The judge is reviewing it, and after zarko gets a good chunk of it, I can guarantee he will again use it to smear a group of dedicated professionals. We have seen the fuss he made over nothing already. If you want the real story here's a link, http://liberalmedianot.blogspot.com/search/label/Chet%20Zarko

Now, I don't know where you got the "other news" from Howell Public Schools, but my kids graduated from Howell High School and my grandkids go there, so I know more about Howell schools than you and zarko combined. The book issue was a small group of rightwing Republican zealots that tried to ban books from the high school that included books from a Nobel Laureate and a Pulitzer-prizing winning author. Luckily, the entire community, Republicans and Democrats alike, rose up in protest against this book-banning quest. You can see the story here, http://liberalmedianot.blogspot.com/search/label/LOVE%20PAC

As for your cracks about lunch and busing I have no idea where you got that misinformation. The district is taking suggestions on ways to cut costs, but no decision has been made.

For the rat of your rant, the "liberal media" myth is nothing but a Republican strategy first put forth by the Nixon administration, and we know how paranoid he was. Over the years that political strategy has been used with devastating effect to the point where anything negative written about a Republican is because of the "liberal media," and when it is positive it's because they finally got it right. How can you lose? With a few huge corporations owning almost all of the media outlets today how can anyone still cling to that ridiculous myth?

After promising she'd stick up for us.

And the crack about the school lunches and the buses?  Sarcasm, my friend.  Sarcasm.  

C/G - you have to admit that the governor demagogues this issue at whatever turn she can.  She knows there is absolutely nothing she can do about it and that the populist pap she spreads by doing it only helps her....and right now she needs it since she has approval ratings lower than GWB.

Posted below is an article that ran in Sunday's Grand Rapids Press about refineries, gas prices, etc.
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Refinery shortage raises gas prices
Sunday, May 27, 2007
By Chris Knape
The Grand Rapids Press
Gas prices are at record highs, gas imports are up and refineries are running at capacity.

No one has built a new refinery in the United States since 1976. There's only one left in Michigan, and it's on the other side of the state in Detroit.

So, why isn't anyone building more refineries?

The answers are fairly simple but hardly comforting to Michigan drivers, who this weekend are paying some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation.

Refineries -- which take in crude oil and produce gasoline and other fuels -- cost billions of dollars to build. But it's not just cost. There is little incentive to build.

The industry is more profitable than ever because of limited competition, making existing players less inclined to build more capacity.

Regulatory red tape for a new refinery is mountainous.

And, practically nobody wants a refinery or its potential pollution in their backyards.

The only refinery publicly planned in the U.S. is the nearly $4 billion Arizona Clean Fuels Refinery, which backers hope to open in Yuma, Ariz., in 2012. It would be Arizona's only refinery.

But consider this: The project was first proposed in 1999. So far, no dirt has been turned on the 2.3-square-mile desert site.

"All conditions being perfect, you're still looking at very easily an eight-year project to build an oil refinery in the U.S. -- and that's just getting over regulatory hurdles and financing," said Ian Calkins, a spokesman for Arizona Clean Fuels.

Surplus capacity cuts profits

Finding a solution to the refining shortage will not be simple, said Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program for the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen.

"Oil companies do not want surplus capacity in the refining market because surplus capacity would drive prices down," Slocum said. "They are earning record profits at the refining level."

For shareholders, that's great. Oil stock prices have jumped and some companies have increased dividends as they rake in billions of dollars each year.

But for consumers, it means more of a pinch at the pump and a market subject to major price swings in the event of temporary refinery shutdowns.

Slocum blames a regulatory system that encouraged less competition and higher prices.

"It is difficult to build a new refinery, but we've had weak antitrust law that gave perverse incentives for oil companies to buy competitors rather than expand their own infrastructure," he said.

"Is it some sort of conspiracy? No. It's business school 101. You don't do anything to undermine your gravy train. You don't do anything to undermine your profits."

Inefficient refineries closed

Since 1982, the number of U.S. oil refineries has been trimmed from 301 to 149 as smaller, less-efficient refineries were shut down.

One of those was the Total refinery in Alma in mid-Michigan. It closed in 1999, eliminating the ability to refine about 51,000 barrels of oil per day.

Some remaining refineries have been expanded, helping to offset the closings. But total capacity is less than it was 25 years ago.

As of 2006, the country had 17.3 million barrels per day of refining capacity compared with 17.9 million barrels per day capacity in 1982.

Marathon Petroleum, the largest supplier of gasoline to Michigan, is in the process of spending $3.2 billion to expand daily refining capacity at from 245,000 barrels to 425,000 barrels at its Garyville, La., refinery.

In 2005, it spent $300 million to update and expand its Detroit refinery's capacity by 26,000 barrels a day. The refinery, Michigan's only one, now can pump out 100,000 barrels per day.

Marathon made a profit of $707 million in the first quarter of 2007. During the quarter it refined an average of 968,000 barrels of oil per day.

"We are pushing everything we can to get (fuel) out the door and, yet, I noted that imports of gasoline reached an all-time high in the United States," said Linda Casey, a spokeswoman for Findlay, Ohio,-based Marathon.

Casey said issues a company would face building a refinery are greater than those faced to build a nuclear plant.

"People want fuel, but people don't want a refinery, and they don't want a pipeline," she said.

Public Citizen's Slocum said blaming regulation is a cop out.

"Do environmental laws make development more difficult? Of course. Do they preclude development? Absolutely not."

During a House Judiciary Committee meeting May 16 Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, questioned why gasoline prices soared even as crude oil prices dropped.

"In April ... crude oil was $7 a barrel cheaper than last year, (but) gas prices were almost 50 cents a gallon higher," Stupak said. "Clearly, there's more at play than simply the world crude oil market."

Outages are blamed

Industry experts and Energy Department's Energy Information Administration have blamed an unusual number of refinery outages for the tight gasoline supply, resulting in higher prices.

The agency said that as refineries get back on line, gasoline inventories will improve and prices may recede.

Even if a company did want to build a refinery Michigan, it's uncertain which state officials would oversee such a massive project.

"It doesn't happen often enough to have someone be overall responsible for everything," said Tom Godbold, section supervisor for the Geological Services Division of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

So, what if someone wanted to build one in West Michigan?

Hypothetically speaking, Greenville City Manager George Bosanic said he wouldn't rule out a refinery.

Several years ago the city was in talks with a company that wanted to build a coal gasification power plant, which would have raised similar issues.

"We would always keep an open mind in terms of considering something that would bring jobs into the community," he said.

"I can't say, 'Yes, we would like that,' or, 'No, we wouldn't.' It would depend on where it would fit and what the consequences to the community would be."