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State Representative Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo) recently sat down with WMUK's Gordon Evans to discuss recent action in the Legislature and to look ahead to a new session. Some highlights: Vote for Speaker Two Democrats voted against Marshall Republican Jase Bolger for Speaker of the House. Traditionally the vote has been unanimous. McCann says his vote for Bolger was difficult to cast. In the end McCann says he decided it's a ceremonial vote and would not affect whether Bolger remained Speaker. But McCann says the end of the last term has affected how the House operates. He says the way the "Right to Work" law was passed affected the trust and cooperative spirit of the Legislature. McCann says real bi-partisanship should include both sides being asked to contribute to the issues of the day. He says that hasn't been how the House has operated the last two years. New Session In his address to the Legislature after the vote for speaker, Bolger mentioned improving early childhood education as a goal for the new session. McCann says it's good to see people embrace how important early childhood education is in Michigan. But he says the question will be how to pay for it. McCann says that's also the case with improving roads. While Democrats and Republicans want better roads, McCann says the increase in vehicle registration fees proposed by Governor Snyder last year doesn't have support from either party. McCann says it would hurt middle-class families. Democrats' role Republicans control the House, Senate and Governor's office. But McCann says Democrats will continue to push for more funding for education, creating more and better jobs, and "improving Democracy." He says that includes making it easier for people to vote through early voting and no reason absentee voting. McCann also says the drawing of legislative districts has polarized the Legislature. He says having so many safe seats doesn't encourage compromise or bipartisanship. McCann also indicated he would likely support proposals in the Senate to reform how appropriations are used to shield laws from facing a referendum, and to essentially eliminate the so-called "lame duck" session. The bill are being introduced by state Senator Glen Anderson, and not likely to see action in either chamber. Politics Gongwer News Service Editor Zach Gorchow recently said on WMUK that defeating Governor Rick Snyder and taking control of the Legislature in 2014 is the Democrats' top priority. McCann didn't disagree with that statement. He says Democrats want to see a different governor. McCann says his party wants to repeal the pension tax, and to restore money for education

A new legislative session has begun in Lansing. Representative Jase Bolger was re-elected Speaker of the House on Wednesday. That was a foregone conclusion, the only question was whether he would get unanimous support. But two Democrats cast no votes against Bolger as speaker. Gongwer News Service Editor Zach Gorchow says some Democratic activists wanted greater opposition to Bolger's election as speaker. But he says there were many potential consequences for Democrats voting against the Marshall Republican's election as speaker. Bolger was involved in a controversy last year when Representative Roy Schmidt switched from the Democratic to Republican Party. Bolger encouraged Schmidt to find a straw candidate to run as a Democrat. No criminal charges were filed against Bolger, but he did survive a close bid for re-election to his district in Kalamazoo and Calhoun Counties. Gorchow says that along with a flood of legislation at the end of last term, including making Michigan a "right to work" state, left many Democrats wanting to stage a symbolic protest. But he says it could have affected things like committee assignments and operations in the House. Gorchow says Democratic Leader Tim Greimel is indicating that he is willing to work with Republicans despite being upset over the end of the last session. A unanimous vote for House Speaker has been a tradition in Lansing for years. But Gorchow says another tradition is that battles begin almost immediately after. He says Democrats are preparing for a fight over road funding. Gorchow says reconfiguring Blue Cross - Blue Shield could also be contentious. But Gorchow says there will be some areas where common ground may be achieved. He says there seems to be support in both houses, and in both parties for early childhood education. But Gorchow says it still has to be determined where the money would come from.

A Kalamazoo band called The Moody Coyotes will play on the evening of January 11 at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Their music is a blend of bluegrass, folk, country and American roots. The Moody Coyotes are made up of multi-instrumentalist Mike Siegel, bassist Dave Johnson, drummer Rick Bengelink, and mandolin and guitar player Robin Nott. Nott says they each have had different musical influences and those influences affect their song choices. "It's personal favorites, everybody brings to the band what they like from music and we all try things out together. And, we end up with an eclectic collection of music from our pasts. It's acoustic American roots, Americana, with European influences, but it's basically roots music, ah, done acoustically" Nott says. Mike Siegel plays a variety of instruments, including harmonica, mandolin, accordion, guitar and banjo. He is also a luthier who has made many stringed instruments. The Moody Coyotes first formed in 1993. As an original member of the band, Siegel says he's always been attracted to the coyote as an artistic muse. In fact, the names of just about every band he's been in over the past four decades have referred to the animal. "It just sort of evolved into the Moody Coyotes," he says, "because you know, it's a bunch of middle-aged moody guys. And, the coyote is kind of a trickster, magical kind of beast. And, so that name kind of stuck." Dave Johnson is the Moody Coyotes' bass player. He also shares vocal duties with Seigel and Nott. Johnson recalls his big dreams when he started playing music as a very young man back in 1967. "So when you start out, you know, you have visions of glory." He says with a laugh. "And then, as the years go by it gets more personal and you just do it for the enjoyment." But, making music, even simply for the sheer joy of it, requires dedication and, as Siegel says, lots of hard work. "Well, if there's one thing I can say about us as a band, we do work at it. We practice, we learn new material. We try to play three or four hours a week, every week. We are continually trying to hone our craft and hopefully that pays off, so we can perform and not sound like a bunch of hacks up there." The Moody Coyotes perform in concert Friday, January 11, at 7 p.m. in the Stryker Theatre at the downtown Kalamazoo Valley Museum. Tickets will be available at the door.

