Tag: michigan

The Washington PAC Fighting to Save Detroit

Posted on by robbie

We all have a bit of pride when it comes to our hometown. But a group of Detroit natives are proving their allegiance runs beyond local sports teams and are using the power of politics to show their loyalty.
Two Washington, D.C. residents have launched Detroit XPAC, a political action committee funded by donations from the Motor City’s expatriates across the country. The goal is to tap the influence of Michigan’s professional youth that have left the state but still have a vested interest in rebuilding its fledging city.

“We are just a bunch of people from Michigan, from Detroit, who really love this city and want to see it doing well,” Farber said. “It can be amazing. And it’s getting there again.”

Registered at both state and federal levels, the PAC uses contributions to support candidates who have progressive ideas about rebuilding Detroit through economic and sustainable environmental policies, according to the National Journal.
Though the group is still small, it operates a national advisory board as well as a Capitol advisory board to assist with reaching lawmakers on the hill. Most of its members are volunteers who work in urban design or on environmental issues.
The PAC is currently focusing on four or five state, local and federal races, but hasn’t made any endorsements just yet. This year’s pilot run is a precursor to 2016, when the PAC hopes to use its influence for the larger election.
Farber is hoping to reshape the city that shaped her by helping decide who will lead Detroit out of decline. While some current residents may find outside influence on elections a bit disconcerting, Farber argues the PAC’s interest is genuine.

“Part of the reason we thought we should tap into the expats is because it’s a community that isn’t being focused on, and yet we’re all over the country,” she said. “We wanted to prove that the borders of Michigan don’t stop people’s love for the state or where they grew up.”

The group bills itself as nonpartisan but Farber confesses the group leans toward Democratic candidates, who tend to have more progressive ideas. For now, the PAC is readying questionnaires to send out to candidates to hear more about their ideas in the races it plans to endorse.

The PAC is also aiming to create similar advisor boards for New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, Denver, and Los Angeles.

“There are people on the wrong side of the aisle who think you can defund Detroit, you can cut off its resources, you can ignore it, you can pretend it doesn’t exist,” Dorsey said. “We believe that we must have people who are thinking through how to deliver for the economy in the best interests of citizens of Detroit and to protect the environment.”

Clearly, just because those citizens don’t live within Michigan state limits doesn’t mean they care any less about its long-term success.

MORE: Detroit’s Newest Parking Garage Becomes An Unlikely Canvas

Who Does This Food Truck Want to Help Out? U.S. Vets

Posted on by robbie

As it turns out, a little BBQ can cure more than just an empty stomach.
That’s exactly what wounded veteran Shane Farlin found out when trying to get back on his feet after leaving the Army. And now, he’s hoping to do the same for other soldiers with a food truck named Hogzilla.
Farlin had always wanted to be a soldier. Enlisting in the Army at the age of 17, he was later deployed to Iraq. In 2004, when returning from a supply mission in Fallujah, a bomb exploded in his face. A helicopter airlifted Farlin to treatment, saving his life, but the accident cost him one of his eyes. The injury also resulted in PTSD, and Farlin was discharged from the Army, leaving him with the need to find a new career.
He floundered for a while, spending four years interviewing for various jobs. To say that he was dispirited was an understatement — he was so low that once, he called the military suicide line.
Finally, Sonny Singh, the owner of a Michigan barbecue restaurant, Hogzilla, offered Farlin a job. The position made all the difference — lifting Farlin’s spirits and making him feel like a useful person again.
Now Farlin wants to provide jobs to other vets struggling to find work by opening up a food truck called Hogzilla Squeals on Wheels, with the hope of eventually expanding to an entire fleet of veteran-staffed food trucks (serving various types of cuisine). “I know vets make good employees,” Farlin told Kathy Jennings of Southwest Michigan’s Second Wave.
While food trucks are swarming cities from coast to coast, the trend hasn’t caught on yet in southwest Michigan’s Calhoun County, where Farlin’s vehicle would be the first full-service food truck in operation. Farlin is currently trying to raise the $50,000 he needs to get Hogzilla on the road through a Kickstarter page. So far he’s raised about $4,500.
Until Farlin’s food truck dreams are realized, he’ll continue to work in a vending trailer owned by the restaurant, forging agreements with private property owners to set up his trailer, as Battle Creek, Michigan does not yet allow food trucks on public property.
With any luck, Farlin will soon be serving up deep-fried macaroni and barbecue sandwiches and employing his fellow veterans.
MORE: This Program is Transforming Unemployed Veterans Into In-Demand Chefs
 

