The 2009 Michigan Notable Books reflect the creativity of Michigan residents

Michigan residents and former residents are some of the most creative people in the world.

Some of the most famous authors, actors, directors, comedians, musicians and inventors call or have called Michigan home. To name just a few, Francis Ford Coppola, Gilda Radner, Della Reese, Danny Thomas, George C. Scott, Arthur Miller and Ernest Hemingway.

The Library of Michigan’s annual list of Michigan’s Notable Books highlight some of that talent, and it also highlights Michigan people, places and events. The books are chosen from both fiction and non-fiction books published in Michigan, by Michigan authors or books about Michigan, and the 2009 Michigan Notable Books include 20 of the best books Michigan has to offer. Michigan Notable Books is an annual program with roots stretching back to Michigan Week 1991.

The exciting development is we may get to see a book written in Michigan and then turned into a movie that is filmed right here in Michigan. The Michigan Legislature passed a package of attractive incentives for filmmakers in April, and it has led to hundreds of productions being filmed in Michigan. That has led to a proposal for a $100 million studio in Allen Park that can bring as many as 3,500 jobs to the state.

Here are the 2009 Michigan Notable Books

Asylum for the Insane: A History of the Kalamazoo State Hospital by William A. Decker, M.D. (Arbutus Press)

The English Major by Jim Harrison (Grove Press)

The Expeditions: A Novel by Karl Iagnemma (Dial Press)

Historic Cottages of Glen Lake by Barbara Siepker. Photography by Dietrich Floeter (Leelanau Press)

"Jiffy" A Family Tradition: Mixing Business and Old-Fashioned Values by Cynthia Furlong Reynolds (Chelsea Milling Company, distributed by University of Michigan Press)

Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Mostly True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka by Jon Scieszka (Viking)

Looking for Hickories: The Forgotten Wildness of the Midwest by Tom Springer (University of Michigan Press)

Measure of the Heart: A Father's Alzheimer's, a Daughter's Return by Mary Ellen Geist (Springboard)

The Model T: A Centennial History by Robert Casey (Johns Hopkins University Press)

Ninety Years Crossing Lake Michigan: The History of the Ann Arbor Car Ferries by Grant Brown, Jr. (University of Michigan Press)

A Picturesque Situation: Mackinac Before Photography, 1615-1860 by Brian Leigh Dunnigan (Wayne State University Press)

Ravens in the Storm: A Personal History of the 1960s Antiwar Movement by Carl Oglesby (Scribner)

Roadie: The Misunderstood World of a Bike Racer by Jamie O. Smith. Illustrated by Jef Mallett (Velo Press)

Sirens of Chrome: The Enduring Allure of the Auto Show Model by Margery Krevsky (Momentum Books)

Summer Dreams: The Story of Bob-Lo Island by Patrick Livingston (Wayne State University Press)

The Toledo War: The First Michigan-Ohio Rivalry by Don Faber (University of Michigan Press)

War as They Knew It: Woody Hayes, Bo Schembechler, and America in a Time of Unrest by Michael Rosenberg (Grand Central Publishing)

When the Church Becomes Your Party: Contemporary Gospel Music by Deborah Smith Pollard (Wayne State University Press)

Who's Jim Hines? by Jean Alicia Elster (Wayne State University Press)

Wreck of the Carl D.: A True Story of Loss, Survival, and Rescue at Sea by Michael Schumacher (Bloomsbury USA)

Are editorial writers totally clueless as to what's important in state?

If you need any more proof of the dire consequences of newspaper consolidation and downsizing, you just need to read the editorial in the Sunday edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.

The editorial blasts the Michigan Legislature for daring to consider the “frivolous” workplace-smoking ban instead of addressing the state’s economy. It illustrates a glaring ignorance of how the legislative process works, even the status of the bill and it also ignores the hard work of people who have lobbied for this bill for more than a decade. It also displays ignorance of what power the state, any state, has to lift the nation out of the recession the country has been in since December 2007.

