SUNDAY
JULY 11, 2010
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EDITOR: AL WILSON | METRO@LSJ.COM | 377-1154 | WWW.LSJ.COM
Granholm touts Habitat for Humanity Governor hopes to boost volunteerism amid economic, housing market crises COREY WILLIAMS Associated Press
DETROIT — Nail gun in hand, Gov. Jennifer Granholm was determined to install baseboards in the wood frame house on Detroit’s east side. Outside, husband Dan Mulhern wiped away sweat while putting up vinyl siding in stifling
90-degree heat. With tens of thousands of Michigan families losing homes to foreclosure during the mortgage swoon and economic collapse, Michigan’s first family hopes a unique reunion idea with Habitat for Humanity catches on across the state. About 45 members of Mulhern’s family — many with ties to Detroit
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— have volunteered a few weeks this summer to build a home on Maryland Street. Granholm is filling out the final months of her second and final term. She and Mulhern are counting on their cheerleading to get volunteers to Granholm do what a state without money can’t — assist struggling families who have lost so much. “You can either sit back and com-
plain, or you can contribute to the solution,” the Democratic governor said Thursday morning outside the nearly complete 4-bedroom house. “Across the state there are communities that have the same pull for other families. In tough times, citizens in Michigan know how to rally. This is a rally moment, an opportunity.” Habitat for Humanity expects to build about 20 new houses in Detroit this year, and 200 across the state. Mulhern’s family learned about the build on Maryland and
“We want to seed into young people a love of aviation.”
Bernero endorsed by two Democrats in U.S. House
Tom Schroeder, pilot from Laingsburg
DETROIT — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Virg Bernero has picked up the endorsements of two members of Michigan’s congressional delegation. U.S. Reps. John Conyers and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick threw their support Saturday to Bernero, who also collected the endorsements of about 30 of Detroit’s elected officials, community, labor and religious leaders. In their endorsements, Conyers and Cheeks Kilpatrick both said Bernero has the right vision and passion for bringing jobs back to Michigan. The Lansing mayor faces Democratic rival Andy Dillon in the contest for the party’s gubernatorial nomination. The two candidates are trying to woo voters in Detroit, which is a stronghold for Democratic votes.
Business up for some after smoking ban
BLOOMFIELD HILLS — The owners of hypnotherapy and acupuncture clinics in the Detroit metropolitan area say they’ve seen an increase in business in the two months since Michigan banned smoking in bars and restaurants. Since the state’s ban took effect May 1, Michigan’s smokers have had to get their cigarette fix outside establishments that once welcomed them. Some smokers successfully use nicotine patches, gum and will power to end their addiction, but others have found such methods ineffective. Fran Kulwicki, 62, of Sterling Heights said she tried to quit on her own several times since adopting the habit as a teenager, but nothing worked until she tried hypnotherapy last month. In therapy, she learned to substitute a glass of cold water for her nicotine cravings, and now the desire is gone. “I don’t want to smoke anymore,” she said. “I don’t need to.” At Focused Solutions Hypnotherapy in Bloomfield Hills, owner Kim Manning says business has risen about 20 percent since the ban took effect. — From wire reports
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Food, wine shine at Taste of Downtown Inaugural event offers samples from 15 restaurants ALISHA GREEN agreen3@lsj.com
Jobs, Justice and Peace to kick off in Detroit
DETROIT — United Auto Workers president Bob King and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are kicking off a new campaign in Detroit that will focus on job creation, manufacturing, workers’ rights and peace. King and Jackson are expected to announce details Monday of the Jobs, Justice and Peace initiative and take part in a march next month in Detroit. The effort is expected to call on national leaders to enact industrial and trade policies that will create jobs, enforce laws protecting worker and civil rights, and create fair educational, economic and health policies. The campaign also calls for a moratorium on home foreclosure practices. The Aug. 28 march will commemorate one led in Detroit in 1963 by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
jumped at the chance to help. “We were just tired of the whining and the finger-pointing and the ‘poor, pitiful us,’” he said, referring to complaints across Michigan. “We wanted to make a difference.” The nonprofit Habitat for Humanity has built 3,000 homes in Michigan since 1982, and 457 since the start of 2008. The new homeowners are required to put in “sweat equity” and help volunteers in the building process.
ROBERT KILLIPS/Lansing State Journal
Ready for takeoff: Megan McNamara, 13, of Okemos smiles at her parents before takeoff Saturday at Young Eagles Aviation Days, held at Mason Jewett Field.
