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Showing posts from January, 2022

The Sacrifices of Society: Ensuring We Keep Our Nation Moving Forward (Memorial Pictures)

The sacrifices of society to keep our nation moving forward are many. Throughout its history the U.S. has pushed for a freer, more fair, and just world. Our values of maximizing human freedom to ensure that government (and its politicians) are aligned to the needs of its people are what has maintained the social contract from generation to generation. We honor the tens of thousands who sacrificed for our principles over the years because we understand that the society that we live in now would not be possible without them.  Each of us has a duty to make our country stronger, more functional, and more inclusive. Those who lead others rally around their universal principles while those who follow rally around their politics. Our nation has a large emerging batch of young adults who will be tasked to care for that torch. It is our responsibility to clear as many obstacles, hurdles, and trip hazards we can to ensure our principles continue to illuminate the world around us. See Greatest Na

Escanaba Town Hall (Thursday January 20th, 2022) Art, Engineering, Roles, Recruitment and Skating!

Another zipping meeting at Escanaba City Hall . Things are getting done, grants are coming together, and new equipment is in the works! You can also get a feel for how towns this size run and function. Whether your a bigger city or a smaller city there will be similarities. Smaller budget and smaller scale but its still the same general process. However, smaller rural high potential towns like this have their own unique challenges as they are somewhat isolated and stand alone. That can be an asset for the right kind of tourism, industry and digital worker. The city is open for investment. Its interesting watching a town in the process of becoming....... Arts and Culture:   Bonifas Art Center does a lot of great things and helps kids and adults. In a small town/city like this its important to provide cultural outlets and exposure so kids can grow in a healthy way.  Fun creative activities are going to be more important in develop creative adults that can work in the Digital Economy/Inf

Torrey Pines Hiking (Pictures)

Torrey Pines is a very nice hiking area in La Jolla CA. Lots of visitors from all of the world have hiked this area. Avoid the weekends as it gets busy. Descent surfing on the beach.  Initially I was thinking of going out into the mountains but alas time constraints got me! Good Year Blimp Want to climb these but I think state park rules apply.  I doubt they give permits for them. :(

Overview of the economy January 2022: Nice Graphics!

 Browsing the news and I came across an article entitled, " Infographic: The US economy during Biden’s first year in offic e " that has a solid description of some factors in the economy that include inflation, unemployment rate, people quitting jobs, job openings (pressured by lack of employee), inflation, consumer confidence, and economy (V ery nice graphics. I wish they were shareable for my readers. ). I like the graphics because they are telling ( I didn't see the writers name. I like to remember them when they are good ๐Ÿค“.). One thing I kind of saw while looking at the statistics is the relationship between unemployment, inflation, job openings and "I Quit!" rates. If employment is slowing down the economy then it would seem that technology is likely to be a major strategic solution. I do believe we run some risks of employers having a lack of qualified workers and in turn impacting the pace of growth ( While technology isn't yet developed to meet the

Challenging Hate (Maybe) For Public Unity in Higher Education (An Institutional Challenge)

We are struggling as a nation to silence the voice of hate that have risen over the past few years in a frenzied increase in extremism. In many ways these voices of ethnic and political dissention have been there for some time, just under the surface, but have increasingly bubble up as of late highlighting existing schisms in society. There are times to challenge, there are times to wait before acting and there are times to forgive. Decisions must still be made by leadership of both of our political parties to decide what type of nation we will be going forward ( I believe we have made some progress toward unity as of late after the public display of extremist type behaviors at our capital could have caused a much larger issue that would have likely lead to irreparable damage for a long time and snuffed out the opportunities of the next generation. We could have easily bounced from #1 position on the world market to something like #6 as well as impacted all of our international partner

Current State of National Infrastructure R&D (Innovation With New Voices Tempered by Old Wisdom)

