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Traverse City Record-Eagle--Election 2008

• How Traverse City Voted
  Blue city, red county. Ballots cast in last week's general election reflected Traverse City's support of Democratic candidates and Grand Traverse County's backing of Republicans, with few exceptions.
• Voters reject almost all area tax proposals
  School administrators in a few local districts soon will decide whether to put tax proposals back on the ballot after voters almost universally rejected millage requests.
• Engler court loses top justice
  John Engler spent 12 long, patient years as governor placing nearly 200 judges -- including three Supreme Court justices -- who supported his conservative judicial philosophy onto state courts. But a little-known Wayne County judge toppled one of those justices from his seat on Tuesday.
• Op-Ed: Granholm in the spotlight
  There, in close-up view just off the right shoulder of Barack Obama at his first press conference as president-elect in Chicago, was Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a member of his transition economic advisory board -- called an "All-Star Cast" on CNN. Obama in his opening remarks singled out Granholm, saying he was "glad to be joined" by her on a day of grappling with grim economic news of joblessness and Ford/GM loss figures.
• Advocates: Obama will be Great Lakes friend
  Barack Obama's election as president and his appointment of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff are hopeful signs for the struggle to heal the ailing Great Lakes ecosystem, advocates said Thursday. Obama and Emanuel, both from the Lake Michigan city of Chicago, have championed initiatives in Congress to protect the lakes.
• Granholm to advise Obama on economy
  Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is one of 17 people appointed to help advise President-elect Barack Obama on the economy during his transition period.
• Palestinian Muslim elected to State House
  Lawyer and community activist Rashida Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants who never attended high school, becomes the first Muslim woman ever to serve in the Michigan Legislature. She said she wouldn't have run but for the repeated urging of her Jewish boss and predecessor, outgoing Democratic state Rep. Steve Tobocman.
• Local voter turnout statistics
  Voter turnout in the 5-county area.
• Local residents react to historic election
  A late morning sun shone on this Antrim County village hours after a freshman Illinois senator became president-elect of the United States. Terry Miller talked politics with friend Wally Hibbard over coffee Wednesday at Java Jones in Elk Rapids, and called Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's solid win over rival Sen. John McCain "a breath of fresh air."
• Environmentalists happy with court upset
  The stunning upset defeat of Republican Chief Justice Cliff Taylor ends the Michigan Supreme Court's conservative grip and opens the welcome prospect that it will overrule one of its most controversial decisions -- the 2007 gutting of the state's widely acclaimed Michigan Environmental Protection Act.
• Schmidt wins 104th District House seat
  Wayne Schmidt spent part of the day reflecting on a successful state House campaign he viewed as upbeat and effective. But his defeated opponent, local attorney Roman Grucz, seethed over an at-times bruising battle for the 104th District, a territory that covers Grand Traverse and Kalkaska counties. It was a race Grucz described as "gutter politics."
• Dems add to lead in state House
  Democrats picked up nine seats in Michigan's state House, giving them one of their biggest majorities of the past three decades.
• New Michigan congressmen 'very practical'
  Democrats Mark Schauer and Gary Peters, Michigan's newest members of Congress, bring resumes of focusing on job creation and economic issues to districts flush with Republican voters.
• Speculation swirls around Granholm
  Gov. Jennifer Granholm can't run for president, but she could still end up in Washington next year.
• Grand Traverse County board gets a new look
  Christine Maxbauer may switch from a solo role in pushing and prodding a set-in-its-ways Grand Traverse County board to leading a newly constructed board. Maxbauer, who often found herself at odds with the board's old guard, could find some support in January from new commissioners-elect Beth Friend, Mike Stepka and Ross Richardson.