(Note: I am going to take advantage of Scoop and Ajax as the best liveblogging tools available to me at this time. This diary and the comments probably won't make any sense right now, but when this is all over I will go back and compile something that makes sense and cross-post it here, at MichLib and at my little blog o' death.)
The City of Lansing hates me. Right in front of the Lansing center there's a big sign--Lansing Center Parking Use Cedar St. Only Cedar St. is a one-way street and you can't turn on to it from in front of the Lansing Center! Add to that the sun in my eyes and the loooonnnngest lights in the world, and it's been a fun morning.
When I got here I was accosted by LiberalLucy as she introduced me to Lt. Gov. John Cherry, and then lpackard introduced me to former State Rep. Jim Agee, who used to represent my district...
This is kind of surreal. Twice now I've been approached--Are you one of the bloggers?! Like I'm some sort of celebrity or some sort of circus animal because I know how to open a website and know how to type. And now Scoop is eating my diary...
As far as breakout sessions are concerned, my options are Healthcare, The Environment, and Clean Energy. I'm thinking about going to the Clean Energy forum because I'm concerned about how the Big Three are going to finally embrace better fuel economy and clean energy principles in general, in hopes of saving their skins in a global economy...
Lynn Jondahl, ED of the Michigan Policy Summit is doing a welcome spiel now. Shout-outs to the good people at AriaLink for providing wifi so us bloggy folks have a link to our little world.
Coffee and donuts are courtesy of John Cherry, our awesome Lt. Gov. (He's a nice guy, too...see above.)
Lt. Gov Cherry is speaking now. Paraphrasing--Loss of a sense of stewardship by state government, stewardship is guided by a roadmap, we're in charge of the roadmap and this summit is a critical part of that.
We're doing a sing-along with a lady from Detroit who's an organizer for the American Federation of Teachers. She's a great singer and the message is great, but OMG a sing-along at 9:30 on a Saturday is just...not a great community-building exercise.
That was interesting...just as we're all growing very weary of the sing-along, she sings the line "In this great country, healthcare should be free." The room just erupted. Yes folks, 2008 really is the Healthcare Election.
Okay, the sing-along is over. Lynn Jondahl is talking again--MICHLIB GETS A SHOUT-OUT! w00t!
Former Lansing Mayor and former Director of the Michigan Dept of Labor and Economic Growth, current president of the Prima Civitas think tank.
Paraphrasing--Michigan and the country are in a transition period, facing great changes and great opportunities. Institutions of the future that survive and thrive will have several things in common--they will focus on the personal economy, customizing products, self-actualization, organized around innovation. It's fundamental to understand the following three trends: the aging of America (Hollister chaired a special committee on aging when he was in the Michigan Lege). Fun Fact From David Hollister--There are 1 million people in the US 100 years old or older--our whole table just kind of went "WTF?" Healthcare is the fastest-growing job sector. Fifty percent of the healthcare workforce is eligible to retire within 5-7 years.
Our economy is changing fundamentally as people get older. Shifting away from low-skilled manufacturing to highly-skilled knowledge and information economy. Manufacturing is not going away--two of the most efficient/productive plants in the world are in Lansing (applause applause.) Hollister makes the point that his dad was an autoworker and was a high school dropout--couldn't even apply for a job at one of the Lansing auto plants today because you need two years of post-high school education.
Our economy is becoming technological. To be able to function in today's economy you must be not only functionally literate but also technologically literate. If kids keep coming out of schools functionally illiterate and technologically illiterate there will be major problems.
The government is devolving. Federal government used to solve problems, the Reagan Revolution changed that--it went to the states. This started changing in 2000, state leges are now becoming more irrelevant. Local/regional government is now more important than ever.
Our economy is also becoming international.
The success stories now involve NGOs partnering with colleges and universities to spur economic growth. Cites Minneapolis and the Research Triangle Park area as success stories. Says it's now working in Detroit and he's trying to get it off the ground in Lansing. Michigan government is going to invest in four areas over the next ten years--life sciences, advanced manufacturing, alternative energy, homeland security. Michigan is staking its future on those areas. Using tobacco money to start the 21st Century Jobs Fund--committed to spending $100 million a year for the next ten years in these areas. The second year of funding is tied up in the current MI budget fiasco (see MichLib and Blogging for Michigan for details--Christine at BFM is the Budget Diva.)
Observation--power outlets are at a premium around here. At yKos the Teamsters brought in a laptop charging station and it was the niftiest idea I had seen in ages--where are the Teamsters when we need them?
Brainwrap is making snide comments about using alternative energy to power his laptop for the liveblogging--he also ran into the Michigan coordinator of the Gravel campaign. His response: "Gravel has a Michigan campaign?"
PART DEUX: THE ALTERNATIVE ENERGY PANEL:
The panel is moderated by Lana Pollack, president of the Michigan Environmental Council.
Mark Beyer, Director of Marketing and External Communications at Next Energy--What Next Energy Does: Promotes alternative energy technologies, builds jobs in alternative energy. Partners with universities to identify the "brains and ideas" behind alternative energy, pair it with Michigan's strength, manufacturing. According to their website, Next Energy is a nonprofit org headquartered in Detroit at the Wayne State Research and Technology Park. He wonders why people committed to saving the environment would dry their clothes in a dryer versus hanging them on a line to take advantage of sunshine. Renewable Portfolio Standards--Is a law that can be enacted by states to mandate that a state must get a certain percentage of electricity from renewable resources. Michigan gets 3.5% of our energy from hydroelectric (fun fact from mr, who lived in an assisted living facility in New Orleans when Katrina hit, and how she had to wait 8 days for any assistance, and how no one at DHS seemed to give a damn. She also talked about the conservative culture in this country and what a crock it is, and how the only time she ever gets mad when she's on TV is when someone questions her patriotism. She keeps giving shout-outs to bloggers, too. More thoughts on that later...
Brazile is doing a Q&A now. The subject of equality keeps coming up and she keeps bringing up the LGBT community. Michigan isn't exactly known for being friendly to the LGBT community as a whole.
More to come...