that the McCain campaign’s internal polling must have shown the same thing, or possibly even worse, to spur them to pull out of the state and move their resources elsewhere.

Mr. B's patrons discuss the vice presidential candidates' debate. (photo: Minehaha Forman)

On a fall night sprinkled with chilly showers, a small group tuned in to the vice presidential debate at Mr. B’s Bar and Grille in Royal Oak, Mich., Thursday evening. Of the many TVs in the bar, two small screens were dedicated to the debate. Because of the loud music, viewers read the candidates’ responses via closed captioning provided by Fox News, so their eyes were constantly fixed on the screen.

One recurring word used to describe Gov. Sarah Palin among the crowd was “coached,” while Sen. Joe Biden was called “over-opinionated.” While it may have been entertaining, the VP debate didn’t seem to sway the opinions of the viewers in the bar.

One viewer, Richie Modi, 25, of Detroit, said he was an undecided voter and that the debate didn’t sway him either way. But he thought it went well.

“It was an honest debate,” he said. “Both candidates were forthcoming with their views. Especially Joe Biden. Palin was obviously coached, but it seemed like Joe Biden was too opinionated. He lost sight of his party’s viewpoints. It’s good that he’s being honest but not good for his party.”

Tiffany Carter, 26, of Detroit, did not hesitate in saying she was an Obama supporter “all the way.” But when asked who won the VP debate, she seemed less enthusiastic. “I don’t think either of them addressed the issues,” she said. “It was the same talking in circles we’ve been seeing this whole election.” She did think that Palin’s lack of experience in national politics and Biden’s years in the Senate made the debate lopsided. “It was uneven because Biden has been able to sit in the Senate with both [presidential] nominees. That’s why there were arguments they just couldn’t have,” she said. “He can’t attack a vote she made if she never voted.”

Another viewer, a 35-year-old resident of Toledo who called himself a “conservative Republican,” said he decided to vote for Obama the day McCain picked Sarah Palin for VP. “I think, given his age and health, it’s a risky choice,” the Ohio resident who declined to give his name said of the Palin pick, referencing some weak interviews and her inexperience as strikes against her.

As for Palin’s performance during the debate, he thought she did better than in past interviews, but that she gave “coached answers.” A voter who has voted Republican in the past, he said he has been turned off by the shortcomings of the Bush administration. “I’ve become disillusioned with the Republican P arty,” he said. “I felt from the beginning that Bush was not a conservative president. Under Bush we saw an increase in government power, in spending … ”

But the Toledoan thought that McCain had a better chance of swinging Ohio to red than Obama does in turning it blue this November and said he understood McCain’s move to pull out of Michigan and focus on states like Ohio. “Ohio was a state won by Bush. There’s a big mistrust of Obama there based on certain propaganda perpetuated by talk radio. The demographics of Ohio are different than Michigan. It’s Democratic in Cleveland, and center city Columbus, but it’s a lot more rural in Ohio.”

He said one appeal that Obama held was his age. “One thing I like about Obama is he’s not the generation of Vietnam,” he said. “He’s young and more responsive to needs of a gentleman such as myself.”

David Lawrence, 30, of Sterling Heights, a friendly staffer at Mr. B’s who tuned in to bits of the debate between tables, said he was completely undecided on whom to vote for, even though he follows politics closely. When asked to chose between the two he said, “I like them both. They’re really good people.” But he said if he had a choice between attending a McCain rally or an Obama rally, that he’d chose the latter. “He’s fresher, but nothing against McCain,” he said.

Lawrence said at first he liked Palin, but with recent events he’s not so sure. “I liked [Palin], but she disappointed me. She’s over-coached; not direct … maybe inexperienced.”

Lawrence didn’t think McCain’s decision to stop campaigning in Michigan will influence his decision either way. “I don’t blame [McCain] for shutting down his campaign in Michigan. You have to put your resources where you have a chance of winning,” he said.

So what about the polls? CNN had a poll immediately following the debate.

Fifty-one percent of those polled thought Biden did the best job in Thursday night’s debate, while 36 percent thought Palin did the best job.

But respondents said the folksy Palin was more likable, scoring 54 percent to Biden’s 36 percent.

Both candidates exceeded expectations — 84 percent of the people polled said Palin did a better job than they expected, while 64 percent said Biden also exceeded expectations.

But on the question of the candidates’ qualifications to assume the presidency, 87 percent of the people polled said Biden is qualified while only 42 percent said Palin is qualified.

CBS News again had an immediate poll of undecided voters and it showed a decisive victory for Biden.

Forty-six percent of the uncommitted voters surveyed say Democrat Joe Biden won the debate, compared to 21 percent for Republican Sarah Palin. Thirty-three percent said it was a tie.

Eighteen percent of previously uncommitted percent say they are now committed to the Obama-Biden ticket. Ten percent say they are now committed to McCain-Palin. Seventy-one percent are still uncommitted.

Join others here at Michigan Messenger for live chat during the debate! Scream not into the void at Palin’s babbling nonanswers or Biden’s toothy gaffes — scream here instead!

Use this special URL for the chat: http://www.gabbly.com/michiganmessenger.com

If you’d like to follow liveblogging of the debate, our sister sites have coverage plans:

Colorado Independent will be live blogging from a women’s focus group and playing Palin Bingo;

New Mexico Independent has a couple team members on the case this evening;

And Washington Independent’s managing editor Laura McGann will be liveblogging from Anchorage, Alaska.

Hope to hear from you or see you this evening at one of our sites!

UPDATE — 9:05 p.m. EDT –

Laura McGann says, “The people sitting next to me are wearing T-shirts with Sarah Palin riding a polar bear in front of the capitol that say “Attila the Mom” on them. No, I’m not joking.”

It’s going to be an interesting evening!