Archive for the ‘Michigan’ Category
McCain pulling out of Michigan
Republican presidential candidate John McCain is giving up on winning Michigan.
Republican officials with knowledge of the strategy say the GOP candidate is shifting resources to other states. Democrat John Kerry won here in 2004, but McCain had tried to make it a target to switch parties this year amid economic problems in the state.
I’m not surprised that Michigan is leaning hard to the Left, but I am a bit surprised how much and how early. A lot of folks have been telling me that they expected Michigan to go for McCain, but I’ve been totally unconvinced.
For what it’s worth, even here in relatively conservative west Michigan, I think Obama bumper stickers and lawn signs outnumber McCain bumper stickers and lawn signs about 5-1 (or more). I was in the state capital of Lansing last weekend, near the middle of the state, and the ratio was probably 10-1. I know that doesn’t mean a whole lot, but it certainly doesn’t look like a state on the verge of shifting to the Red.
Seems that the McCain campaign agrees.
Murdoc went down to the Gerald R Ford museum in Grand Rapids this morning to participate in the all-day Scout Salute. My son (a Boy Scout) and my daughter (a Keeper) joined me.
As usual, no more posts on MO today.
All aboard! Amtrak ridership in GR way up
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The high cost of gas is pushing many travelers between Michigan and Chicago to passenger trains.
The Detroit News reports that the numbers of riders on several Amtrak train routes had risen between October and July.
Amtrak officials tell the newspaper that the number of people riding Pontiac-Detroit-Ann Arbor-Jackson-Chicago lines was up 5.9 percent over that period. The Port Huron-East Lansing-Chicago line has seen a 6.5 percent jump in riders, while the Grand Rapids-St. Joseph-Chicago line was up 7.2 percent.
Now, if Murdoc is running a few minutes late for work in the morning, he sees the Grand Rapids-St. Joe-Chicago train. As he runs late at least once a week (slacker) he often waI’ve been watching to see it the passenger load is up.
It might be up 7.2 percent like the article says, but it’s probably something like up to 32 passengers per day from 30. Seriously. The train usually has three cars (and often a second engine) and each car usually appears to be nearly totally empty. Now, Murdoc could be wrong and the actual numbers may be closer to up to 64 passengers per day from 60, but I’d be surprised.
Another thing to consider is that it’s likely more people get on the train for Chicago at St. Joseph than get off at St. Joseph from Grand Rapids, so maybe the number of passengers riding into the Windy City is 100 or more. Again, I’m completely guessing based off of what I see where the tracks cross my road to work, so maybe I’m way off base.
Are Amtrak ridership numbers publicly available?
The GR to Chicago ride is $47 and takes 3:55. By road, this is a 177 mile trip and Google Maps says it should take 2:55. At $4 a gallon, that works out to about $23 in gas, but there’s no way you make that trip in three hours on the highway, at least not at that time of day.
Regardless, I’d be shocked if the amount of energy it takes to move an engine and three cars (plus quite often a second engine) to Chicago is in any way good for anyone.
UPDATE: Missed this bit:
The increases would have been greater if tickets, especially for weekend trips, were not selling out.
Again, I’m sure that all three cars look to be 90% empty during the week. Something isn’t making sense.
Freedom (LCS 1) Begins Builder’s Sea Trials
Freedom (LCS 1), put to sea for the first time, marking the beginning of Builder’s Sea Trials for the first-in-class coastal surface combatant.
The agile 378-foot Freedom, designed and built by a Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT]-led industry team, is conducting Builder’s Sea Trials in Lake Michigan. The trials – which are a coordinated effort between the U.S. Navy and the Lockheed Martin team – will include operational testing of the vessel’s propulsion, communications, navigation and mission systems, as well as all related support systems.
I JUST SIGNED UP FOR MLB.COM’S PREMIUM INTERNET TV SERVICE. It took me about two minutes to decide to cancel.
Even though I checked the ZIP codes of home and work and both showed ‘okay,’ it tells me I’m blacked out for all home Tigers games. What someone is calling the “official MLB blackout map’ indicates that all of Michigan is blacked out for Tigers home games. I’m not sure that it’s an accurate map or that MLB.TV uses the same map, but if that’s the case MLB.TV’s ZIP Code checker needs to be fixed.
I also tried entering an Arizona zip code into my account to see if that would make a difference. Predictably, it doesn’t.
I called customer service and waited on hold for a while, then was told I’d be called back “probably within half an hour.” We’ll see. I’ve already sent an email directing them to cancel my service.
I tried to check out another game just to see what the quality was, but I’m getting error pages for all games now. Whether or not this has to do with my pending cancellation (or my zip code trickery) I don’t know.
According to the map I linked to, the entire state of Iowa is blacked out for home games for the Chicago Cubs, the Chicago White Sox, the Kansas City Royals, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Minnesota Twins, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Blacked out for six teams despite not having a single one in the entire state.
Honestly, this isn’t 1981 any more. Major League Baseball is going to have to rework the way blackouts work if they want to enter the world of 21st century media.
I’m sure they’ll get right on that.
WOOD-TV: Could lower speeds spur gas efficiency?
With gas prices climbing, one Michigan lawmaker says its time to roll back the speed limit.
A Democrat from the east side of the state has introduced a resolution in the state house urging the federal government to enact a 55 mile per hour speed limit nationwide.
The government did just that in the 70’s during the oil crisis setting a 55 mile per hour speed limit to conserve gas.
That went up to 65 miles per hour in the 80’s, and was lifted altogether in the 90’s allowing states to set their own limits.
