In The News

It’s not uncommon for one or two students from Benton Harbor High School to win the annual Horatio Alger scholarship. But this year five of the 15 given away statewide went to seniors from the school, reports the Herald-Palladium.

More Benton Harbor students applied for the scholarship than usual this year -- about 12 or 13, up from the usual three or four, said College adviser Amber Williams.

Excerpt:

There is also a legacy of applying for the scholarship at the school. Joseph Sparks, former chairman and CEO of Whirlpool Corp., is a member of the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. "There is a legacy that I think he left here," Williams said.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Herald-Palladium

Calhoun County residents accepted the challenge to lose weight during 2011 and together they shed more than 14,000 pounds, reports the Battle Creek Enquirer.

As part of the challenge posed by Battle Creek Mayor Susan Baldwin, 1,169 people lost a total of 14,302 pounds. Baldwin lost 27 pounds through walking and swimming.

Excerpt:

"It was a year ago that we all stood here and said we need to make Calhoun County healthier, we need to make Battle Creek healthier," Baldwin told the crowd gathered in the center of the mall. "We're doing that."

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Battle Creek Enquirer

Benton Harbor isn’t very big. It’s a city of about 11,000 residents. But it has story lines that drive national media to pay attention. Rachel Maddow at MSNBC, Stephen Colbert’s parody and most recently New York Times Sunday magazine are all paying attention. What gives?

On one side, the story portrayed those who believe the state should step in and try to fix an impoverished city. On the other, there are those who see it as a power grab and profoundly undemocratic. ... It’s not a story with clear rights and wrongs.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Michigan Public Radio

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports the No Child Left Inside movement is at the heart of programs at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. The nature center spans 1,100 acres, and includes vast natural habitats and large exhibit areas with live animals. The Nature Center staff takes its programs to schools across the region and does conservation work throughout the state, says Sarah Reding, vice president for conservation stewardship.

Excerpt:

"We are finding that more and more children are not getting out. They are plugged in instead of being outside, they are not getting enough exercise, and they aren’t doing as well in school. It shows that they’re healthier, they do better in school, and overall just have a much better childhood if they can problem solve on their own and get fresh air."

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Kalamazoo Gazette

Forbes has ranked medical device maker Stryker on its list of best places to work for the second year in a row. The company placed at 68 compared with 80 one year ago.

Excerpt:  

What makes it (Stryker) so great?

The medical device maker invests more than $3 million a year in its employees' pursuit of graduate and undergraduate degrees.

For more, please read the rest of the list.

Source: Forbes

It's been a long-running Lakeview tradition for the homecoming court to poke fun at each other during the pep assembly, but some parents and officials saw this year's jokes as disparaging, reports the Battle Creek Enquirer. As the adults clamored to respond, Lakeview students struggled to understand what the big deal was.

Excerpt:

Indeed, fast-changing demographics at Lakeview and other schools are challenging old stereotypes. Michigan's Schools of Choice program, changes in birth rates for minorities and the state's long-suffering economy mean schools long thought of as white and upper-class, such as Lakeview, are becoming increasingly diverse. Calhoun Intermediate School District officials said many local schools are reviewing the way they teach, partly because of the changing demographics. Add to the changing demographics today's high-tech world that allows kids to make friends in Egypt as easily as next door and that increasingly diverse world means students "are a much more accepting generation," Roy said.

"There's just a huge generation gap in everything," she said. "It's really hard to understand sometimes."

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Battle Creek Enquirer

A Lansing-based company wants to tap into methane gas at the Orchard Hill Sanitary Landfill in Watervliet Township to produce enough electricity to power 1,100 homes, initially. The Herald-Palladium reports Granger Energy Services plans to build a $6 million power plant at the landfill and sell the electricity to the Michigan Public Power Agency.

Jim Grant of Granger Energy recently presented plans to for a  5,600-square-foot building to be built on a leased site on the northeast corner of the landfill.

Excerpt:

There is enough methane gas at the landfill to sustain constant electrical production for more than 100 years, he said.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Herald-Palladium

The size of the improvement in Michigan’s unemployment in December, and the fact that more Michiganders found jobs than dropped out of the labor market, is an indication the state's long-bleak employment picture is changing, a Southwest Michigan employment expert told MLive.

Michigan's over-the-month unemployment rate declined 0.5 percent, from a seasonally adjusted 9.8 percent in November to 9.3 percent in December, 2011. In December, Michigan's unemployment rate dropped faster than any state other than Alabama.

Excerpt:

"In some other states, while we see the unemployment rates going down, it's simply because other people are leaving the work force or retiring," said Brad Watts. But, he added, while Michigan unemployment is improving faster than almost any other state, it has farther to climb, since it never recovered from the 2001 recession.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: MLive.com

Cooperation among industry peers is helping businesses grow in St. Joseph and Benton Harbor, reports Plastics Today.

The State of Michigan challenged manufacturers in Berrien County to formalize cooperative efforts, to set down guidelines for their cooperative efforts, and hold regular meetings at which attendance is mandatory for members of the Berrien Tooling Coalition.

