LSJ Blogs: Derek Melot is Just Asking

America of two minds on health-care law

Voters in mid-Michigan will be hearing from certain folks that everyone hates the federal health-care reform and repeal is just a matter of having an election this November. I made note recently, though, of the apparent lack of votes in the current House of Representatives to go the repeal route.

Today, I draw your attention to the invaluable pollster.com site and its tracking of polling on views about the health-care law. At this particular moment, the polling average shows a dead heat: 44 percent favor the law and 44 percent oppose it. To emphasize, this is an average of a great number of polls done by a variety of pollsters.

Cable barriers work

When I read that the injury accident on U.S. 127 near Grand River Avenue was a head-on, I immediately thought of MDOT’s work to install cable barriers along highways.

These barriers are considered an effective way to reduce accidents, particularly head-on accidents.

A Washington Department of Transportation report on cable barriers there said, “The 2009 update confirms that cable median barrier is an effective strategy for reducing cross-median collisions and saving lives. For state highways, there is a 59 percent reduction in fatal and serious injury collisions.”

MDOT’s work has come under question. See here and here. Still, this seems a good use of road dollars. Head-on collisions are the worst of the worst. If cable barriers can help prevent them, I say bring on the cable.

Car stops, call starts

We had an AP story Monday reporting on concerns by “some” in law enforcement that Michigan’s new ban on texting while driving will be tough to enforce.

It will be tricky, I agree.

So why don’t we start looking for the next logical step: a technological fix?

In Louisiana, state employees will be testing “devices (that) restrict the on-the-road use of mobile devices by storing calls, e-mails and text messages while the vehicle is moving, and allowing access to them only when the vehicle is not in motion.”

The device does allow 911 calls to get through.

Sounds good to me -- and far better than having police officers chasing after texters.

Nevermind ...

Despite the mayor's office's language that "The new schedules are an alternative to employee layoffs or furlough days ...", this new plan is, in essence, a furlough system.

In the City Clerk's Office, for example, the four employees will share two shifts on Fridays. So, each of the four will have an unpaid day off during each two-week pay period. That's a furlough -- and a pay cut for the affected city employees.

Taking a turn on furloughs

So much for furloughs.

On the same day that we have an editorial discussing the impact of 26 furlough days on non-emergency city services, Mayor Virg Bernero’s office announces that there won’t really be furloughs.

This is going to get interesting.

Bernero’s plan is an apparent modification of his original proposal to take city offices to four-day, 36-hour work weeks. Instead of “no city” Fridays, though, individual city offices and services will open and close on different schedules.

Some city offices are going to keep normal hours -- Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Does that mean the staffers in those offices will not absorb pay cuts? (As of 12:20 p.m., our news division was inquiring on this point with the mayor’s office.)

If that’s the case, look out. For example, the City Council office will close on Fridays, but the mayor’s office will not.

Capitol Avenue freakout

State leaders are beginning to learn the dangers of relying on someone else to balance your budget. Such poetic justice.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is mighty upset that the U.S. Senate will not approve more Medicaid aid to the states, or at least as much as Granholm had budgeted for back in February.

Then, she expected about $500 million in federal help that had not been approved. She expected Congress to come through.

That’s probably what local governments and schools used to think about state government, too.

Room for everyone

At its most recent session, the Lansing City Council was presented with appointment decisions affecting 19, yes 19, different boards and panels. They ran the gamut from CATA and CADL to the Park Board to the Mechanical and Zoning Appeals boards.

What does a Mechanical Board do, anyway?

Paroles vs. prisons

Reader James J Pecora sent me a clipping of the June 16 LSJ story detailing the arraignment of Freddie Goss on charges involving the May 22 attack on Lansing resident Larry Ruble in Ruble’s back yard.

Pecora and I have previously engaged in an e-mail discussion over corrections policy, particularly the Granholm administration’s increased pace of paroles to reduce the size of the prison system.

Pecora notes that Goss is a “serial parolee” and ends his missive, “I rest my case.”

Gas is future for BWL, Lansing

News from up in Traverse City re-affirms my belief that the Lansing Board of Water and Light will be using natural gas to generate electricity in the future.

According to the Michigan Messenger, “Traverse City’s municipal utility has decided to step away from plans to build a wood-fired power plant as part of an effort to reach a goal of 30 percent renewable energy by 2020. Traverse City Light & Power executive director Ed Rice said that the TCLP board has decided to “curtail any detailed analysis” of biomass options and instead explore meeting the city’s power needs with natural gas. He cited community opposition to biomass power and lowered costs for natural gas as the main reasons for tabling the plan.”

What does that have to do with BWL? Plenty.

Hey-hey, ho-ho, traffic patterns gotta go

I don’t know if the MEA is having any impact on legislators at its big rally on the Capitol lawn today. I am sure of one impact -- on traffic.

The city of Lansing had Capitol Avenue closed at Ottawa Street at the noon hour to accommodate the MEA crowd. I don’t recall that happening too often.