So far there has been no vote on the resolution.
And they have a poll on the subject. Here’s a screenshot:
The problem with this poll, and the 55 MPH speed limit resolution in particular, is that the slight mileage improvement that would result from a lowered speed limit will do nothing to change the price of gas. Not in a noticeable way. Sure, you may save a few bucks personally, and all of that savings will add up. But it’s not going to do much to increase the supply of oil/gasoline.
The number I usually seem to hear about the mileage benefits of a 55 MPH speed limit is “up to 15%.” So let’s say, for the sake of argument, that it really is 15% instead of the 5-10% that “up to 15%” probably really means.
If you’ve got a vehicle that gets 30 MPG and you drive 12,000 miles a year, you will burn about 400 gallons of gas getting wherever it is that you go. Up your mileage by 15% and you’ll be getting 34.5 MPG, saving yourself about 52 gallons of gas. At $4.00 a gallon, that’s 208 dollars, or about $4 per week.
You aren’t going to be buying many extra groceries each week for $4, and gas prices aren’t going to shift much (if at all) because of a tiny decrease in demand.
Meanwhile, gas tax revenues will fall, as will the profit of gas stations and oil companies. This decreased revenue will actually give governments and gasoline suppliers an incentive to RAISE prices to make up for lost income.
Recall that when a county-wide initiative to conserve water in the Atlanta, GA area succeeded in lowering water usage by 30%, the country hiked water rates to make up for the lost revenue. If water usage goes back up, do you think the country will lower rates accordingly?
Here’s a hidden cost to drivers: Driving 12,000 miles at 55 MPH takes about 218 hours. But if you drive 70 MPH, it only takes 171 hours. In other words, to save $4 each week, you’ll need to spend 54 extra minutes driving each week. $4 for 54 minutes comes out to somewhere in the neighborhood of $4.40 per hour. Would you work for $4.40 per hour? Would you give up 54 minutes of family time or free time or sleep each week for $4?
The actual savings (and time cost) experienced by most drivers will be far less, as most people drive a large percentage of their miles on roads other than highways. So maybe you’ll save $1.75 per week. Is that worth lowering the national speed limit?
Personally, I spent the past three tanks of gas driving 65 MPH on the highway instead of my normal 70. I’m shifting back up to 70 for the next three tanks and will see if I notice any difference in my mileage.
I encourage people to do some math before deciding to go forward with this. If someone feels strongly about driving 55, I have a suggestion for them: Drive 55. No one’s stopping you.
Can I drive 55? Sure. Do I want to? I don’t know for sure, but I doubt it.
Do I want to have to? Not a chance.
UPDATE: Bram correctly points out that the federal government did not set a 55 mph speed limit in the 1970s. They actually set a new limit that the states were required to adopt if they wanted their national highway funds. It was a de facto federal speed limit, though Washington couldn’t just set the limits in each state on their own.
(Cross-posted from MichiBlogger.)
Michigan news: The Marines are getting a few good triplets
Andrew, Sam and Elizabeth Foltz of Cadillac may have disagreed now and then growing up, but they’re taking the same post-high school path — enrolling in the U.S. Marine Corps.
They decided separately and are not entering the service together.
In a discussion today with someone who is beyond fed up with oil companies who are gouging good old American citizens, I was told that no one in the US would be driving a gas-powered car in ten years.
I was then told that battery-powered electric cars would be all anyone drove (except for the ones that use plain water for fuel invented by that guy who was probably going to be killed by the government soon – long tangent not really worth delving into) and that the only reason no one had electric cars today was the big conspiracy between the government and oil companies.
When I said I’d be happy to drive a plug-in electric with acceptable performance and safety that was charged off a grid powered by new nuclear power plants but that I was skeptical that we’d see such a car at an affordable price within the next few years, he laughed at me and told me that I’d had the wool pulled over my eyes.
You see, the hillbillies in northern Michigan all drive electric cars. Those were his words. “All the hillbillies in northern Michigan drive electric cars. They drive them all over the place.”
I asked where they bought them and he laughed again. “They built them themselves,” he told me. “It’s easy. Anyone can do it. If dumb hillbillies can do it, don’t tell me that GM can’t do it. They just don’t want to and they don’t want anyone else to, either.”
I asked him to send me information about the dumb hillbillies who built their own electric cars and drove them everywhere, but he hasn’t yet.
Will someone please point them out to me?
I also failed to ask if the dumb hillbillies of northern Michigan were going to be silenced, but it probably goes without saying.
Luckily, it was a training flight and the crew escaped unharmed:
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A helicopter whose pilot was practicing approaches crashed on the roof of a hospital Thursday, catching fire moments after the two people on board escaped unharmed, a fire official said.
No patients were aboard the helicopter in the crash around 11 a.m. at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital, Fire Chief John VanSolkema said. The chopper landed on its side and caught fire, he said.
The crash sent thick, black smoke over downtown and forced the evacuation of patients from the building.
David Sneath worked in a Ford Motor Company parts warehouse fro 34 years, but didn’t take much time leaving after winning $136 million in the lottery.
“I yelled to the boss, ‘I’m out of here,”‘ the Livonia man said Thursday after coming to state Lottery Bureau headquarters in downtown Lansing to pick up his first $1 million check.
And then there’s this:
Despite his longtime association with Ford, he said he won’t be using any of the money to buy one of his former employer’s vehicles.
“I worked for Ford Motor Company,” he said. “I won’t be buying a Ford product.”
Quality is job one.
