For the remainder of April, I will be busier than a one-armed wallpaper hanger. Umpiring starts for me on Friday with a double header. On Sunday, I along with four of my colleagues will be training young umpires for Northville youth baseball. Then I will be umpiring on Monday, Wednesday and Friday until April 30, when I will hang it up for good. Umpiring has been a labor of love since I was 18 years old. I promised myself (and Leah) I would umpire until I turned 70 as long as my body and mind could handle it. I turn 70 in early June. I feel grateful I have been able to do something I love for over 50 years.
The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is pushing for stronger restrictions in Michigan to slow a spike in COVID-19 infections, such as a pause on indoor restaurant dining and tighter rules around youth sports. “I would advocate for sort of stronger mitigation strategies, as you know, to sort of decrease the community activity, ensure mask-wearing, and we’re working closely with the state to try and work towards that,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said about Michigan in a Wednesday briefing.
It was reported today that St. Joseph Mercy hospital in Ann Arbor is running at 99% occupancy for the last week. It is my experience when hospital occupancy is over 85% the hospital’s efficiency starts eroding. The vaccine rollout in Michigan cannot come fast enough as the state struggles with growing case numbers and hospitalizations
Per the NY Times, the Biden administration unveiled its plan to overhaul the corporate tax code on Wednesday, offering an array of proposals that would require large companies to pay higher taxes to help fund the White House’s economic agenda.The plan, if enacted, would raise $2.5 trillion in revenue over 15 years. It would do so by ushering in major changes for American companies, which have long embraced quirks in the tax code that allowed them to lower or eliminate their tax liability, often by shifting profits overseas. The plan also includes efforts to help combat climate change, proposing to replace fossil fuel subsidies with tax incentives that promote clean energy production. In my humble opinion we need to do much more than overhaul the tax code. We need to scrap the current tax code and start anew with simpler more efficient tax code that assures everyone pays their fare share.
Per the Detroit News, President Joe Biden’s administration has withdrawn approval of Michigan’s Medicaid work requirements, dealing another blow to requirements that had been suspended by a federal judge last year. The rules governing the more than 600,000 beneficiaries of the Healthy Michigan Plan, the state’s Medicaid expansion program, were bound to cause confusion, unnecessary benefit losses, additional administrative work for the state and more paperwork for people trying to prove compliance, said Elizabeth Richter, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. CMS believes that the potential for coverage loss among Medicaid beneficiaries — especially from a requirement that is difficult for beneficiaries to understand and administratively complex for states to implement — would be particularly harmful in the aftermath of the pandemic, and makes the community engagement requirement impracticable,” Richter wrote. The policy was signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder. This is a big deal, for making health care coverage available to those who truly need it.
New Tiger manager AJ Hinch has already made his mark on the Tigers with his agressive style. His philosophy is to keep the pressure on the opposing team by winning the race to two strikes and by making them make plays under pressure. There are going to be days when the Tigers win games that they shouldn’t because of Hinch’s philosophy and like today, there are going to be games they lose when they probablly would have won without the agressive style. Today the Tigers had two guys thrown out at home in the same inning because of their agressiveness. The first guy was thrown out at home plate when he tried to score from first on a double up the gap. Later in the same half of inning Miggy was thrown out at home after tagging up on a fly ball. It is an unwritten rule in baseball, you should never make the first out of an inning by getting tagged out at third or home. Today’s aggressive style probably cost the Tigers a victory in a game they lost 3-2.
The Mackinac Island Police Department would like to remind visitors, residents, employers and employees that Electric Bicycles are prohibited on the island with the exception of those used as mobility devices for those with mobility disabilities as outlined in the Americans With Disabilities Act,” officials said in a statement April 2. Congrats to the Mackinaw Island Police Department for making this happen. In busy places like Mackinaw, electric bikes can become very dangerous when not in the hands of an experienced rider.
Stay safe. Wear your mask properly. Social distance. Wash your hands regularly. Schedule your vaccine.
Quote of the Day: “Win the race to two strikes” is a new battle cry that Tiger Manager AJ Hinch is pounding into the brains of the Tiger pitching staff.
Orchid of the Day: My 6 year-old grandson, Nolan, because of the many quality golf shots he hit while golfing today on an executive par 3 course in Northville.
Onion of the Day: Tiger Woods for driving nearly 40 MPH over the posted speed limit when he crashed his car earlier this year. He is fortunate no one but himself was hurt