The two-term Democratic governor is set to host “The War Room with Jennifer Granholm” on former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV. The show will air at 9 p.m. weeknights following “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” starting January 2012.

The San Francisco-based show will focus on national politics, especially the upcoming 2012 presidential and congressional elections. It will feature commentary and interviews with political newsmakers, pundits and campaign veterans.

“’The War Room with Jennifer Granholm’ is at the core of Current TV’s strategy to be a trusted resource for intelligent and compelling commentary during what is sure to be a critically important election year with many complicated and emotional issues,” Gore said in a press release.

Maxine Berman, Central Michigan University Griffin Endowed Chair and former director of special projects for Granholm as governor, said Granholm has no interest in running for political office again, so the show makes sense for her.

“She has a unique viewpoint, is quite personable, a good speaker,” Berman said. “Ultimately, like any other show on television, (her) success will depend on how many people tune in.”

Like the other news programming on Current TV, the show will feature a distinctly liberal perspective on the day’s news.

“Democrats will love it. The far right will hate it. The middle will appreciate it,” Granholm said during a conference call held on Oct. 12 with reporters and top Current executives.

The network, founded in 2005, sees the show as another way to attract new, young viewers to the station, said co-founder and CEO of Current TV Joel Hyatt during the conference call.

“The average age of all three of those other cable news networks starts with a 6; in Fox’s case it’s 55 and CNN, 63, MSNBC, 62. We’re younging down, if you’ll excuse the grammatical error, the viewers of news, and we think that’s hugely important,” Hyatt said.

He said the network’s target demographic is 25 to 54 years old.

Political Science Professor James Hill said the show hurts Granholm’s chances at being appointed to any government post needing Senate approval because the show will make her appear too partisan.

“(It’s) perhaps a good step if she wants to remain active in Democratic politics,” Hill said.

State of the art technology and labs will be coming to CMU with the approval of state funding for the new biosciences building.

CMU’s proposed biosciences building was one of 23 college infrastructure projects approved by the Michigan Legislature in the capital outlay bill.

The state allocated $30 million for the building, which will cost about $65 million total to build. It will house research, lab rooms and teaching facilities for biotechnology and medical classes.

Kathy Wilbur, vice president of Government Relations and Public Affairs, said one of the most significant reasons to fight for this building was to get state-of-the-art laboratories, which the campus currently does not have.

“Certainly by touring Brooks Hall, the legislature would be able to understand our limitations,” she said.

CMU, along with 10 other universities and 12 community colleges, are included in the state-funded $383 million of the roughly $1 billion in projects statewide.

The bill was adopted by the House and Senate by a 56-38 vote and a 25-7 vote respectively.

Private fundraising will most likely finance the remaining costs of the building not covered by state funding, Wilbur said, but an official funding source has yet to be determined.

“We may also use university funds, but we really do not know the answer at this point,” Wilbur said.

Plans for the building have been in the works for the past three years, but CMU was denied funding last year. Now that the biosciences building was approved, Wilbur said it will take a great deal of time to do the planning.

Appropriate parties on campus will meet at the beginning of the spring semester at an undetermined date to start the planning process, she said.

Both Wilbur and Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management, said the building’s proposed plans are subject to change depending on how the first meeting goes.

“Facilities Management will deal with the architect and planning of the building,” Lawrence said. “But we are a long way from figuring that out.”

According to previously published reports, the projected building site will be next to the College of Education and Human Services in place of the remaining Washington Apartments.

The Lansing State Journal reported Gov. Jennifer Granholm has said she plans to sign the bill into law after previously vetoing it. Sections in the bill allowing restaurants that offered catering to bring licensed alcohol off-premises and allowing community colleges liquor licenses for culinary arts programs were removed after the veto.

In addition to allowing alcohol sales to go from 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week, the bill will allow alcohol sales on Christmas Day beginning at 12 p.m., restaurants and retailers to offer free samples and wineries to charge for samples.

The main thrust of this is business will improve for all alcohol retailers.

Sunday morning may not exactly be rush-hour for alcohol sales, but that is nonetheless 20 more hours of potential alcohol sales a month. Retailers should have little problem making up the $160-a-year fee linked to this bill and still make a greater profit.

The laws prohibiting alcohol sales on Christmas and before noon on Sundays were the last holdovers from antiquated liquor laws, which are no longer relevant in modern times.

Postponing alcohol sales to noon on Sundays was a residual of laws formerly prohibiting its sale on Sundays, because of the day’s significance to Christianity. Getting rid of the law altogether is a victory for the separation of church and state, albeit a small one.

