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East Lansing -- Private investors have stepped forward with enough funding to build a prototype for a futuristic elevated rail system that would race along freeway routes between Lansing, Ann Arbor and Detroit, according to experts who testified this morning at a hearing on the proposal.

State Rep. Bill Rogers, R-Brighton, who heads a task force looking into whether the state should grant easements for the rail line along Interstate 96, U.S. 23 and I-94, said the system is within the realm of possibility -- provided private funding exists to meet the $2 billion price tag.

Connie Murry Cole of Detroit-based Interstate Traveler Company LLC, the company that developed the plan for the high-speed line, said enough funding has been identified to at least build a prototype within a year, but the location has not been determined.

Since the auto industry is thinking of leaving the Motor City we have think out side the box.  This can get people around that can't afford to buy a car or truck.

Like Santa Cruz, some islands are nature havens. The ancient boreal forest on Michigan's Isle Royale supports the sort of creatures that once roamed the entire Great Lakes region - moose, beaver, lynx and wolves. Hiking trails and water routes link primitive campgrounds that seem more like the Yukon then somewhere within a few hundred miles of Chicago.

Contact Information
800 East Lakeshore Drive
Houghton, MI 49931
906-482-0984

A densely forested, wind-lashed island wilderness in the northwest corner of Lake Superior, Isle Royale National Park offers outstanding backcountry recreation and rich human and natural history. It's one of the few places in the United States that's beyond the reach of the automobile - the only way to get yourself into the park is via ferry or seaplane. And the island itself is a jigsaw puzzle of land and water, a complex topography that attracts kayakers, canoeists, divers, and anglers, as well as long-distance hikers.

A giant, jagged seam in the enormous crease left in the earth as glacial ice retreated some 10,000 years ago, Isle Royale is the largest island in the world's largest freshwater lake. Native Americans dug copper here 3,000 years ago. Later French, English, and Americans trapped a wealth of furs. During the 19th century's copper fever, mining companies sank shafts in the bedrock - left behind are more than 1,000 mining pits. Commercial fishing supplanted mining in the early 20th century, until the park was established in the 1930s.

Isle Royale is ecologically complex. Three distinct forest types - including a remnant of ice-age boreal woodlands - grow on an island just nine miles wide and 45 miles long. A century ago, lynx and caribou were the dominant mammals. Today, these species are extinct, replaced by wolves and moose, which only arrived here from the mainland in the 20th century.

I think if we stop sending jobs to differnt country's that will help a great deal.  I also believe if the cost of living comes down people will be ok with lower wages.

The amount of counterfeit money in the US is low enough that most people feel safe taking money with barely a minimal check for counterfeits. Does it look and feel like money? Then it probably is. But have you ever gotten a bill where something-either the bank note or the person giving it to you-seemed a little off? Ever wished you could quickly check to see if it was good? Well, here's how.

Make sure the money we get is real

Step 1) Look and Feel
This is as far as most people go, and it's good enough most of the time. US bank notes are printed on special paper that's 75 percent cotton and 25 percent linen. The linen gives it an extra stiffness that's distinctive. There are also red and blue fibers imbedded in the paper. Bank notes are printed with a process called "intaglio" that leaves ink on top of the paper, giving the money a distinctive texture. The printing is also very high quality, so the lines are sharp and clear, not broken, fuzzy, or blobby.

Step 2) Color-Shifting Ink
Bank notes bigger than the $5 bill use color-shifting ink to print the number showing the denomination in the lower-right-hand corner. Just look at the numbers head-on, and then from an angle. For genuine notes the color will shift (copper-to-green or green-to-black).

You can get this far pretty discreetly. The look and feel you're checking automatically as soon as the bill is handed to you, and you can confirm the color-shifting ink in a quick glance. Going further will require that you hold the note up to the light, which is basically saying that you think you might have gotten counterfeit money. A lot of people hesitate to do that, but it's the next step if you want to be sure.

Step 3) Watermark
All bills bigger than a $2 now have a watermark; hold the bill up to the light to see it. For the $10, $20, $50, and $100, the image matches the portrait. You can use the watermark to spot bills that have been bleached and reprinted with a higher denomination. The watermark is part of the paper and is visible from the rear of the note as well.

Step 4) Security Thread
All bills bigger than a $2 have a security thread running vertically through the bill. Like the watermark, you hold the bill up to the light to see it. The thread has text with the bill's denomination and an image that is unique to that denomination. The different denominations have the threads in different places, again so you can spot bills that have been bleached and reprinted with a higher denomination. (The threads also glow different colors under ultraviolet light, but that's not much help to ordinary folks.)