First Prop 2, and now Obama, too. Today, the president announced that his administration will be overturning the backwards policies of his predecessor by lifting bans on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. (In 2001, George W. Bush signed a directive, banning federal funding for the study of stem cells created after the date of the signing, according to a story by the Free Press).

This announcement could not have come at a better time. In January, we saw our great state’s unemployment rate hit a staggering 11.6% - the highest it’s been in 25 years. After lifting the statewide ban on embryonic stem cell research in November and now, with movements at the federal level, Michigan could see a healthy amount of jobs created for our workforce in the medical researching fields.

Put quite simply, presidential approval translates to big bucks. Meaning that, after voters overwhelmingly affirmed Proposal 2 last November, Michigan will now be literally able to put our money where our mouth is, and gain even more funding for this innovative research that we would have been able to just with the passage of Prop 2. Instead of remaining in the intellectual dark ages – up until the passage of Prop 2, Michigan was one of only four states that still upheld a ban on embryonic stem cell research – Michigan is now entitled to a tasty slice of the federal money pie. Dollars by the barrelful look to pour in from the feds – money that will allow scientific researchers in Michigan to develop cutting-edge technology and breakthrough on cures for debilitating, degenerative diseases like juvenile diabetes, cancer, Parkinson’s, and Lou Gehrig’s.

Good news, indeed. Great news, even. It’s about time that our workforce was thrown a significant helping hand for all that we’ve had to endure. And it’s about time that Michigan’s patients and their families had a leader – and a future – they could all believe in.

cross-posted at ClimateLaws.org

Under the neo-classic pen name, Justinian, several yet to be revealed policy and climate experts have released a blueprint of strategies for the incoming administration to consider with regards to climate change.  The lynchpin of these tactics is that they can all be undertaken without the need for immediate congressional action.  Like the Roman Emperor Justinian’s attempts to bring Rome out of the Dark Ages with, among other things, a complete revision of the Roman law code – the authors’ proposals offer a dramatic administrative shift in US priorities for climate change.

While some of the recommendations are fairly well known, some are wonkish administrative priority setting such as strategies within federal agencies that will permit a far greater amount of environmental policy changes to successfully navigate the myriad of interagency hurdles they often face.  Two of the more public and well known recommendations include having the US join a binding international agreement on climate change, and granting California’s exemption to EPA regulation of auto emissions essentially letting that state and 18 others raise emissions standards on automobiles. 

In “Huckabee, Obama wins set stage for Mich.”  [The State News, 01/07/08], the piece is posited on the belief that the ‘Michigan Primaries’, especially for the Democrats, will bring money into Michigan are relevant and will bring money into our state. This is totally wrong, neglecting common sense in its reasoning that Michigan has any hope left of benefitting from the campaigns or improving its national stance.

Bill Ballenger writes of the Clinton campaign, “While that means Clinton could conserve spending in Michigan, […] Clinton can’t take any risks.” His prognosis that, should she loose in New Hampshire, Clinton “needs to win something,” assumes that a cash-strapped campaign seeking a comeback would spend money in a state that could not help if it wanted to. This is not true. It would be more efficient for her to spend money on Super Tuesday states, such as Michigan would have been. Furthermore, her only challengers on the ballot are two defunct candidates. The $10 million of taxpayer money that will be spent on this primary will not be recouped, as the Legislature hoped.

This primary makes Michigan irrelevant in the national political field. Not only will Michigan not receive any real investment, Clinton’s main competition is people voting ‘uncommitted’, meaning a vote of ‘I don’t care’. This can only form negative opinions of Michigan’s situation in the minds of national leaders.

Lansing’s mistakes will cost us money and prestige. We all need to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

-Tom Choske