-- A potato lovers delite is the annual Munger Potato Festival which began yesterday and runs through Sunday. While your are enjoying the taste of potatoes in every imaginal way, you can take in a variety of entertainment, such as, musical bands, Demolition and Figure Eight derbies.
-- Learn more: [Details] -- The billboard sign posted by the Bay City Police department union as a way of drawing attention to their cause, has been more successful than even they could have predicted. Police officer Don Aldrich, union secretary and treasurer, appeared on the Fox and Friends morning show yesterday?
-- Story: [Fox Video] [Bay City Times] -- On July 18th, the 2010 Digital Counties Survey ranked Bay County government among the top ten counties with a population of under 150,000. The award recognizes the outstanding advancements made by county governments in digitizing records to better inform and serve the public. -- Bay County's expansive informational [website] is representative of these efforts.
-- Story: [MyBayCity.com] -- General Motors auto sales to China in the first half of this year rose 48.5 percent, higher than what they sold in the U.S. GM investment in China thirteen years ago now accounts for a quarter of its global sales. Its clear that GM's strategy to position itself in the huge potentional of Chinese market is finally paying off.
-- Story: [New York Times] -- This is the third video posted on Bay-Journal's YouTube channel, which captures the final day's activities beginning on the west side, then onto the east side, and finishing with scenes along Water Street. This video, for the first time, includes scenes on board two of the vessels, one the ship Madelne with a narrative of its history by Larry Good, of the Bay Sail group. -- Bay City is historically a port city with a rich maritme history. Sure would be fitting if it had an annaul maritme festival similar in nature to the Tall Ships Celebration and River of Time. -- Video: [YouTube] -- Saturday's attendance at the Tall Ships Celebration in Bay City was exceptionally large. It may have set a record and been even higher except for blistering 90 degree temperature. Today is the last day is your last chance to catch the event which may not return to this area for a few years.
-- Story: [Bay City Times] -- Spectators filled the shoreline along the Saginaw River to watch the Tall Ships as they made their way from the mouth of the river to the docks in downtown Bay City around 1:00 P.M. The only thing limiting the size of the crowd on a hot and steamy day was the availability of parking space at various points along the river. -- Video showing some of the scenes may be seen at: [YouTube/BayJournal] -- Ships ahoy, mates!!! The Tall Ships will arrive in the port of Bay City tomorrow to mark the beginning of a fantastic weekend celebration you won't want to miss. The Tall Ships Celebration is one of most unique venues in Michigan this year. Historic Bay City is an ideal setting, featuring two large riverfront parks in the downtown district where the ships will harbor for guests to come aboard and see them up close. -- A schedule of events may be seen on their - [Website] -- Henry Ford and Thomas Edison were the best of friends, and both were products of a Michigan upbringing. Ford was born near Detroit and Edison was raised in Port Huron. They were tanacious businessmen who seemed to embrace failure not as defeat, but as a process of elimination essential in finding the most successfull solution to a better process or new product. One can only wonder if they would have been as successful in today's environment dominated by rules and regulations?
-- [Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, are a must see family destination.
-- Bio.'s: [Henry Ford] [Thomas Edison] -- The July issue of the Michigan History Magazine will feature the history of James G. Birney, a founder of Bay City. Local historian and author, Dave Rogers, penned the article on Birney whose life spanned the greater part of the 19th century. A former slaveholder, he became a leader in the anti-slavery movement, and twice was the presidential condidate of the Liberty Party, the second attempt made while a pioneer resident of Bay City in 1844. -- The excellant Michigan History Magazine is available by subscription at: [Michigan History] -- Bay City's annual fireworks festival which began Friday, ends today. A crowd of over 100,000 is expected to enjoy the best fireworks festival in Michigan, held along the river front in downtown Bay City. There are plenty of activities throughout the day leading up to tonights final fireworks display, which is spectacular.
-- Today's schedule: [Bay City Fireworks] Buena Vista Twp. -- After settling a new five year labor contract, Nexteer Automotive in Saginw County is ready to move forward on expanding its business. Eighty laid off workers will be recalled, 300 temporary jobs will become permanent positions, and 300 new workers will be hired.
