Shiawassee county resident Joseph "Robo" Green is the owner of a company called RoboJoe Industries. His website, www.upthemileage.com, is a site designed for, and devoted specifically to Appliance Repair. Greens' web site provides promotional information for RoboJoe Industries and offers very decisive and beneficial advice on maintaining your appliances and how to know when to call a technician as opposed to risking personal injury or death while trying to do a repair on your own. Unlike most other service companies, RoboJoe Industries is currently giving away free service calls and will accept a custom tailored payment plan based on individual need, in order to help provide some relief and make life just a little bit easier. Quote: " It is my hope that the information contained in this site, combined with the personal service that this company has to offer, will save lives." (Robo) Green created this company in 2004. Up until now, it has only been promoted through word of mouth referrals. For people who have not had the opportunity to catch one of the circulars, RoboJoe Industries now has a very wide spread online presence. Simply try a Google search and you will plainly see 2 pages or more of information related to this company. Also, there are now yellow page ads in 2 Shiawassee county phone books, and 2 very distinctly marked company trucks which can be seen at any given place at any given time along our local roadways. Michigan, having been declared as having one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, is currently suffering a harsh economic crisis. Green says that, as a small business owner, he feels humbled by how warmly the people in his community have welcomed his company. Quote: " Folks here in Michigan are tremendously hurt. I started this company ...with ...nothing! Being poor does not make us unworthy, as "human beings". I'm just trying to provide a quality service to people who simply can not afford to have their appliances repaired by a professional and give some dignity back to this community. It makes me very sad to know that there's an unemployed single mother of 4 out there who can't cook Thanksgiving dinner for her children because the stove won't heat and she doesn't think she can afford to have it fixed, or, she can't do laundry because the washer is broken down. I work with people and try to help relieve them of some of those types of burdens. The bottom line is, I would rather fix it for nothing than to have someone in despair getting injured or killed trying to fix it themselves." You can call Mr. Green anytime at (989)666-5023 or e-mail: robojoesupertech@gmail.com  

Written by: Michael J. Boucher

More than $6,000 in Prizes to be Awarded in Howell for the Best Tomatoes

NatureSweet®Tomatoes are vine-nurtured and hand-picked for homegrown taste. How do yours measure up? The Seventh Annual NatureSweet Best Homegrown Tomato Challenge is coming back to Michigan this year to find out! The event will be held at the Meijer® Flagship store located at 3883 E. Grand River in Howell on Saturday, September 26.  Gardeners are invited to bring in their best tomatoes in both the small and large tomato categories for a chance to be one of two $2500 winners!  Two runners-up in each category will each receive Meijer gift cardsvalued at $250. 

            Other activities at the event include cooking and sampling of tomato recipes, a Master Gardener Q and A Booth, NatureSweet Prize Wheel, Gardening Trivia with a Weber BBQ as the prize, and a live radio remote by WITL FM.

            Howell is one of only a handful of cities across America that were selected for this year’s Homegrown Challenge – the contest will also take place in McLean, VA; Arvada, CO; Clifton Park, NY; Lexington, KY, and Warwick, RI. Entry forms are available at participating retail locations. Log onto www.naturesweettomatoes.com for more information.

HOW TO ENTER:

            Details are available in the produce department of any participating Meijer store. There are no restrictions on the variety or method of growing tomatoes, except that all entries must be homegrown by the entrant (contest is not open to commercial growers).  On September 26, contestants must bring three large OR 10 small tomatoes of the same variety to the Meijer Flagship store at 3883 E. Grand River between 9 and 11 a.m. for judging. ONE ENTRY PER HOUSEHOLD.  

HOW TO WIN:

            Tomatoes will be judged in two separate categories: small tomato variety and large tomato variety. There will be one $2500 winner for each category.  The large or small classification of the tomato will be based on variety and/or weight.  Tomatoes in both categories will be judged based on Brix/Sweetness and Taste. A Brix test determines sweetness -- the higher the Brix number, the better the flavor. The finalists will then be taste-tested by a panel of local celebrity judges and two Grand Prize Winners and four runners-up will be announced at noon. The two $2500 first prize and four $250 gift cards for runners up will then be awarded.

CELEBRITY JUDGES PANEL:

            2009 Celebrity judges will include:

•      Candy Spiegel, Livingston County Daily Press and Argus

•      Jordan Lee, WITL-FM

•      Kevin VonOtten, Meijer

•      Meijer Chef

CHEF COOKS UP TASTY TOMATO TREATS:

            A professional chef from Meijer will demonstrate savory tomato dishes featuring NatureSweet vine ripened cherry tomatoes.  In addition to food sampling and learning new recipes, attendees can learn how to best select, store, prepare and serve their tomatoes. The first 100 entrants will get a special gift from NatureSweet. Tomato entries will be donated to Gleaners Community Food Bank after the event.

            Picked at perfection, NatureSweet tomatoes ripen on the vine to maintain their freshness, straight from the farm to your table. We guarantee that we will deliver the best tasting tomatoes, consistently year round. NatureSweet. Vine nurtured and hand picked for homegrown taste.

Desert Glory, LTD, based in San Antonio, Texas is the leading grower of premium tomatoes in North America under the NatureSweet brand. Distributed throughout the U.S, at major grocers, club stores and foodservice operators, NatureSweet tomatoes deliver the best tasting tomatoes with year-round availability. As the number one brand of vine-ripened cherry tomatoes in the U.S., NatureSweet’s growing operations comprise over 1,000 acres under greenhouse and proudly employs nearly 5000 associates.