The State has since designated the region as a Tool and Die Recovery Zone. In return for developing and following the Coalition's structure, the state provides tax abatements, both property and income, to the participants. The Berrien Tooling Coalition is a registered nonprofit organization.

Excerpt:

"What has made our area survive -- obviously we're not in the ideal location as there are no big OEMs in Berrien County - is that as a group we work together," said Bill Mach, president of Mach Mold Inc., a 46-person mold shop in Benton Harbor.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Plastics Today

The Kalamazoo Gazette reports Farmers Alley Theatre is making its status as a professional theater official, as it gains more elbow room. The theater has entered into Small Professional Theatre (SPT) status with the Actors' Equity Association, the union representing live theatrical performers. It also has added new rehearsal and storage space by leasing the former Brown & Brown Recording Studio, across the street at 206 Farmers Alley.

Since the Barn Theatre, of Augusta, and Mason Street Warehouse, of Saugatuck, are summer stock only, Farmers Alley is now the only year-round Equity theater in Southwest Michigan.

Excerpt:

"It means we have a better relationship with the union, we can bring in more talent both from in the state and outside the state," executive director Adam Weiner said. "It also gives the actors who work here, if they want, a way to earn points toward their equity card."

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Kalamazoo Gazette

As Dr. Paul Wang stepped into the main exhibit hall of the Art Center of Battle Creek, he contemplated which painting was his favorite, reports the Battle Creek Enquirer. "This one is my favorite," he said, before walking over to it and discussing its simplicity. A few minutes later, he spotted another piece on another wall; "Oh, this one is my favorite, too."

In a way, each of the Chinese landscape and calligraphy works were his favorites because he painted them all. Wang, a dermatologist living in Richland, was appearing at a recent artist's reception at the Art Center of Battle Creek. The event was packed with people who came to see Wang's work as well as experience a demonstration from the artist.

Excerpt:

Wang's work has been auctioned at the famed Christie's auction house in New York, and Wang himself said he's been told he's a living national treasure in China, and is treated like a movie star when he goes there twice a year for exhibitions. He's quick to point out, though, that he probably doesn't think of himself that way. "It's not like the Great Wall," he said. "That's a treasure."

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Battle Creek Enquirer

No one knows if more economic stimulus efforts by the federal government will be a benefit to the economy, but Comerica Bank's chief economist is optimistic, reports MLive.com.

Robert A. Dye, senior vice president and chief economist for Comerica Bank told a breakfast gathering at the Kalamazoo Country Club that his sense is that 2012 is a pivotal year.

Excerpt:

"My sense is that by the end of 2012 we will feel more optimistic about the economy and we start to feel like we are transitioning from a weak expansion to a self-sustaining economic recovery," he said.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: MLive.com

The New York Times visited Benton Harbor to find out what was happening at Harbor Shores, the resort development on Lake Michigan built around a Jack Nicklaus designed golf course.

Marcus Robinson, president of the Consortium for Community Development, who helped lead the effort to build the resort talked about the strategy of social engineering that’s central to the plan to save Benton Harbor.

Excerpt:

His (Robinson's) assignment was to work with community leaders, businesspeople and other local residents to come up with ways to address some of the ever-worsening problems -- poverty, violence, white flight, racial strife -- that had been plaguing the city for years and were making it increasingly difficult for Whirlpool to attract executive talent to the area. The discussions helped birth Harbor Shores, a notion that had been kicking around a long while.

Given Benton Harbor’s unfavorable history and demographics, no private developer would likely be willing to take on such an ambitious project there. But there was another way: Robinson’s group, along with other nonprofits supported by Whirlpool, could secure enough federal and state grant money to help remediate the land, build the golf course and at least get Harbor Shores off the ground.

For more, please read the rest of the story.

Source: New York Times

For its 2012 Playoff of Beers, Esquire magazine suggests a discerning fan would do well to enjoy a drink with local pride. It offers up some recommendations for this year's contenders and for the Detroit Lions the pick is Bell's Two Hearted Ale, brewed in Kalamazoo. Excerpt:

For a Michigan brew truly worthy of playoff quaffing, grab a sixer of Two-Hearted Ale, a Michigan-born IPA that's among the best of its kind. Flavors of pineapple, grapefruit, and tangerine leap from the glass -- about as enjoyable as a 90-yard Megatron catch.

For more, please read the rest of the recommendations.

Source: Esquire

The refurbishing of Historic Bridge Park on the Kalamazoo River in Emmett Township is nearly complete, reports the Battle Creek Enquirer.

Enbridge Energy, the Canadian oil company responsible for dumping nearly 1 million gallons of crude oil in the Kalamazoo River and Talmadge Creek in July 2010, offered last summer to make improvements to the park and several other sites along the river that were damaged because of the spill.

Excerpt:

And though the river remains closed to the public, the improvements to the park, which include a new shelter and playground equipment, are all but done.

To see a picture of the improvements, please read the rest of the story.

Source: Battle Creek Enquirer