Michigan Consumers Pessimistic Again;
More Confident in Government Leaders

IPPSR's newest State of the State Survey results show Michigan consumers sour again on pocketbook issues.

Yet, Michigan residents expressed increased confidence in state, federal and local governments and in President Barack Obama and Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

SOSS Director Charles Ballard, MSU professor of economics, notes a hopeful sign: almost 50 percent of those questioned expect to be better off next year.

See results of the latest State of the State Survey.

See consumer and government confidence results.

Listen to the news conference (mp3 file)

See SOSS Director Charles Ballard on WKAR-TV's Off the Record.

Will Wind Fuel Michigan's Energy Future?

New energy-driven jobs will come from component manufacturing, wind-related energy sources, gasification systems and energy efficient efforts.

That's just one prediction from a panel of experts who mapped Michigan's energy future at IPPSR's last Public Policy Forum for 2009. The Forum was co-sponsored by the Michigan State University Office of International Studies and Programs (ISP) and the MSU Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID).

See Energy Forum presentations.

This year's Forums focused squarely on the infrastructure in all its forms, from telecommunications to water and sewer to transportation.

Presentations are also online for all this year's forums.

See telecommunications presentations.

See water and sewer Infrastructure presentations.

See presentations from Transportation Forum.

IPPSR Affiliate Harry Perlstadt, MSU professor of sociology, has won a 2009 -10 Fulbright Teaching Award.

Perlstadt will travel to the Semmelweis University Health Care Faculty in Budapest, Hungary during the Spring 2010 semester. He will teach two courses: U.S. health care policy and politics and the history of public health and epidemiology.

He also will collaborate with Semmelweis faculty on integrating these topics into the health care program and projects on health care policy.

Joseph Califano Informed, Delighted MSU
See the video
He's served three presidents -- Kennedy, Johnson and Carter -- and been hailed as the nation's "deputy president for human affairs."

And this year, he became a Spartan too.

He's America's last U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, served as general counsel to the U.S. Army and as special assistant to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.

Joseph A. Califano, Jr. informed, entertained and delighted a full house at MSU's Union where he served as the 2009 Gerald Faverman lecturer. More

Murphy and Ford Fascinate at MPLP Fundraiser
Or as the headlines said, Republican strategist Mike Murphy and former Tennessee U.S. Congressman Harold Ford Jr. did "wow the crowd" at at the 2008 Michigan Political Leadership Program annual dinner and West Michigan breakfast.

You can still support MPLP.

What the media are saying about this year's MPLP events.

How Big Is a Trillion? An IPPSR Perspective
As a sweeping $1 trillion economic stimulus plan is signed into law, IPPSR offers a few new ways to describe the stimulus' size. More

Rosenthal Award Honors Capital Interns
They are the go-getters, those who answer letters, answer phones and learn the most they can from their legislative internship experience.

Michigan's state capital interns were honored on at a special program in honor of the student who was MSU's first state capital intern. IPPSR co-sponsors this honor with MSU's James Madison College.

This year's winners include an MSU political science major and a Central Michigan University student completing a degree while working full time and raising her family. More

Fewer Students Driving and Drinking
Fewer Michigan State University students than ever are driving and drinking in 2008, a new report by MSU's Olin Student Health Center concludes.

IPPSR's Office for Survey Research surveyed more than 1,600 students to contribute to MSU's findings in the National College Health Assessment Survey.

More

IPPSR Report Frames Retiree Healthcare
A new IPPSR report examines the complexities surrounding the funding of state retiree health benefits and possible options to finance the state’s future healthcare obligations. The report, Balancing Dollars and Health Sense: A Framework for Decision Making on Funding State Retiree Health Care Benefits, was written for the Center for State & Local Government Excellence.

Michigan Citizens Strongly Support
Newly Enhanced Driver's Licenses
Michigan’s citizens support “enhanced” driver’s licenses that would carry digitally stored information such as their pictures and fingerprints, researchers said in sharing survey results at an IPPSR Public Policy Forum. More than half of those taking part in a new State of the State Survey also said preventing terrorists from entering Michigan through Canada should be a top priority for the state. More

IPPSR Prostate Health Research Featured
in New England Journal of Medicine
IPPSR Office for Survey Research Director Larry Hembroff is co-author of a New England Journal of Medicine study aimed at improving the lives of men with prostate cancer. OSR Project Manager Jill Hardy was cited in the article for her “expert project management” of the survey research.More

Grant Cites IPPSR Student Drinking Research
Two IPPSR researchers have been cited as part of an award-winning team to help continue to curb student alcohol use. Larry Hembroff, Ph.D., director of IPPSR’s Office for Survey Research, and Senior Project Manager Karen Clark conducted surveys each semester designed to find out student perceptions and use of alcohol. Don't miss the YouTube video showing how IPPSR researchers conducted evaluations of programs to help cut down binge drinking.

Michigan State University's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research connects scholarly work with the policymaking community through applied and survey research, community dialogue and political leadership training. Our research is exacting. Our applications are far-reaching.

Our work is on view in books, journal publications, peer presentations, the trade press, through public testimony, professional participation in public debate and in the actions of the leaders engaged by our programs.

IPPSR transforms the results of research into resolve, solutions and strategies for our campus, our Michigan Capital and our communities throughout the nation and the world.