I don’t know if someone on the local editorial board wrote this, or it came from some larger Gannett newspaper - like the Lansing State Journal or the Detroit Free Press - or if it came from company HQ in McLean, Va. Regardless, somebody needs to get a capitol correspondent who understands the process. Perhaps if they do we will not get simplistic and misguided arguments like this:

“What, then, will state legislators be dealing with in Lansing this week as they try to wrap up their work in lame-duck session? Surely, they'll be wrestling with the important issues of the day, how to help those who are hurting, and how generally to get the economy back on track ... Right?”
Wrong.
The House plans to vote this week on whether you should be able to smoke a cigarette while you drink your beer at the local tavern. “

Here’s the thing; the news editor of the P & A should know how Lansing works because for a few years he was the Lansing correspondent for the entire Hometown Newspapers chain when the chain was locally owned, and he knows the Legislature is ran by committees.

Asking 110 House members and 38 Senators to try and negotiate anything is impossible, and that’s why the Legislature is broken down into committees of five to nine people. It’s much easier for that small group to negotiate and then make a recommendation to the full House and Senate to debate and vote on. Could you imagine the din and confusion if 110 people tried to negotiate?

There are 18 standing committees in the Senate and 24 in the House dealing with specific areas, from Agriculture to Transportation, and it’s much easier to work in small groups and present the result to the larger group to vote on. As for the budget, it’s so important that the appropriations committee is broken down into even smaller subcommittees - 16 in the Senate and 19 in the House - that deals with each state department.

What the paper seems to be advocating is that the rest of the Legislators sit by and do nothing. As for addressing the state’s unemployment problems, they have addressed numerous issues. This very newspaper has been filed with stories, photos and editorials on the film being shot at Parker High School, and that was because of the film incentive package approved by the Legislature earlier this year. Senate Democrats have also tried to address home foreclosures, but it has been blocked.

There is only so much a state can do to affect the economy because they cannot effect monetary or trade policy.

Perhaps they are advocating what Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, is doing, saying the Senate will not address any legislation until Gov. Jennifer Granholm issues her budget-cutting Executive Order. The good news is she issued the order on Friday to trim an estimated $240 million from the current budget that will allow Bishop to allow the rest of the elected Senators to do the work we hired them to do

The editorial really shows how clueless the editorial board, or whoever wrote this trash, is. The editorial also claims”

“The House plans to vote this week on whether you should be able to smoke a cigarette while you drink your beer at the local tavern. That's right, the proposal to ban smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants, is expected to come back and take center stage in Lansing. Remember, the big point of debate on this bill was whether the rules should be different somehow if you have a slot machine lever in your hand at the same time you drink a beer and smoke a cigarette.”

Not true. The House has assigned its three members to a conference committee to work out the differences between the Senate passed version and the House passed version. Once and if a compromise is reached, the compromise gets an up or down vote on the respective floors. The House passed House Bill 4163 in December 2007 that exempts casinos, and the Senate passed a different version in May that had no exceptions to the ban. However, Bishop has not assigned the members of the conference committee. If this goes forward - and if it’s going to be “center stage” it’s news to me - it will only tie down six of the 148 members, and the vote will take but a few minutes.

This bill is a matter of life and death for many people, and those people have been working hard for more than a decade to get this bill passed. So the question to the editor’s ridiculous question: “C'mon. Is that really the most important thing we have to discuss right now?” The answer is hell yes. For them to ridicule such a life and death bill is irresponsible and ignorant at best.

There is no safe amount of secondhand smoke. It directly kills more than 3,600 people a year, and it contributes to the deaths of another 50,000 deaths annually.

MEDC says give film tax breaks time to work

LANSING – Officials from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation told lawmakers Tuesday to give the recently enacted tax breaks for filmmakers time to work.

Even though the bills passed almost unanimously in March, Republicans have criticized the bipartisan package as a giveaway to one industry. Lisa Dansock, from the MEDC, told the House Commerce Committee that since the bills were approved, 30 films have been approved that will spend more than $230 million in the state, and Michigan is one of the top spots for film production.

It has also led to infrastructure investment in soundstages, studios and other structures totaling $25-$50 million. It will also contribute to stopping the brain drain of young, creative people leaving the state, and it will help retrain displaced workers.

“It’s really interesting to see the ripple effect,” said Committee Chair Rep. Andy Meisner, D-Ferndale. “When we draft legislation we set goals, and we are meeting the goals.”

