In Nov. 2010, in fact, Obama grilled Energy Secretary Steven Chu on the subject, challenging him to document how many jobs his agency’s stimulus spending had created — only five weeks after writing the last of ten letters to Chu asking for funding for solar and other energy projects in Michigan, arguing that those projects would create some 5,000 jobs in the state.

But Upton is hardly alone in this regard. Those letters were signed by all of the members of the Michigan congressional delegation, including several others who have argued that the stimulus bill has not created any jobs. Rep. Mike Rogers, for example, has claimed that stimulus spending only created one job in his district and very few in the state of Michigan.

Then-Rep. Pete Hoekstra, now running for the Republican nomination to challenge for Sen. Debbie Stabenow’s seat, went on CNN and said that the stimulus spending “has not helped my community or helped the state.” But he signed all of those letters arguing that spending on Michigan stimulus projects would create thousands of jobs.

Rep. Candice Miller likewise has said that the stimulus bill “has failed to provide the promised jobs.” Rep. Dave Camp has made the same claim:

“Michigan, which consistently has the nation’s highest unemployment rate, has been particularly hard-hit by the failings of the stimulus plan,” said Camp. “It is clear from today’s jobs report that stimulus has failed to do what it promised and failed to create jobs for American workers. Eight months after the President signed the stimulus bill, we are all still asking: where are the jobs?”

Rep. Thad McCotter gave a speech on the House floor asking, “Where are the jobs?”

It seems that every one of these legislators firmly believe that stimulus spending will create jobs in Michigan, which would be good for them politically, but somehow creates a negative number of jobs everywhere else. And Republican legislators in every other state seem to think the same thing of their state.

The Detroit News reports that dozens of people formed a human chain in front of the truck entrance to the bridge.

They chanted slogans and hoisted signs to show their opposition to what they call elite business interests blocking a second span that could bring more jobs to the region.

“This shows how much people are really beginning to be fed up with this 1 percent,” said the Rev. Charles Williams II, pastor at Detroit’s historic King Solomon Baptist Church and a leader with Good Jobs Now who joined the protest.

Last week, amid intense lobbying by Maroun, a state Senate committee blocked legislation that would authorize Michigan to work with Canada to create the New International Trade Crossing — a publicly owned bridge that would connect freeways between Detroit and Windsor.

Gov. Rick Snyder and business and labor groups support the new bridge and say that it will bring construction jobs and strengthen trade.

Mlive reports that there were no arrests at the demonstration which blocked traffic for nearly an hour.

“They have the right to protest,” Detroit Deputy Police Chief James Tolbert said at the scene. “We’re working with them to keep everyone safe and get these trucks moving when we can.”

The Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 initiative would have required a voter referendum whenever a local government amended its comprehensive land-use plan, giving citizens a role in approving urban development.

Lesley Blackner, president of Hometown Democracy, argued that “irresponsible overdevelopment leads to higher taxes and lower quality of life” and Amendment 4 would “give voters the right to decide if a proposed change to the community plan is worthwhile for the community.”

Yet voters overwhelmingly rejected the amendment at the ballot box, perhaps due to efforts by the well-funded group that opposed it, Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy. In fact, Citizens outspent Amendment 4 supporters five-to-one, launching a massive advertising campaign that included a slew of television ads and thousands of recognizable “Vote No on 4″ signs. The opposition, which argued that the amendment could will severely limit the ability to recruit businesses and create jobs in Florida, was largely funded by real estate developers and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

Despite the defeat of Amendment 4, its supporters are still fighting against urban sprawl.

Blackner has unveiled a new website, PriceofSprawl.com, that takes a county-by-county look at how development is affecting Florida, and how it will in the future. In Duval County, for example, the “build-out” populations (the population needed to fill all of the housing approved for development but not yet built) is 1,270,509 — 47 percent more than the current population of 864,263. According to a chart on the site, property values in Duval are down 9.2 percent in 12 months, vacancy is at 11 percent and the water supply is in trouble. The site also details how overdevelopment leads to higher taxes and low home values, and is often caused by politicians’ failure to consider certain costs associated with development: roads, schools, police, fire, water, sewer, garbage, etc.

The overall aim of the project is to publicize the hidden costs of infrastructure, the ongoing decline of home values and the ongoing damage to Florida’s drinking water — all of which, say Blackner, are the result of overdevelopment.

Business Week reports:

A spokeswoman for Republican Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, who sponsored the bridge legislation, said there were no plans to do anything more with the bill defeated Thursday and no near-term plans to introduce alternative legislation.

That would be a legislative defeat for first-year Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, who supports the new bridge. But Snyder wouldn’t quit on the proposal Thursday, calling for a “cooling down period” to talk to lawmakers about the proposal.

The governor and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce say that by connecting highways in the U.S. and Canada the New International Trade Crossing would make trade over the border more efficient and support business expansion.

Canada has already begun work on its side of the bridge and has offered to finance the $550 million needed to cover the costs of building the Michigan side of the span.

The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has said that Michigan can use that $550 million as matching funds to secure federal road repair money for the state.

Some are speculating that Snyder may eventually decide to close the bridge deal with Canada by executive order if the Legislature refuses to OK the project.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the bill cleared the Senate after Sen. Rand Paul, a first term Tea Party associate and anti-regulation Republican from Kentucky, released a hold that he’d placed on the bill.