Inside Michigan’s Minimum Wage Wars

Posted on by robbie

Days after the formal plans for a nationwide strike in the fast food industry, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder tried to get ahead of the game by signing a wage increase, bumping his state’s minimum wage to $9.25 an hour over the next four years.
According to the Washington Post, Governor Snyder, commended his “partners in the legislature for finding common ground on a bill that will help Michigan workers and protect our state’s growing economy.”
Snyder signed the legislation just under the wire. Why? Labor groups had racked up more than 300,000 signatures supporting the addition of a minimum wage hike to this November’s ballot.
However, their efforts may be without a conclusion as the initiative may not be eligible for the ballot. Although the initiative only needed 258,087 signatures (or eight percent of the overall votes cast) since the Governor signed a bill repealing the current minimum wage law, the original law that the labor groups opposed will no longer be in place.
This effort is just another step in increasing minimum wage across the U.S. According to the Department of Labor, two states — Georgia and Wyoming — are tied for the lowest minimum wage (out of a total of 45 possible states with minimum wage laws) coming in with a total of $5.15 per hour. However, the federal minimum wage is $7.25; it supersedes state laws, according to the Department of Labor. Five states currently are without minimum wage laws: Tennessee, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama.
MORE: A Northwestern State Proves That a Higher Minimum Wage Doesn’t Necessarily Increase Unemployment
According to CBS Detroit Local News, Michigan’s current minimum wage is $7.40 — making it almost $2 an hour more than the lowest, but still far behind the state of Washington, which has the highest minimum wage at $9.32 an hour. Governor Snyder’s bill almost levels the playing field between Washington and Michigan.
Nationally, President Obama pushing for a raise of at least $10 an hour. According to the New York Times, a White House official shared, “the President has long supported raising the minimum wage so hard-working Americans can have a decent wage for a day’s work to support their families and make ends meet.” His Fair Minimum Wage Act or the Harkin-Miller Bill ups the minimum wage to $10.10, which in order to lessen the burden on employers, proposes raising the minimum wage in a series of steps over a few years.
With minimum wage being a hot topic during the mid-term election campaigns, guaranteed this discussion is far from over — even in Michigan.
 

Entrepreneurs Trying to Catch a Break Get a Leg Up in Flint

Posted on by robbie

Sometimes it’s hard to make money if you don’t have serious bank already.
This goes for low-income entrepreneurs especially. Businesses can take months, if not years, to turn a profit. But what if you need that profit now, to provide a roof over your head?
Habitat for Humanity knows a thing or two about putting roofs over people’s heads. Acknowledging the conundrum of start-ups, the national institution has launched an innovative program to provide people with homes and business space at the same time.
Starting with a pilot program in Flint, Mich., Habitat for Humanity will build live/work spaces for aspiring low-income entrepreneurs. The goal is to help the recipients establish a business while stabilizing blighted neighborhoods. The effort is a collaboration among Habitat, the University of Michigan and MasterCard, which chipped in a $400,000 grant.
The first recipients: Scott Hempel, 24, and Tyler Bienlein, 22. They plan to launch Great Escape Gaming on the bottom level and live in an apartment above in the Grand Traverse District Neighborhood on Court Street, a main route that leads to downtown Flint. The store will sell board games and serve as a community space where customers can gather and play.
“By giving gamers the opportunity to come in and play the game and try it out, that prompts them to want to buy the game,” Hempel told Nicole Weddington of MLive. “Also, having people in the store, you will sell things like drinks, snacks, food.”
MORE: Meet the Landlord Whose Rents Include A Second Lease On Life
Teachers in the University of Michigan-Flint, including the school’s entrepreneur-in-residence Michael Witt, will mentor Hempel and Bienlein through the business startup process.
Sue Henderson, vice president of the U.S. and Canada for Habitat for Humanity International, told Weddington that in order to revitalize places like Flint, “First, you bring neighborhoods back. You get people living in houses, you take down blighted structures. And then the next step is, how do you bring business back?”
Or in Flint’s case, maybe you accomplish everything all at once with a single building.

Savvy Mechanics Help Disabled Veterans Hit the Open Road

Posted on by robbie

Nine surgeries. A knee replacement. Thyroid cancer.
Justin Madore’s doctors said he should forget about riding his beloved motorcycles ever again, after the Kalamazoo soldier was badly injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. His artificial knee would make him topple. He had lost stability.
He sold his bike.
But a Michigan nonprofit had a different idea.
Madore’s buddy, retired Army Sgt. Brad VandenBerg, couldn’t accept that verdict.
VandenBerg started the nonprofit Two Wheels for Warriors in 2012 with the goal of raising funds to create specially designed motorcycles for injured veterans.
After fundraising for two years, VandenBerg worked with Dirty Boyz Motorcycles in Plainwell, Mich., to take a $6,000 “salvage bike” and redesign it for Madore.
The design accommodates his injuries, and includes a sidecar for his service dog Cody, a Labrador retriever and poodle mix that helps him cope with PTSD. The sidecar also stabilizes the bike.
Two Wheels for Warriors is also working with Bob Body, who lost a leg in Iraq. Soon he should be out on the open road just like Madore, who is feeling better about everything now that he has a custom motorcycle.
The new ride “is helping my PTSD tremendously because it’s so relaxing,” Madore says. “When I had a stressful day I’d just hop on the bike and go for a ride and now I can do that again.”
“I got Cody on the side, I look down and he had a smile on his face,” Madore says. “I’m back on a bike again, couldn’t be happier.”
MORE: Meet the Do-Gooders On Two Wheels That Are Helping Vets
 

