Missed the morning Memorial Day Parades today? Not to despair .. there are still alot of fun to be had.

While I am publishing this, there is still time to get to any of the following Memorial day celebrations:

Grand Rapids, Michigan Afternoon Celebration -- 2 p.m. May 30, Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, 3000 Monroe Ave. NE.

Plainwell, Michigan Sand Sculpture Display -- Sand sculpture on display 10 a.m.-6 p.m., created by Plainwell resident and artist Charles Wakefield at former Plainwell Paper Mill to honor veterans and raise money for permanent Veterans Memorial to be located in Sherwood Park. Admission is free; donations accepted.
Sponsored by Plainwell Memorial V.F.W. Post No. 9377.

Fremont, Michigan Memorial Day Dedication Ceremony -- 2 p.m. Monday dedication ceremony under the direction of American Legion Post No. 381 honor guard. The Healing Field at Local 530 Union Hall, 5960 Warner Ave. (M-82), in Fremont will be open to the public 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Memorial weekend to pay tribute to heroes from Michigan who died in service to their country in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Select Oakland County Memorial Day Parades - Still time to get there!

Auburn Hills- Memorial Day Parade, which starts at at 11 a.m. at the corner of Auburn and Squirrel.

Beverly Hills- Starts at 11:30 from Groves High School parking lot located on 13 mile.

Birmingham- Memorial Day Ceremony 10 a.m. at the Memorial Plaza on 151 Martin.

Brandon Twp- Starts at 9:30 a.m. at Mill and Church streets, military fly over around 10:25 a.m.

Clarkston/Independence Twp- Starts at 10 a.m. on Church and Main streets

Farmington Hills/Farmington- Starts at 10 a.m. at the Farmington Plaza on Grand River and Mooney streets.

Fenton- Starts at 10 a.m. on Leroy and River streets

Ferndale- Starts at 10 a.m. on Livernois and West Breckenridge

Monroe County Memorial Day Parades

Dundee- Starts 9:45 a.m. in Wolverine Park.
Lambertsville- Starts at 10:30 a.m. at the Fire Station on the corner of Dean and Monroe Roads
Monroe- Starts at 2 p.m. on Jones Avenue and North Monroe Street.

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HAPPY MEMORIAL'S DAY to ALL

Labels: Memorial Day Sales, Michigan Memorial Day

Overview of Online Safety Rules for Families:

Teach your children to never give personal information over the Internet, such as name, home address, telephone number, cell number, password, parents' names, the name of any club or sports team he/she is involved in, name of his/her school, or after school job.

Disallow chat rooms / Recognize that chat rooms are the playground of today's sexual predator.

Limit your child's Instant Messaging to a parental approved buddy list. Regularly check your child's buddy list to ensure that it has not been altered.

Place your computer in an area of your home where you can easily supervise your child's Internet activity. If you allow your child to have a webcam, place it in a public area of your house.

Know your kids’ online activities and friends. (Regularly ask your kids about their online friends and activities. Role play with your child various dangerous scenarios that they could encounter online.)

If you allow facebook or myspace, create a facebook account and/or myspace of your own and become your child's friend so monitoring myspace and facebook is easier and an everyday activity for you.

Use parental controls/filtering or monitoring technology which block access to dangerous sites and activities. The following online monitoring utilities and software have been reviewed by our staff and deemed better than average.

• SoftwareTime
• I am Big Brother
• GuardianMonitor
• WebWatcher - Child Monitoring
• PC-Tattletale Parental Control Software
• My Nabyoo - Family Friendly Filter
• iProtectYou
• F-Secure
• Norman Parental Control
• Net Nanny
• Webroot
• MyChild Online Child Protection Software
• Kids Watch Parental Control Software

Establish online rules and an agreement with your child about Internet use at home and outside of the home (i.e., at a friend's house, at school, at the library, etc).

Monitor the amount of time your child spends on the Internet, and at what times of day. Excessive time online, especially at night, may indicate a problem. Remind your child that Internet use is a privilege, not a right.

Instruct your kids never to plan a face-to-face meeting with someone that they have met online.

Report any content or activity that you suspect as illegal or criminal to local law enforcement and to Cybertipline at 1-800-843-5678.

Labels: Child Safety, Computers and Software

The down economy is going to increase innovation and incorporations in Michigan.

If you are thinking about starting a business in Michigan, there is no better time than now. Be sure to separate your personal assets from your business to protect you and your family.

Here are a number of inexpensive online incorporation services to consider:

1. American Incorporators
   One of the largest incorporating service companies in the United States, American Incorporators provides a comprehensive range of formation and corporate compliance services to businesses wishing to incorporate in Michigan.
   
2. Click and Inc.
   In Minutes, all your business incorporation documents will be drafted and customized to form your corporation or LLC. Click and Inc can have your business incorporation documents filed in any state in 24 hours!
   
3. MyCorporation - Online Incorporation Services
   Incorporating a business provides many benefits for any type of business. Save time, money, and hassle when you MyCorporationprofessional document filing services to help form your corporation, DBA or LLC.

Sometimes the best ownership structure for your business depends on the type of services or products it will provide.

