Meanwhile, jumping to the Midwest, there’s more bad news for Michigan as well. Gov. Jennifer Granholm is asking state agency heads to put forward ways to cut 20 percent from their budgets for fiscal 2011, which starts next October, the Lansing State Journal reported this weekend. If those cuts become reality, it could mean more prison and state park closures, massive layoffs among Michigan State Police troopers and drastic reductions in welfare services, the paper reports. The request is already provoking a wide-ranging discussion not only about how to close the state’s budget gap — spending cuts vs. tax increases — but about something deeper: What is the role of government in the 21st century?

Spiraling costs and millions uninsured. Congress is trying to tackle health care reform amid a maelstrom of encouraging and dissenting voices that sometimes ratchet up the conversation to it’s-so-loud-I-can’t-think level. But David Leonhardt in the New York Times magazine takes a moment to tell a quiet story about several researchers, and a growing list of hospitals and medical providers, that are adopting a new way of practicing medicine that could very well serve as a model for the future.

In the aftermath of last week’s mass killing at Ft. Hood, federal investigators are examining possible links between Fort Hood shooting suspect Maj. Nidal M. Hasan and an American-born imam who U.S. authorities say has become a supporter and leading promoter of al-Qaeda since leaving a Northern Virginia mosque, according to the Washington Post. But this investigation is a delicate matter. As the Post notes:

A challenge for investigators is sorting out a potential thicket of psychological, ideological or religious motivations behind Hasan’s alleged actions. Hasan’s possible contact with extremists such as Aulaqi would complicate matters, suggesting that U.S. authorities may have missed chances to prevent the cleric from instigating this incident and others. But if it turns out that Hasan acted in the throes of an emotional breakdown, his questionable ties could be misinterpreted in ways that damage U.S. outreach to the Muslim world or provoke an overreaction that divides Americans.

The working theory is still that Nasan worked alone, the Post notes.

As Germany, most of Europe and every single major news outlet in the U.S. celebrates the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall  today (do you remember where you were when you heard?), this Der Spiegel story gives a different perspective on life behind the Wall during the Cold War. It’s about East Germans who rather than try to escape to the West during the Cold War chose to seek out forbidden adventures in Soviet Russia and elsewhere in the Eastern bloc.  It’s interesting reading.

Another update on S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford. The more time that goes by, the less likely Sanford will face possible impeachment, reports The (Columbia, S.C.) State.

Meanwhile, in our neighbor to the north, Colorado state workers will see eight furlough days during the state budget year that ends June 30, Gov. Bill Ritter announced Tuesday, according to the Denver Post. State workers had been scheduled to take four days, but Ritter added four more to help balance this year’s budget.

Want yet another sign of how heated the debate over health care reform has become? A number of conservative Kansas lawmakers have proposed amending that state’s constitution to exempt Kansas from federal health care mandates, reports the Wichita Eagle. Within hours of the announcement, the state Democratic Party immediately set up an online petition to oppose the idea. According to the newspaper, “The proposition, which would have to be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature and a majority of voters, seeks to nullify any law passed by the federal government that would require individuals to buy health care or force employers to provide it.”

States have reported creating or saving 380,000 jobs thanks to federal stimulus funds, USA Today reports. The paper’s count is based on reports generated by 33 states and comes a couple of days before the Obama administration is scheduled to announce a 50-state total for the number of jobs created or saved. Of course, debate still surrounds this issue, with some people saying the numbers are vastly overstated.

Here’s an update from yesterday’s posting about S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford. I noted that one of Sanford’s fellow Republicans in the S.C. House of Representatives was preparing to file legislation to begin impeachment proceedings. But those plans were foiled — by a Democratic lawmaker. Rep. Walton J. McLeod argued that it was out of order because the House was meeting in a special session to discuss specific economic issues — not impeachment, reports the Los Angeles Times. As a result, the resolution cannot be considered before January, when the next legislative session begins.

Jayson Blair, the reporter who single-handedly gave the New York Times its worst black eye with his fictitious stories earlier this decade, is scheduled to be the featured speaker at a Virginia journalism ethics seminar.

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