  Infrastructure Louisville KY Keeping up with the infrastructure news. One of the reasons why I have been following this for some time is that hard infrastructure mixed with digital/data infrastructure can create new levels of manufacturing performance through heightened innovation and capability development. That of course is not a given so the infrastructure elements must work together in a way that they build value by enhancing each other's capabilities (i.e. elemental infrastructure). One of the ways in which we can more closely see this would be in a growing local cluster; also known as a broad based macro innovation system that moves beyond specific tech development. ( i.e. hence a theory of interactive innovative clusters). They are also places where higher volume and value interactions can occur around various national innovative needs (i.e. aerospace, battery production, EV, robotics, military, etc.. .).  In the process of understanding that it is beneficial to watch wha

$824 Million Michigan Incentives to Lure $7 Billion in GM Investments (Other Types of Strategies)

 If your interested in Michigan's economic landscape you should consider reading the article ' GM wins $824 million in incentives from Michigan to lure $7 billion in EV investments ' by Chad Livengood (Livengood, 2022) as it provides a nice overview of the event. In this case The Michigan Strategic Fund is using an incentive to partner with the business ( There are longer term benefits at play of keeping emerging tech and other associated industries attracted to MI .). It works as a strategy but is a little controversial because some might feel we should not pay companies ( In this case I agree for the most part with what they are doing. ). An alternative strategy to use in the future is to invest that amount in some infrastructure (a nd others i.e. training grants, land acquisition, etc... packet. ) that will help that company and other companies creating wider benefits. While they may have the same tax rate they also have higher returns from the improvements as they can

The 139' Luxury Liner Ship called America (Pic and Video)

Out sailing and came across a beautiful ship called the America. You may not be a nautical type person and may not know much about ships but they are certainly are a wonder to watch. Our nation was built by such ships that carried people and supplies. I dive in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan sometimes and came across ships that sunk and are deteriorated beyond what they once looked like (You can read about that here ). This is what a few of them may have looked like once in their full glory. Its awesome to see a wooden liner of this caliber. America is a 139' Luxury liner was build Scarano Boat Building  (Kind of interesting what they do.) in their Albany shipyard ( Yacht Chart Fleet ). You can learn a little about America and its charter HERE .  Enjoy the pic and video

1 NY for Officer Killed and 1 Injured: Gun Controversies Continue!

Another officer was shot and with sadness we can say we haven't yet got a handle on gun violence. I think we are dealing with the availability of certain guns on one side and the right to own guns on the other side. From a domestic disturbance response issue ( violence and mental health may be at cause ) it is sad to see things turn out this way ( Meaning we need change that creates accountability and opportunity for help .). Somewhere and someday we are going to have to find the right balance between protection from gun misuse and the right to bear arms. We are not there yet...but people are certainly discussing it from a wider societal perspective. Either way, until we find a solution  it will continue forward and some will misuse them; maybe always will. :( Maybe we need to innovate the gun market to create more finger print protection. See an article by Daniel Trotta in Rueter's article ' Exclusive: Smart guns finally arriving in U.S., seeking to shake up firearms marke

Escanaba City Council Meeting January 11th, 2022: "Smart Zones"

Escanaba's townhall was a positive step in the adjustments needed to encourage this small town to be a place where people invest, live and thrive. It was also a productive meeting because it was informative to city council members in terms of how procedures work and why they exist. You will notice that from prior meetings until this meeting there is a higher sense of team cohesion and sense of direction ( Go back to the Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning stages and some of the exhibited behaviors of groups .  Tuckman's Stages ) . There will naturally be differences throughout their time in office but if they focus on actionable steps to improve future prospects and how their choices impact the lives of residence they will be accomplish much of what they set out to do. The good news is they are taking an additional step to increase personal-professional knowledge of how to manage a city and the ability to work together in a way that builds trust with communit

Verso Merges with BillerudKorsnas AB Investments in Escanaba (Delta County Economic Cluster Model)

