economy

The Detroit News
Thursday, April 16, 2009, Lansing
By Lou Glazer

Reversing Michigan's alarming population decline hopefully will rise to the top of the state's agenda. Particularly retaining and attracting recent college graduates. They are the key to restoring Michigan to high prosperity.

Why? Because employment growth and high wages are increasingly knowledge-based. Primarily in five broad sectors of the economy: information, finance and insurance, professional and technical services, health care and education. These industries, all of which have at least 30 percent of their employees with four-year degrees, are concentrating in the
regions of the country with the greatest concentrations of college educated adults.

Taking on Education

Federal aid won't fix all Michigan's budget woes
By TIM MARTIN | Associated Press Writer
2:20 PM CST, January 19, 2009
LANSING, Mich. - An upcoming federal stimulus package is expected to help ease Michigan's state budget crunch.
But state politicians caution against relying too much on the federal plan, saying Michigan officials must make tough decisions to contain government spending regardless of what help may be coming from Washington.
The economic stimulus plan developing in Congress and backed by President-elect Barack Obama could cost $825 billion or more in spending and tax cuts over a two-year period. It's not yet known how much money will come to Michigan in the final package.

'OVERWHELMING' RESPONSE TO FILM PACKAGE
Film and television producers have already sent in 80 scripts for review for production in Michigan, and Jan Lockwood, director of the Michigan Film Office, said Tuesday that her office is being overwhelmed with calls from executives in Los Angeles, New York, London and Canada.
The activity actually started just before Governor Jennifer Granholm signed the film package on Monday but Ms. Lockwood said it is more than just getting scripts and taking phone calls.

All the economic, political and social trends point to the need for Michigan's students to be ready as never before to understand and engage in the wider world in which we live. The second annual Internationalizing Michigan Education conference is scheduled for April 18, 2008 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center on the campus of MSU.

Saturday, March 1st, the association hosted an event for members to come together to share their experiences and ideas about contract strategies for their local bargaining association. Twenty-five MASSP members listened as Tom White, Executive Director of the school business officials gave insight to school funding, the Michigan economy, and retirement issues to understand when at the bargaining table. Tom Derderian, the labor attorney used by MASSP advised on strategies and answered questions specific to member contracts and group obligations. After Mr.