The changes made to appease Granholm are reasonable. A restaurant is licensed to serve alcohol on its premises and should not be transferable. It could become a public safety issue.

Even if on a limited, provisional basis, giving liquor licenses to colleges is questionable at best. Although alcohol is often used in cooking, the matter of allowing alcohol on college campuses is not something that should be compromised.

In the economic situation our state has been in for the last several years, bolstering sales for businesses can do nothing but help, even if only a little bit. Especially since most liquor stores are locally-owned small businesses, this is helping some of the people that need it the most.

Kevin Kelley, Wayne County’s director of senior and veterans services, and Ronald Edmonds, vice president and controller of the Dow Chemical Company, were the two appointees.

The call for rejections was led by Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop.

“The citizens of this state and our state universities are the real losers today,” Granholm spokeswoman Megan Brown said in a statement. “Senator Bishop rejected qualified appointees to serve our state universities, making them nothing more than partisan political pawns.”

Matt Marsden, Bishop’s press secretary, said the decision to block Granholm’s appointments has nothing to do with party affiliations or qualifications of the appointees. He said it is too early to begin replacing current positions on various public university boards since it is nine months before there are any vacancies.

“This is more about procedure than it is about the qualifications of the candidates,” he said. “In fact, I think they’re all fine candidates.”

Kelley and Edmonds were two of 14 appointments Granholm made to public Michigan universities March 24 that have all been rejected. Eastern Michigan, Ferris State, Grand Valley State, Michigan Technological, Northern Michigan and Western Michigan universities also had board appointments rejected by Bishop, R-Rochester.

“At this point, the governor will continue to perform her duty to appoint qualified individuals to state office through the end of her term of office,” Brown said.

Steve Smith, director of public relations for CMU, said the university has nothing to do with the decision.
“We really have no role,” he said. “That’s up to the governor’s discretion.”

Granholm will leave office at noon on Jan. 1. Because of Michigan’s term limits, she cannot run for office again.

-The Associated Press contributed to this report

The State Senate announced a proposal to block Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s recent trustee nominations. Central Michigan University is among the schools affected by the proposal, spearheaded by Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop.

The Senate Republican Caucus tried to move on it Thursday, but had procedural issues, said Matt Marsden, press secretary for Bishop, R-Rochester. However, Bishop hopes the proposal will move forward within the next week.

“We think it is the next governor’s right to pick who he or she wants on the board of the higher education,” Marsden said. “They wouldn’t take positions for nine months. If we approved them, they would sit for eight months.”

The two appointees to Central Michigan University’s Board of Trustees are Ronald C. Edmonds, vice president and controller of the Dow Chemical Co., and Kevin F. Kelley, Wayne County’s director of senior and veterans services.

Aside from CMU, 17 members were nominated by Granholm for governing board positions at Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Oakland, Ferris State, Michigan Technological, Northern Michigan and Grand Valley State universities.

Marsden said the decision has nothing to do with the qualifications or party affiliations of the candidates. It is just not how the process is historically done, he said.

If there were vacancies open now, then this would not be an issue, Marsden said.

Spokeswoman: Appointments bipartisan

Public Relations Director Steve Smith referred comment to Granholm’s office. Liz Boyd, spokeswoman for the governor, said because Trustees Gail Torreano and Stephanie Comai have terms ending Dec. 31 and Granholm will wrap her term Jan. 1, 2011, new trustees would be in during her governorship.

“The bottom line is the (Michigan) constitution doesn’t put a time limit on the Governor’s authority,” Boyd said.

She said it is tradition the leaving governor would fill many open positions before leaving office. The same thing happened with former Gov. John Engler, Boyd said. Engler appointed A. Douglas Rothwell to Michigan Technological University’s Board of Control in 2002 before he exited as governor.

Boyd said she feels Granholm trustee appointments were bipartisan and there is not any reason for them not to be confirmed by the Senate.

-University Editor Eric Dresden contributed to this report.

Before a joint session of the Michigan Senate and House of Representatives, she stressed an investment in higher education was a prerequisite to create jobs and reduce the state’s jobless rate – currently at 14.6 percent.

“Today’s jobs demand a college degree or technical training and that’s why it made absolutely no sense to take away the promise scholarship,” she said.

The program was cut last fall amid Michigan lawmakers’ efforts to balance the state budget. Granholm will present all of her budget recommendations Feb. 11.

Granholm also said, in addition to identifying creative ways to pay for the promise scholarship, she will “draw the line against additional education cuts in the year ahead” and will identify incentives for college graduates to stay in Michigan.

