My Husband's Hometown Is Shrinking!

My husband is from Flint,Michigan.Most of his family members have had a difficult time obtaining steady employment.The jobs are so sparse that it's tough to make ends meet!Only a few of his relatives have the money that it takes to relocate & they have done just that.For the others,the situation is becoming more & more desperate.It's so sad.

But,they are not alone.The whole city has been in a state of serious decline for years.As the population continues to shrink,the amount of abandoned,dilapidated houses have been on the rise.So,the city of Flint has come up with a plan.

They want to shrink my husband's hometown by demolishing entire neighborhoods and condensing the existing population into the areas that they deem to be "viable."Here's more on the efforts to save Flint from The NY Times:

"Dozens of proposals have been floated over the years to slow this city’s endless decline. Now another idea is gaining support: speed it up.

Instead of waiting for houses to become abandoned and then pulling them down, local leaders are talking about demolishing entire blocks and even whole neighborhoods.

The population would be condensed into a few viable areas. So would stores and services. A city built to manufacture cars would be returned in large measure to the forest primeval.

“Decline in Flint is like gravity, a fact of life,” said Dan Kildee, the Genesee County treasurer and chief spokesman for the movement to shrink Flint. “We need to control it instead of letting it control us.”

The recession in Flint, as in many old-line manufacturing cities, is quickly making a bad situation worse. Firefighters and police officers are being laid off as the city struggles with a $15 million budget deficit. Many public schools are likely to be closed.

“A lot of people remember the past, when we were a successful city that others looked to as a model, and they hope. But you can’t base government policy on hope,” said Jim Ananich, president of the Flint City Council. “We have to do something drastic.”(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

A Pregnant Woman Has Become The First American To Die From The Swine Flu!

A pregnant woman from Texas has become the first American to die from the swine flu.Here's more from the WebMd:

"The U.S. recorded it's second U.S. swine-flu death and the first of an American -- a Texas woman living near the Mexico border -- soon after the CDC said schools shouldn't close when students come down with H1N1 swine flu -- and schools closed because of swine flu may reopen.

The CDC has repeatedly predicted that the U.S. would see more H1N1 swine flu deaths and hospitalization. Yet the CDC's official guidance for schools reflects a cautious easing of concern over the H1N1 swine flu pandemic."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.

Did John Edwards Give His Mistress "Hush Money"?!!

Did former presidential candidate,John Edwards,pay his mistress "hush money" with campaign funds? That's the question that federal investigators are exploring at this very moment.Here's more from The Independent:

"The affair which ended the political career of John Edwards may eventually land him in the dock, after federal investigators began examining allegations he used campaign funds to pay "hush money" to a mistress.


A contender for the Democratic presidential nomination eventually won by Barack Obama, Mr Edwards admitted at the weekend that his political action committee is under scrutiny for transferring more than $100,000 (£67,000) to Rielle Hunter, shortly before their relationship was exposed. In a carefully-worded statement, Mr Edwards insisted that no money was used improperly by his campaign. "However, I know that it is the role of government to ensure that this is true," he said. "We have made available to the United States both the people and the information necessary to help them get the issue resolved efficiently and in a timely matter."

The investigation will focus on money paid to Ms Hunter's production company by his committee, ostensibly for producing a film about global poverty, which followed Mr Edwards on a campaign visit to Uganda in 2006. Ms Hunter's firm received $100,000 during a four-month span in 2006, and another $14,000 on 1 April 2007.

Investigators will examine whether any of the payments were either related to the couple's affair or intended to prevent Ms Hunter going public with details of their fling. Using money donated to a political action committee for personal use is a federal crime.

Mr Edwards, who had been John Kerry's running mate in 2004, finally acknowledged a long-running affair with Ms Hunter in August last year after months of vigorously denying tabloid reports about the scandal. She gave birth to a daughter in February 2008, but Mr Edwards continues to deny reports that he is the father and a former campaign aide, Andrew Young, has claimed paternity."(END OF EXCERPT)Read the rest here.