Other times business formation considerations are based on such questions as: Do you plan on going public or issuing shares? Do you plan to have international investors, or any investors at all?

If your business will engage in risky activities you may want to form a corporation or LLC which can provide personal liability protection (limited liability) to shield personal assets from business debts and claims.

Basic Business Structures available in Michigan

• Regular C Corporation
• S-Corporation
• Professional Corporation
• Non-Profit Corporation
• Limited Liability Company
• Professional Limited Liability Company
• Sole Proprietorship
• General Partnership
• Limited Partnership

Labels: Business Incorporation

Mother's Day is a beautiful holiday, celebrating the blessing of motherhood and honoring mothers, grandmothers, aunts, step-mothers and those who've "been like" mothers to us during our lifetime.

It's a day where children might think of their biological mother who placed them for adoption Others may reminise of mothers who have returned home to Heaven.

What is your family doing for Mother's Day? Taking Mom to brunch, buying gifts, making special projects at school. Enjoy your moments together as they are sacred!

• The youngest mother on record was Lina Medina, who delivered a 6½-pound boy by cesarean section in Lima, Peru in 1939, at the age of 5 years and 7 months.
• The odds of a woman delivering twins is 1-in-33. Her odds of having triplets is approximately 1-in-539.
• August is the most popular month in which to have a baby.
• Kentucky has the highest percentage of women who are mothers at 67%. The national average is 57%.
• About 4 million women will have babies this year.
• The median age of a woman giving birth for the first time in the U.S. is 24.8.

Labels: Happy Mother's Day

Information for this blog entry was provided by Michigan Labor Market Information website: http://www.milmi.org/

Michigan nonfarm payroll jobs continued a downward trend, falling by 22,600 in March, 2009. The Michigan losses were modest but widespread.

Two sectors recorded significant declines. Professional and Business Services followed the weak national trend and recorded the largest monthly reduction. Michigan Jobs in the Information sector, which includes the ailing publishing industry, also fell in March. The only sector to add jobs was Manufacturing, mainly due to the recall of laid off workers in the transportation equipment manufacturing sector.

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From March 2008 to March 2009, Michigan lost 6.4 percent of payroll jobs (-270,500). The goods producing sector accounted for 42 percent of this decline and the service producing sector contributed 58 percent. Michigan Education and Health Services was the only sector to add jobs over the year, though the pace of job gains has slowed.

IT and Engineering Jobs listed.

Nationally, total nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply (-663,000) in March with Construction, Manufacturing and Professional and Business Services losing more than 100,000 jobs each. Other sectors to experience statistically significant losses were Mining and Logging, Trade and Transportation, Michigan Financial Activities and Leisure and Hospitality.

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Since the start of the recession, 15 months ago, nonfarm employment in Michigan fell by 301,500 (-7.1 percent) with 60 percent of the decline in the last five months. Nationally, 5.1 million (3.7 percent) payroll jobs were lost during the same period with 65 percent of the Michigan jobs shed in the last five months.

Career Assessment Information is available for free

Labels: jobs in michigan, michigan employment

To date, probable cases have been reported in:

• -Allegan County - 1 probable case
• -Chippewa County - 1 probable case
• -Clare County - 1 probable case
• -Hillsdale County - 1 probable case
  *Note: This case was previously included in the Ottawa County probable case count.
• -Kent County - 18 probable cases
• -Livingston County - 4 probable cases
• -Macomb County - 6 probable cases
• -Muskegon County - 1 probable case
• -Ottawa County - 12 probable cases
• -Washtenaw County - 1 probable case
• -Wayne County - 3 probable cases

Most of these are probable swine flu cases in the State of Michigan. The map above showing each county in Michigan and those counties with detected probable SWINE flu cases highlighted is for reference and visual understanding only.

Labels: Michigan Counties, Swine Flu

Map of Michigan Counties with probable or confirmed swine flu cases highlighted.

Michigan has two confirmed cases of swine flu and 45 probable swine flu cases.

To date, probable cases have been reported in:
Allegan County - 1 probable case
Kent County - 18 probable cases
Livingston County - 4 probable cases
Macomb County - 6 probable cases
Muskegon County - 1 probable case
Ottawa County - 13 probable cases
Wayne County - 2 probable case

The Michigan Department of Community Health has recommended the following:

Schools or child care facilities that have a confirmed or probable case should be dismissed or closed for seven calendar days from the date the local health department was notified of the positive test result. A school or child care facility can consider reopening if no additional confirmed or probable cases have been identified within the seven-day period, but should re-evaluate this with the local health department.

Siblings of individuals with confirmed or probable cases should remain at home and not attend their school or child care facility during this same seven-day period, especially if they attend a different school or facility.

If a school or child care facility closes, school or child care-related gatherings should also be canceled for the same seven-day period. Parents and students are encouraged to avoid congregating in large numbers outside of the school setting.

Probable swine flu cases have led to the temporary halt of classes in the 19,000-student Plymouth-Canton Community School District, the 1,900-student Richmond Community Schools and a number of individual schools in southeastern and western Michigan.

Highlighted in yellow on the above map are counties that have probable or confiremed SWINE FLU cases.

Labels: Michigan Counties, Michigan Schools, Swine Flu