Aviation Days event aims to give kids a bite from the flying bug KRIS TURNER
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All smiles: Amanda Ingalls is all smiles after her flight Saturday as pilot Pat Salow removes her earphones at Mason Jewett Field. The ride was part of the Experimental Aircraft Association’s Young Eagles Aviation Days event in Mason.
knturner@lsj.com
ASON — The roar of airplane engines filled the grassy area of Mason Jewett Field on Saturday. Eager children waited their turns to board one of 14 planes and take a 20-minute flight to Leslie and back. The idea behind Online the Experimental Extra Aircraft AssociaFor more tion’s Young Eagles Aviation Days photos, visit is to expose youth www.lsj.com. to the world of flight, said Bill Purosky, vice president of the association. “The number of pilots in the United States is dwindling and has gone down in the past couple years,” the 69-year-old Haslett resident said, adding that pilots are harder to come by today. Hopping out of a plane with his dad, 8-year-old Keegan Sabrosky of Mason said he wanted to come check out the scene. Keegan’s dad, Tom Sabrosky, said he heard about the opportunity from a customer whose hair he cut at Shear Spirit Hair and Nail Salon in Mason. “I wanted to see the airplanes,
and I wanted to go up,” said Keegan, who said he might want to be a pilot someday. About 120 children came to the event and got the chance to see the area from up above, Purosky said. Tom Schroeder, who took Keegan and his dad for a ride, said he feels it is important to help educate and engage children and teens in the world of aviation.
Schroeder said he was bit by the flying bug as a kid. “I kind of grew up in a flying family and fell in love with the view from the air,” the 56-year-old Laingsburg resident said. That love is something Schroeder said he’s going to pass on to any young person who is interested in taking up flying. “We want to seed into young people a love of aviation,” he said.
More than 100 varieties of wine flowed Saturday for attendees of the first Lansing Taste of Downtown. Hundreds of people sampled food and wine from 15 downtown restaurants in an event designed to spur the district’s revitalization. “It’s just a chance to come out, have fun and explore downtown,” said Sara Pawloski, communications and marketing manager for the Lansing Principal Online Shopping DisExtra trict, which organized the event. For more South Wash- photos, visit ington Square www.lsj.com. was closed between Michigan Avenue and Allegan Street to accommodate a stage for live bands — Third Coast Steel and Soulstice played throughout the afternoon — and two tents lined with volunteers who dished out small food samples and poured wine. “Businesses came to us and expressed that they would like to do a new downtown event, and area people had said it would be cool to have a tasting event,” Pawloski said. “This is what it evolved into.” For Lansing residents who volunteered and attended, the event was an opportunity to sup-
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ROBERT KILLIPS/Lansing State Journal
Food fest: Jessica Holstine and Brian Morel sample the food and drink Saturday at Taste of Downtown on South Washington Square.
Dining out can’t hold a candle to home cooking T
his evening’s special: a succulent combination of chinook salmon and lake trout, harvested only 10 hours earlier from the deep, invigorating waters of Lake Huron. The generous fillets will be basted lightly in a sauce of butter, lemon, salt and pepper, then grilled over a charcoal fire. They’ll be served, still sizzling, alongside fresh sweet corn on the cob, and our signature coleslaw, featuring crunchy Ramen noodles and chopped almonds … This is strictly home cooking. Simple as can be. But better, I would argue, than almost anything I’ve eaten in a restaurant since, well … I can’t remember when. Two notable exceptions: the seafood paella at Vincente, a Cuban restaurant in Detroit; and a
the respect they deserve. And I don’t necessarily need to work with fish I catch myself, JOHN or venison I butcher to my own specifications. SCHNEIDER Fresh fish, meat and poultry jschneid@lsj.com are readily available. Sometimes 377-1175 they’re even on sale. Add fresh seasonal specialties — asparagus, fillet mignon I ate at a famous, corn, tomatoes, cherries, blueberoverpriced steak house in Las Ve- ries, etc. — and it’s pretty much gas. It was the kind of place that impossible to go wrong. actually displays its meat in its My wife and I say it so often — windows — like shoes, or luggage. “This is better than anything we The steak was exquisite. The can get in a restaurant” — that it service was first-rate. The bill has become another specialty of was about $150 for two of us. No the house. dessert. But, like so many other cliches, it’s the gospel truth. Nothing special The night before the salmon/ As a cook, I’m nothing special. trout feast, we had dinner at one of the best restaurants in the I don’t have to be. All I have to do is start with fresh, high-quality northern Michigan town closest components, and treat them with to our cottage. As usual, the meal
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Not just the food
I realize that there’s more to the restaurant experience than what’s on the plate. Somebody else does the cooking, serving, rated a big, fat OK. cleaning. The convenience is Although the perch seemed certainly attractive; the setting, reasonably fresh, the soggy coatpleasant. And often the menu includes dishes that can’t be easily ing on it ruined the texture. It was barely warm. Meanwhile, prepared at home. Onion rings, the broccoli’s flavor had been maybe? Pizza? blanched — or something — into But when the food is the focus, oblivion. The salad was full of I can generally do it better myself. When it comes down to fresh fish, tasteless iceberg lettuce. “How was everything?” the a slab of ribs, a mound of ground waitress asked as she cleared the sirloin … give me my Weber, a bag plates away. We gave the automat- of charcoal, a cold beer to sip, a few basic skills. ic response — “Fine” — because The results, I predict, will be the meal wasn’t bad. It wasn’t horrible. It was acceptable. That’s fine, in the true sense of the word. how it is these days: Mediocre Call John Schneider at 377-1175, equals “fine” because that’s what send a fax to 377-1298 or e-mail jschneid@lsj.com. we expect. Check out John Schneider’s blog at www.lsj.com/schneiderblog.