What has come under fire is the incentive that allows production companies a 40 percent rebate on the Michigan Business Tax (MBT). But Dansock said the estimated $86 million in rebates will not occur until 2009, and only after all of the production costs have been verified and audited. She also said that money will go into the coffers of Michigan businesses.

“We need to let these incentives work,” she said.

Film production incentive package is fast-tracked through the Legislature

LANSING –Both the Michigan House and Senate pushed through a package of bills on the fast-track Wednesday aimed at luring film production work to Michigan.

House Bills 5841-5855 and Senate Bills 1168-1172 include a wide variety of tax breaks and incentives intended to make Michigan attractive to filmmakers. The hope is the package will mean jobs and millions of dollars of investment in the state. SB 1168 was passed on Thursday by a vote of 34-1 after Sen. Nancy Cassis, R-Novi, raised concerns about the refundable credit provision of the bill.

“We have the opportunity to do something that will have an important effect on our economy,” said Rep. Andy Meisner, D-Ferndale, one of the sponsors of the bipartisan, bicameral package of bills. “We can expect to see increased film production in the state this year.”

The Governor is expected to sign the bills as soon as possible.

'A growth industry': Lawmakers see Michigan as Hollywood Midwest

LANSING -- Michigan lawmakers are hoping to make Michigan the Hollywood of the Midwest with a bipartisan package of bills aimed at attracting the film industry with tax breaks and other incentives.

A celebrity lineup testified on Tuesday at a joint meeting of the House Commerce Committee and the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee, and the committees also heard from a wide variety of people involved in the film industry in Michigan supporting the package of bills.

Author and Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom has had three of his books made into movies, and he said the buzz over the incentives Michigan is offering is making its way all the way to the West Coast.

“This is a growth industry,” Albom said. “That’s something we are not used to around here.”

The incentives include a 16-bill package in both the House and Senate: House Bills 5841-5855 and Senate Bills 1168-1172. The bills in both chambers are almost dentical.

Some of the incentives in the package include allowing production companies a 40 percent rebate on the Michigan Business Tax (MBT); phasing out the old film incentives (by repealing the current sales tax credit for motion picture production companies); allowing an income tax credit; creating a IRA-like investment for any investment of $25,000 or more; giving an MBT credit for infrastructure improvements; including film and media production businesses among those eligible for Michigan Economic Growth Authority tax incentives; allowing production companies to borrow money through three different programs; giving a 50 percent tax credit for job training; and transferring the state film office from the Department of History, Arts and Libraries to the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Actor/director/screenwriter Mike Binder, a Detroit native, said California is not giving film producers any incentives, and producers and filmmakers he has talked to said they are looking at filming in states that offer incentives.

“The great thing about these bills is it sends a message that Michigan is ready and willing to reinvent itself,” he said. “I have people calling me all the time saying they are ready to film here as soon as Michigan pulls the trigger.”

Binder said the City of Albuquerque, N.M., just built a multimillion-dollar sound stage, and he said there is no reason that could not happen in Michigan. He also said it’s amazing the number of actors, directors, producers and technical people with Michigan ties.

“There are small studios here, but I would like to see a major sound stage here,” he said. “You could shoot live TV shows, and you would have a 12-month presence.”

Actor, director, producer and Chelsea resident Jeff Daniels has become a spokesman for both the film and tourism industry in Michigan, and he said Michigan is ideal for filming because it offers every backdrop a director could want. He said when he shot “Escanaba in Da Moonlight” he dropped $1 million on main street Escanaba in just three months.

“I have long been an advocate for shooting in Michigan,” he said. “When I shot 'Escanaba in Da Moonlight,' I was told I needed to go to Canada. I believe in the people of Michigan. We have the talent.”

The only possible sour note heard was that the incentives are aimed more at attracting out-of-state companies and that not enough incentives for the film industry help companies already located here.

“It also has to be designed to benefit the people who are already here,” said Ed Gardiner of the Detroit Film Society.

The message at the hearing was clear, urging the lawmakers to enact the bills as soon as possible, but both chairs said they want to ensure the bills are correct before they are voted out of committee.