This Brave Group of Michigan Business Leaders Are Standing Up For LGBT Rights

Posted on by robbie

Last year was a landmark year for the gay marriage movement, and now this year, supporters are turning the tide on rights in the workplace. Some 10 major Michigan businesses are spearheading a campaign to amend the state’s civil rights act to prohibit employee discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
Currently, Michigan is one of 29 states that allows an employer to legally fire someone based on his or her sexual orientation; employee discrimination based on gender identity is also legal. But state business leaders from AT&T Michigan, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Consumers Energy, Dow Chemical Co., Google, Herman Miller, PADNOS, Steelcase, Strategic Staffing Solutions and Whirlpool Corporation are aiming to change that by forming the Michigan Competitive Workforce Coalition, according to MLive.com.
The state law outlawing employee discrimination — the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act of 1976 (ELCRA) — extends only to religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status. Business leaders like AT&T Michigan’s Jim Murray, a Republican, believe that should include lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights, too.
“We need to find ways in Michigan to keep and attract talent, and there are some barriers to that and this happens to be one of them,” Murray said.
Overwhelmingly, more than 75 percent of Michigan residents back the idea of adding sexual orientation to state law, which includes a majority of Republicans and small business owners, according to a recent poll. Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Civil Rights released a report last year that found excluding LGBT protection hurts the state’s pool of talent as well as its economy. By refusing to update the law, the state loses competitive advantage in keeping some of its college graduates as well as professionals, too.
MORE: This Transgender Athlete Is Taking on Bullying, One School at a Time
While there’s no legislation on the table yet, the coalition has pledged to push lawmakers into a meaningful conversation about the amendment. Previous efforts, which include a proposed bill in the Senate in 2012 and in the House in 2009, failed to receive a floor vote. But late last year Republican Governor Rick Snyder said he’s open to to the idea.
“This is the right time to do it and the right thing to do, and I’m hoping that the Legislature can be brave enough to do it,” said Shelly Padnos, the executive vice president of coalition member PADNOS.
Padnos, who previously worked for the House of Republicans but now identifies as an Independent, points out that ELCRA was passed by a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats who understood that equality was important to Michigan’s economic future. Hopefully, that attitude continues to resonate with the legislature today.

What Do Kid Rock, John Mellencamp and Mitch Albom Have in Common?

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Despite their divergent musical styles of classic rockers John Mellencamp and Z.Z. Top, rap-rocker Kid Rock, and country star Kix Brooks, they’ve come together in the fight to prevent homelessness among veterans.
These well-known Americans are giving their time and money to Toledo, Ohio-based Veterans Matter, a nonprofit working to unite the efforts of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Department of Housing and Development to identify veterans at risk for falling into homelessness and those already on the streets — connecting them with the resources they need to find an affordable place to live.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom is involved with the nonprofit too, serving as the honorary chairman of Veterans Matter’s Michigan chapter, fundraising and speaking to groups to raise awareness of the problem. “Our veterans — those men and women who have sacrificed so much to ensure our freedom—deserve better than a home on the streets,” Albom told Veterans Matter.
Ken Leslie, founder of Veterans Matter who once was homeless himself, explained to Lissa Guyton of ABC13 how the program works: “The VA finds the vets and gets them ready for the housing. HUD finds the section 8 housing long term and we provide the deposit money which is often the last barrier preventing them from getting over the threshold.”
Veterans Matter recently celebrated housing its 200th veteran in six states: Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Indiana, Washington, Tennessee, and Massachusetts.
Leslie told Guyton, “Helping people is probably the most powerful thing there is. There are more than 57,000 vets on the streets of our nation, and many of them are abandoned and forgotten. Some of them are beaten, robbed and even killed on the streets. If that happened behind enemy lines, Americans would be outraged. Veterans Matter is our outrage.”
With more vets helped every year, Veterans Matter will continue to demonstrate the power of transforming that outrage into compassion.  
MORE: Which Celebrity Treats Wounded Vets to a Trip to Disneyland?

Can Riding Tricycles Help These Injured Vets?