West Michigan Congressman Fred Upton he would have preferred "a grand bargain" rather than the deal reached last week that averted the "fiscal cliff." But Upton voted for the agreement, in part, because it brings certainty in the tax code. He says it's the first of a three step process. Congress will soon vote on raising the debt ceiling. Upton says the House will want spending cuts and reforms in order to increase the debt ceiling. He says any vote to raise the debt ceiling with "no strings attached" won't pass the House. Upton says the sequester, which includes across the board cuts, will likely remain in place. The deal approved last week delays those cuts for two months. Upton says the third step in the process would be tax reform. He says the tax system is long overdue for an overhaul. Upton says the tax system should be simpler and fairer, and he says the corporate tax rate should be lowered while loopholes should be eliminated. The deal which averted the "fiscal cliff" came right at the deadline with Congress taking the unusual step of holding session on New Year's Day. But Upton says things could be different this time. He says the House, Senate and the White House may race to get their proposals out to the public. Upton acknowledges that would be unusual. But he says all sides know that new deadlines are coming. Upton says reaching a deal on reducing the budget deficit will have to include reform to entitlements - Social Security and Medicare. He says benefits will be preserved for people who are currently receiving them. But Upton says the aging population and rising costs make reform necessary for younger workers The across the board cuts or "sequestration" includes cuts to defense spending. Upton says while the United States needs a strong defense, it will be another area to look for savings. Upton says he wants to bring troops home from Afghanistan, which would save billions the United States is currently spending. Upton says words can't express his feelings about the shooting at a school in Connecticut shortly before Christmas. But the Congressman says he's not sure if anything could have stopped it. Upton says he is looking forward to seeing the report from Vice-President Joe Biden. Upton, who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, says that panel will likely hold hearings on mental illness. He says all factors should be part of the debate, including violent forms of entertainment and studying what states have done to prevent gun violence.

(Photo courtesy of Grand Valley State University) A new report on Southwest Michigan's economy finds growth slowed in December. The director of Grand Valley State University's Supply Chain Management Program Brian Long finds economic indicators were down in the region, compared to November. In his monthly report for the National Association of Purchasing Managers Long says fear over the fiscal cliff hurt the economy during December. He says that led to psychological concerns about the state of the economy. Long says if people believe the government is dysfunctional it creates more hurdles to economic growth. Long's projection for 2013 is for what he calls "a leveling off." Long says "I guess that's a polite way of saying that the best we can hope for is very slow growth." He says much depends on what happens on the national and world stage. He says that includes negotiations in Washington and among European nations. Long says if Congress could reach agreement on reducing the deficit it could lead to positive economic growth in the latter part of the year. Long says Kalamazoo and West Michigan have been less affected by the recession than the state and the nation. The unemployment rate has dropped recently. Long says he expects that trend to continue. While there is always uncertainty about the economy, Long says several factors make that uncertainty greater than normal right now. He says businesses don't have an optimistic tone about expanding and hiring. Long says that uncertainty is another hurdle in the way of a strong economy. He says Congress reaching agreement on some sort of a budget deal would help, even if it wasn't perfect. Long says the markets responded well to the deal reached last week even though it delayed big decisions on many important issues. But Long says the rhetoric from both sides makes it hard to believe that such a deal is possible.

Steve Ellis, the publisher and a contributor to Southwest Michigan's Spark magazine, will read from his collection of about 600 odd and amazing tales from Southwest Michigan Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Parchment Community Library. Ellis says he started collecting these stories after reading a tale in Stranger Than Science by Frank Edwards that happened in Pontiac, Michigan. According to the story, a man spontaneously combusted in his garage-just to be clear the man's car didn't explode, he combusted. To find out if the story was true, Ellis's mother drove him to Pontiac and they looked up the man's death record in an old paper. Ellis says though it didn't say the man spontaneously combusted, it did say he died of mysterious causes related to a fire in the man's garage. "That started a whole life of digging up weird, oddball stories," says Ellis. Before Spark, Ellis worked at the Kalamazoo Gazette for about 24 years, where he dug up tons of stories from the old Kalamazoo Gazette archives. He shared a few of his tales with WMUK, which you can hear in the full interview. One of the most notable was the story of the man who claimed to be the Long Lake sea monster: "Back around the turn of the century, a sea monster-basically a dragon-looking head-popped out of Long Lake and spit some water out and basically scared everyone to death on a July 4th weekend, thinking 'This is the craziest fish or monster we've ever seen!' And everybody that had been swimming quickly got out of the water. All of the men that were able got in rowboats with shotguns and patrolled the lake for the next hour or two, looking for this horrible sea monster that was going to kill everybody out at Long Lake. And it wasn't spotted or they never could find anything. The police came out, it took them a while to get out there back then. Then about a week or two later, all at once this Long Lake sea monster pops out of the water again, spits water, scares everybody, get everybody out of the lake. Not one kid would swim on it for three or four days and then it would disappear. And this happened over the next 10 or 15 years, it would make periodic appearances typically at busy times about when people had forgotten about the sea monster." Ellis continues, "And then a man-I believe his name was Colonel Jordan-passed away in the '40s sometime and admitted on his deathbed-and I've got the obituary somewhere-that he was the Long Lake sea monster. And back around 1900, he was sitting around with some friends and thought 'What would be kind of a fun practical joke to play on the lake?' So he took some cables and some pulleys and some weights and he sunk this sea monster out 50 yards off shore. But he had it tied with cables and pulleys that led into his basement with some type of pedaling contraption. And so anytime he wanted, he could go in his house, down in his basement and start pedaling this thing and the sea monster would pop up and scare everybody." You can hear more stories from Steve Ellis at his program Amazing Tales of Southwest Michigan at the Parchment Community Library, Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m.