However, the Jan. 11 Revenue Estimating Conference indicated the state deficit for the 2011 fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, will be $1.725 billion.

“There’s less money and less tax dollars for the state to use on spending programs for things like higher education, like where you go to school, and that in turn can slow our recovery in future years,” said Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics and former Endowed Griffin Chair at Central Michigan University.

Ballenger said, whether “practically speaking” the promise scholarship is restored or not remains to be seen.

Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, said the promise scholarship will not be restored unless the legislature reduces revenues in other areas to create real cost savings that free up real dollars.

He said the goal would be to create discretionary funds by cutting irrelevancies from the budget instead of shifting money between departments.

Freeing up revenue will unite legislators, Caul said, so they may provide for the programs they feel are priorities.

“And certainly that means educational, which along with that means the promise, and being able to fund that for students wanting to get into college and community colleges,” he said.

Campus Conservatives handed out flyers, held up signs and chanted outside both entrances to the library, and had set up a table outside the main entrance with a pitcher of Kool-Aid, and was handing it out to passersby.

The Conservative said they handed out more than 500 flyers, from 7 a.m. until the beginning of the speech.

Wendy Day, an alumna protesting with the Campus Conservatives, was also handing out flyers that said “Don’t Drink The Kool-Aid!”

“I’m not sure how she can spin anything. Unless you ‘drink the Kool-Aid,’ and buy into the party line, I don’t see how you could buy into anything she says,” said Day, who identified herself as a “non-partisan protester.” “There’s so much government waste, and the political establishment is protecting it, on both sides of the aisle.”

Campus Conservatives Vice President of Recruitment Evan Agnello said the main issue they were protesting is the idea of taxing Michigan residents, college students included, to provide college students with the Michigan Promise Scholarship.

“The actual policy that we’re protesting is her idea of raising taxes to bring back the Michigan Promise Scholarship,” the Troy junior said. “Raising taxes to give out a scholarship is like taking money out of your left pocket to put it in your right.”

Agnello said the group also disagreed with the decision that Granholm would not be fielding questions from students.

While the Campus Conservatives protested the event and Granholm’s stance on the Promise Scholarship, the College Democrats demonstrated about 20 feet away, holding up signs supporting Granholm and the Promise.

“We want the Promise to be reinstated,” said Alex Teska, Trenton junior and advocacy co-chairwoman for College Democrats. “We believe that through the right taxes, like the one-cent tax on water bottles, it can be done. I know a lot of students are relying on this money to make ends meet.”

Granholm Q&A from CMLifeVideo on Vimeo.

With $128 million cut in total state spending, Granholm approved $31.7 million for need-based grants for 35,000 students at private colleges.

The Michigan Promise was not restored despite vetoes of more than 70 other items in the budget.

And Central Michigan University will feel the impact. The scholarship delivered $4.2 million to 4,200 students in the 2008-09 school year, said Kirk Yats, associate director of operations for Scholarships and Financial Aid.

“We’re very disappointed for our students and to us a university,” he said. “We’d like to see the Promise restored.”

The state-sponsored scholarship was signed into law on Dec. 21, 2006, replacing the Michigan Merit Award. It provided $4,000 to students attending at least a two-year institution.

Granholm said the “fight is not over” in a Friday morning conference call with journalists. According to the Detroit Free Press, she wants to restore public university scholarships.

“They’ve been talking about this for a while,” said Toby Roth, CMU interim director of government relations. “The writing was on the wall. Didn’t leave many options for the governor.”

Seeking alternatives

State Rep. Bill Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, believes the money is there in the budget, from misappropriations for salaried jobs to a 10 percent increase in the state supplement to the Earned Income Tax Credit, which could total $160 million in government expenditures.

“I think we should tighten our belts like families are doing,” he said. “There are revenues in the state budget we could use for essential state programs.”

CMU has been anticipating these cuts.

This year’s freshmen and transfer students were eligible for grant money from CMU, provided they qualified for the federal Pell Grant.

The university allocated $27.5 million in financial aid for students in 2009, although it is unclear how much actually went toward it, Roth said.

“The hope was to offset the loss of the Michigan Promise,” Roth said. “Hopefully, it won’t have too negative of an impact.”

Students receiving money from the Michigan Promise will feel the effects once the spring semester starts.

Yats hopes losing the Promise scholarship will not be a deal-breaker for any student.

“We would think we could work with students and find alternative loan programs,” Yats said. “We recognize every family is in a different situation. Obviously, $1,000 is $1,000 of free money.”

The Promise was given to 96,000 students statewide last year, according to the Detroit Free Press.