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Who would have guessed that what some veterans need most is a tricycle? Portage, Mich.-based nonprofit Lest We Forget Our Vets did, and they have been providing disabled veterans with specially designed tricycles to increase their mobility and provide them with a form of exercise that accommodates their physical needs. AMBUCS, a national nonprofit that works to enhance independence in people with disabilities, initially developed the AmTryke as a therapeutic vehicle for children with disabilities, and since has expanded to adult models. The tricycle provides stability that a two-wheeled bike can’t, and each AmTryke can be pedaled either with the feet or hands.
T.W. Lane, director of Lest We Forget Our Vets, told Alex Jokich of NewsChannel 3 that the AmTrykes build strength, increase mobility, and improve self-esteem in veterans who may not have been able to get around much without them. The nonprofit provides AmTrykes to veterans suffering from physical disabilities, PTSD or the after effects of a traumatic brain injury.
Recently Lest We Forget Our Vets brought an AmTryke to Victor Van Fleet, a 95-year-old World War II Veteran, who crashed his two-wheeled bike last year and thought his cycling days were behind him. Van Fleet has been enjoying pedaling in his Kalamazoo community. “It allows you to do things you couldn’t do before,” he told Jokich. “You can observe the sky above and the sunshine and the birds and the trees. You see things that you’ve never seen before on a two-wheeler.”
MORE: Can Being Naked Help Treat PTSD? 
 
 

Can an Influx of Immigrants Bolster Michigan’s Economy?

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Why are people so resistant to immigrants? After all, studies have shown that immigrants stabilize neighborhoods, and their presence correlates with a reduction of crime. Additionally, they are more than twice as likely to start their own business as people born in the United States, according to a study by the University of North Carolina. And a study in Michigan by the Immigration Policy Center suggested immigrants are six times more likely to start high-tech companies than native-born people are.
All of this is why Michigan’s governor Rick Snyder believes that an influx of talented immigrants could help reinvigorate his state. So he asked the federal government if Michigan could create its own visa program for immigrants who have the means to invest $500,000 to $1 million in starting job-creating businesses.
In April, the federal government approved the plan. Snyder told of Gary Heinlein of the Detroit News that the move is “an important step in helping harness top talent and international direct investment into the state to continue and accelerate Michigan’s comeback. Our state needs outstanding talent to help drive the new economy. Immigrants are net job creators.”
Michigan will open a regional center for EB-5 visas, an “immigrant investor” program that was implemented with the 1990 immigration act. Those who have a plan for a business that will employ 10 or more people in Michigan can apply for permanent residence. (Their family can also apply.) Projects that target areas with high unemployment will be have priority, and given that there 433 neighborhoods in the state with an unemployment rate one-and-a-half times greater than the national average, there are plenty of communities to choose from.
Snyder is putting a lot of energy behind his plan to welcome immigrants to Michigan to help his state economically. He’s also created a Michigan Office for New Americans, plus he delivered two other immigrant-related proposals during his State of the State speech in January. He’s hoping these new Americans will bring renewed energy and ideas that can return Michigan’s economy to its former powerhouse status. 
MORE: Meet the CEO Who Wants to Bring 50,000 Immigrants to Detroit 
 

What Happened When This World War II Vet’s Home Caught Fire?

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If a burning hot fire suddenly engulfed your house, how would you recover from the disaster?
That’s the situation that World War II veteran Tom Porter faced last August when the kitchen of his house in Gregory, Michigan went up in flames. After hurrying outside in just a t-shirt and underwear, carrying tubes for his oxygen tank, Porter was left virtually possession-less from the fire that tore through his house. Porter, who served as a radio operator in the Army, didn’t have fire insurance on his home (which sat on a 25-acre farm), and he didn’t know how he was going to come up with enough money to rebuild.
That’s when his neighbors stepped in. The next morning, residents from all over Livingston County, Michigan began to arrive. They salvaged and cleaned what they could from the burned home, then set about rebuilding the property — all without being asked. “There were people working here that I’ve never seen,” Porter told Jim Totten of the Daily Press & Argus.
For five months, the community worked: Repairing Porter’s home, building a new kitchen, and making sure his appliances were code compliant. Many neighbors would stop by after they got off work in the evening to spend some time building, a fact that brings Porter’s daughter to tears when she recalls their efforts. The Home Depot donated some supplies, and when money ran low halfway through the rebuilding process, the Livingston County Department of Veterans Affairs chipped in $10,000.
In January, Porter moved from the trailer where he had been living temporarily into the refurbished home, where he hopes to live out his days, caring for his 20 cows. And yes, he purchased fire insurance.
Tom Porter’s grandson Jason Porter said the community effort rekindled his belief in human kindness, which had wavered. “I totally changed my mind about people,” Jason said. “The community coming together. I cannot express how I feel about the community; it’s beyond words. It was unreal.”
But that outpouring of generosity was real — and Tom Porter has a brand new kitchen to prove it.
MORE: These Veterans Rallied to Save A Fellow Vet from the Cold