-- Story: [WNEM-TV12] Website:[Nexteer Automotive] -- The signal of a news story with a legendary connection to Bay City was sounded by Eric Jylha of TV-5, historian/writer Dave Rogers was quick pick it up and to pen his personal onnection to it this story. The national news story was about the remains of Jim Thorpe, of Sauk Indian heritage, who is considered one of America's greatest athletes. Jim's brother, James Thorpe has filed a suit to have his brother's remains to its rightfull place in Oklahoma. The Sauk tribe that they are descendants of lived in what is today Bay City. -- Story [MyBayCity.com] Bay City, MI -- The annual event, sanctioned by CampBoat Formula 1, began yesterday and runs through Sunday. It's considered the toughest course on the circuit by contestants, racer Jose Mendana can attest to that, he lost control of his boat taking a turn too fast and flipped out. -- Story: [Bay City Times] -- Bay City's Madonna and her daughter, Lourdes, plan to launch their own line of clothing. Madonna, now 51 years-old, and Lourdes 13 years-old, should bring an interesting and new perspection to clothing designs that may attract the attention of a larger age group. Macy's has already signed on to carry their fashion line.-- Story: Detroit Free Press -- Twenth-three year old Katie LaRoche, of Bay City, was crowned Miss Michigan on Saturday. She has all the credentials and talent one would expect, and more. She has her own non-profit organization called "One World, One Future," its mission is to raise awareness of human exploitation. -- Story: [Bay City Times] -- Vice-president Biden will be in Midland Mondy for the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a new $320 million factory that manufactures lithium-ion batteries, by Dow-Kokam, a new joint venture business owned by Dow Chemical, TK Advanced Battery, LLC and Groupe Industrial Marcel Dassault. The advanced technology battery is designed to power electric cars.
-- Story: [Bay City Times] -- The Detroit Tigers rookie, Brennan Boesch, has terrorized opposing teams to the point that he received his first intentional walk in yesterday's game against Washington. Boesch's performance to date has the experts shocked, as none saw his potential to this level of play. Boesch is batting .398, 34 RBI and 9 home runs. -- Story: [Detroit Free Press] -- President Obama addressed the nation last night on the Gulf coast oil crisis, using terms normally associated with dealing with an enemy. If BP is the enemy, then the government has failed at its most essential responsibility of protecting the nation. If BP is the enemy, then every business is also a potential enemy. It seems like another attempt to divert the public's attention away from the real problem, the government's lack of strong oversight that allowed the sneak attack to happen in the first place. BP's goal is profitability -- it's ludicrous to think they would destroy that which generates their success. -- Story: [AP News] -- Launched in 2005, Japan's space proble Hayabusa made a safe return landing in the outback of Australia. The space probe's mission was to land on a distant astroid, take samples and return to Earth. Failing to capture samples, scientist are hoping it may have picked up dust particles during its astroid landing. -- Story: [CNet.com] -- For the past year Google has been working on an updated indexing system, called Caffeine, to speed up its search engine, which was released earlier this week. The new indexing system was designed to deal with the increasing growth of online information and is said to provide 50 percent fresher results than the previous indexing system. -- Story: [CNet.com] -- The Bay County Library System launched its annual summer reading program on Monday with a special event held on the front lawn of the library building. Those who attended were treated to music by Gratitude Band and a number of fun activities. The "free" program is open to all ages.
-- Story: [Bay City Times] -- On Friday Sprint became the first to offer a cell-phone that features video-chat and accesses high-speed 4G network, with its model ETC EVO 4G. However, it may not be without competition very long as Apple could announce an update iPhone, which many believe with include the video-chat feature.
-- Story: [Los Angeles Times] -- The top story in sports is the near perfect baseball pitched by the Detroit Tigers' Armando Galarraga, who was within the blink of eye of making history. The last play of a perfect performance was a grounder leading to a close play at first base, which was called safe! Replays showed the runner was clearly out.
-- Story: [Detroit Tigers]