Verso unanimously accepted a buy out offer by BillerudKorsnas AB in a $27 per share bid that seeks to convert the Escanaba mill into a world-class, sustainable, fully integrated paperboard production site. That is good news for Escanaba and its local economy as the company invests up to an additional billion beyond the initial purchase price into paperboard operations. The strategic move into North American, near new markets and sources, will likely help BillerudKorsnas meet increased demand for green packaging in an online upswing of sales. There is more to be done in Delta County MI to attract, retain and capitalize on investments to create growth. The following provides an overview of BillerudKorsnas AB investments and how other investments in the area could lead to a growing innovation system/cluster ( Its just a model and for illustrative purposes to develop a full economic theory. ). The merger may make the Escanaba plant one of the leading facilities in the country in terms of a

Hostage Situation Texas Synagogue - Its NOT how we solve problems in this country!

The hostage situation in Colleyville Texas highlights the reason why we need to understand how/why certain behaviors and beliefs lead to people acting in unacceptable ways.  Geopolitical issues should not be played out on our streets (of any race, group or religion). I pray for the safe release of the hostages and people's hearts will warm to a better path forward where peace can be found. A best case scenario is that the attacker/perpetrator releases the hostages and gives himself up to protect himself and society at large ( We can always hope ). There is a type of redemption for people who come to their senses and do the right thing ( Bad happened but maybe we can learn from it. Looks like from the updated new the attacker did not do the right thing and it ended in instant justice. In this case it appears justified as other lives were being scapegoated/used for the attackers desire. Threatening other lives leads to difficult choices and not the optimum outcome. A common problem w

Tsunami San Diego - A little rain....small waves.

Tsunami Advisory for San Diego this AM. It ended up being  just a little ran and small waves. Could of course been worse but it wasn't expected to be anything grandiose by the time it hit the west coast. You might enjoy a couple of pictures of Ocean Beach last night.  I like this one. That is a photographer. 

Michigan Sees Major Investments in Infrastructure $8 Billion

Sioux Locks, Roads, and Erosion are where some of the infrastructure money will be spent. Michigan has lots of focus on the Auto Industry and $8 Billion influx (See EV Michigan , Fed Plots Course ,  EMP Concentric , MI Infrastructure , Values and Competition China ). You may also want to read about MITA and the Michigan Infrastructure Office . 

Fed Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell Testifies to Congress on "Normalization" (Demand, Supply, and Policy)

Few things are more exciting that watching Congressional testimony on Federal fiscal policy!๐Ÿฅณ ( Think about it.....not boxing, not NASCAR, not a Packers-Lions game.....have as much action packed comments! ๐Ÿ˜ Y ou can just feel the intensity in the room. ). We got inflationary fires all over the place while consumer demand is fanning the flames with insatiable need to buy and consume ( Its actually good for society up to a point . Yet it would be better if we bought more of our own stuff to stretch those dollars into the corners of the system .). What we do know is that as we wean off the adrenaline rush of Federal stimulus we may want to figure out a way to hold onto what is helpful ( i.e. increasing wage s☝) while pouring cooling water on that which is not helpful ( i.e. inflation and supply price s๐Ÿ‘‡๐Ÿ‘‡ ) There is a discussion on how inflation can be fueled by supply chain issues or demand type issues. A way to solve that is to return production of some of the more important items b

City of Escanaba in Search of New City Attorney (Announcement Info)

 City attorneys have a big job and need to have a broad set of skills that range from business law all the way over to civil law. Escanaba is a city that is seeking new opportunities and growth that ranges in scope. The quality of those services will influence the ability of administrators to make strong decisions that benefit their communities. You can read more about the position HERE . City of Escanaba Request for Proposals (RFP) For City Attorney Introduction: The City of Escanaba would like to contract with an Attorney, or law firm, to serve as City Attorney. The City invites interested Attorneys and/or firms with a minimum of three years of municipal law experience, representing municipal or other governmental entities in the State of Michigan, to submit a written proposal to provide City Attorney services. The City Attorney, or Attorney’s firm, will be expected to provide a wide range of legal services to the City. The City Attorney is appointed by and accountable to the City Ma