The government’s so-called grandfather clause allows pre-1970 pipelines such as the one in San Bruno to escape pressure tests meant to reveal weak welds. It was an incomplete weld that ruptured on the San Bruno line in September 2010, leading to the explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

After meeting recently with federal regulators, Paul proposed an amendment that would commit the government to requiring pressure tests or something equally effective on older lines. The Senate approved the proposal, and after Paul removed his hold on the bill, the full legislation passed.

California regulators had already repealed the grandfather clause for older pipes in the state after the San Bruno blast, but the issue had not been addressed nationally.

“The government was trying to pretend it fixed a problem that it had not even properly diagnosed,” Paul said in a statement Monday night, adding that the bill had been advancing “with no time for consideration.”

Committees in the House have passed two pipeline safety bills, which must be reconciled before the laws can be updated.

In July the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power approved pipeline safety legislation that set deadlines for updated leak detection rules and automated valve use and placement, and strengthened guidelines for river crossings, and gas gathering lines.

Last month the House Transportation Committee advanced a measure that prohibits regulators from requiring new safety tests.

Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, criticized that bill as a “partisan industry-driven effort” that ignores recent safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board.

NTSB has been investigating the San Bruno explosion, the Enbridge oil spill in the Kalamazoo River and other recent pipeline disasters.

The Senate Economic Development Committee, which is considering legislation to create a public authority to take bids on the new bridge, will hold hearings Tuesday and Wednesday and vote on the two bridge bills at the end of Wednesday’s session, said Mike Murray, chief of staff to committee chairman Sen. Mike Kowall, R-White Lake.

Gov. Rick Snyder is pushing the project, dubbed the New International Trade Crossing, and wants the Legislature to deal with it by the end of October.

It’s not clear whether there is support in the Legislature to pass the bills. Republicans have generally opposed the public bridge, while Democrats have supported it.

Canada has offered to finance the $550 million needed to pay for the Michigan portion of the bridge, and the project is supported by a broad range of business and labor groups because it is expected to provide jobs and improve trade over the border.

Gov. Snyder has also worked out an arrangement with the U.S. Dept. of Transportation that would allow Michigan to use the $550 million from Canada as matching funds to secure $2 billion in federal road dollars.

Billionaire Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Maroun has blanketed the state with ads in opposition to plans for the new publicly-owned bridge.

Nevada and Virginia were the only other states to be granted less money than Florida.

The report, Federal Aid to States for Fiscal Year 2010 (.pdf), compiled the amount of money that each state received for agriculture, education, health and human services, housing and urban development, transportation and other agencies.

Florida was part of a handful of states that received significantly less money than other states for a number of programs. In particular, Florida received very little from the federal government for agriculture, housing and urban development and transportation programs.

State policy-makers in Florida have been antagonistic toward federal grants. Gov. Rick Scott and the state Legislature have expressed distaste for accepting some federal money, and have even turned away millions of dollars that were already awarded to the state — notably for health programs and transportation.

Already, state policy-makers are saying they may eschew possible federal funds that could be set aside to help the state tackle its persistent unemployment problem.

[Gov. Rick Snyder] and business groups say the new bridge would clear a border bottleneck because it would have direct freeway connections on both sides of the river. Trucks that use the Ambassador Bridge must go through more than a dozen traffic lights in Windsor, Ontario, before reaching the freeway.

Another selling point is the backers’ insistence that the new public bridge will cost Michigan taxpayers nothing. Canada has offered to front Michigan’s $550 million share of the project costs and recover the money from the state’s share of bridge tolls.

The state Senate is considering legislation to authorize the bridge deal, but so far Republicans in the legislature have been generally unsupportive of the plan — missing a July 1 deadline set by the governor.

Speaking from Washington DC where he is supporting a civil disobedience campaign aimed at stopping approval of a new tar sands oil pipeline Rainforest Action Network spokesman Daniel Kessler said that linking womens’ rights to use of tar sands oil is “preposterous”.

“The people in the Middle East are taking care of those issues themselves.” he said. “We just saw the Arab Spring.”

“The idea that using tar sands oil is more ethical than using oil from the Middle East is ridiculous,” he said. “We need to be cutting our emissions period.”

Kessler said that much of the oil that would be transported via the Keystone XL pipeline from Alberta to refineries on the Gulf will be earmarked for export and may end up in China.

According to the U.S. State Dept. greenhouse gas emissions associated with tar sands oil from the Keystone pipeline would equal the annual greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of fuels in 588,000 to 4,061,000 passenger vehicles.

Board assistant secretary-treasurer Vera Perry said the lower pay rate included in the bids for custodial services – from $15 per hour to $8.25 – were too harsh.

“To me, you’re asking them to go into bankruptcy,” Perry said.

“This is ridiculous, it’s politics,” said board member David Davenport.

Ed Dollin, director of operations for both FEATS and METS [the company with the low bid for pest control services], said the companies could negotiate with the district on pay rates.

“We’re going to give every one of those people (currently on staff) an opportunity to work for us,” Dollin said. “You guys can set the salary.”

The board has agreed to continue discussion on outsourcing custodial and other services.

Officials expect a final 2011-12 budget to be prepared by June 1.