KISS Institute for Practical Robotics

info@kipr.org

(405) 579-4609

www.botball.org

BOTBALL ROBOTICS COMPETITION: ROBOTS THAT DON’T NEED REMOTE CONTROL

Botball Educational Robotics Program teaches Science, Technology, Engineering, Computer Programming and Math through Robotics

Grandville - March 11, 2009 - The KISS Institute for Practical Robotics announces the Michigan Botball Educational Robotics Tournament, taking place Saturday, March 14 at Grandville Middle School. The Botball Tournament is free and open to the public. Seeding Rounds begin at 10 a.m. and double elimination rounds start at approximately 1:30 p.m.

Eight Botball teams from around the Michigan region will compete, including two from Indiana. Each team consists of about 5-20 middle and high school students who design, build, program and document a pair of autonomous (no remote control) robots to play in this year’s open-ended game. The theme of this year’s game is “Alternative Energy”.

The Botball Educational Robotics Program engages middle and high school aged students in a team-oriented robotics competition that develops students’ science, technology, engineering, computer science and math skills. Home schoolers and community teams are also welcome to participate.

Michigan has never before held a Botball Robotics Tournament, although the Botball Program has been around since 1997. Members of the Grandville Robotics Boosters contacted KISS Institute, the organization that created the Botball Program and made a great case for bringing the program to Michigan.

The Michigan Botball Program started with a two-day hands on professional development workshop for educators on January 17-18 at Grandville Middle School. At the workshop, teams received their kits of reusable robotics equipment. Each kit will be used for competition and will be kept by the school or team to be integrated into the classroom or extracurricular activities. This ensures that schools will be able to continue to grow their science, math and technology curricula through robotics after the Botball season is over.

KISS Institute for Practical Robotics, an educational non-profit organization, will present 14 Botball Workshops and Tournaments this year - 12 in the United States and 2 based internationally.  All teams who participate in their regional workshop and tournament, regardless of how they place in their competition, are eligible to participate in the International Botball Tournament taking place this summer in Leesburg, VA, during the Global Conference on Educational Robotics on July 1-5, 2009. 

Over 6,000 students participate in Botball every year and more than 60,000 have competed over the course of 11 years. In 2009, teams from 23 states and 6 countries will participate in Botball.

For more information about Botball go to: www.botball.org or contact: info@kipr.org.

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The Botball Program is sponsored in part by: NASA Robotics Alliance Project, Solidworks Corporation, Innovation First Inc, iRobot, and igus, inc.,

Michigan Regional Botball Teams

Goshen Middle School         Goshen, IN

Grandville Academic Team Boosters (3 Teams), Grandville, MI

Grandville Middle School (2 Teams),          Grandville, MI

Hamilton Southeastern High School,          Fishers, IN

Lakeshore Mathematics and Science Center,        Stevensville, MI

Landlords will always take risks when renting their properties.  However, these risks can be minimized by allowing landlords to see if a potential renter has been added to the www.donotrentto.com list of bad tenants.  Landlords are obligated to inform other landlords of the problems encountered when renting properties to certain tenants.  

If someone would like to know if a candidate is a suitable renter for their property before they hand over the keys, then www.donotrentto.com is the best site for this information.  By pre-screening candidates through this site they will find out if the previous landlord experienced any of the following issues: Late Payments, Non-Payment of Rent, Destruction of Property, Theft, Refusal to Vacate Premises, or any other issues a landlord may have encountered.

As a member, landlords have unlimited tenant postings and unlimited tenant searches.  When posting tenant information, landlords are allowed to enter any comments they feel will best describe their experience with a certain renter.   Members will be able to contact other members via email to help verify certain tenant information, and this information will be useful to the landlord community of www.donotrentto.com in determining if the potential renter is a suitable candidate for their property.

Do not wait until the tenant has rented the property, and then experienced thousands of dollars in lost rent, stolen property, or property damage.   Become a member of www.donotrentto.com today and minimize all of these risks.   Rental property is a good way to provide extra income, do not let that income go out the window.   An investment is just that, an investment.    All tenants are not bad, but protect that investment, by pre-screening those tenants on www.donotrentto.com to insure that the potential renter has not been entered as a bad tenant by another landlord.   The benefits of joining www.donotrentto.com will be realized the first time a landlord does a search on a potential renter, and discovers that this potential renter has been entered as a bad tenant by their previous landlord. 

 Remember, before a property is rented, it is always best to know who not to rent to!

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If you would like more information about this website, or to schedule an interview with Joseph Collins please call 734/934-8001 or email Joseph at joseph.collins@donotrentto.com

Our local Mid-Michigan Chapter would like you to pledge to make a difference and become a “Hero” for the Red Cross. Your commitment will help ensure our ability to meet the continuous needs of our area. ALL MONEY RAISED BY OUR HEROES WILL STAY RIGHT HERE IN SHIAWASSEE COUNTY.

Any person or business can be a “Hero” for the American Red Cross by providing $1,000 in financial support for local disaster services of the Mid-Michigan Chapter. The goal is to involve as many individuals from as many backgrounds as possible to acheive our goal by June 15, 2009!

SHIAWASSEE COUNTY (WJRT) -- (11/03/08)--As we get closer to the holiday season, some area food banks are noticing a shortage.

Two Mid-Michigan doctors are hoping to change that. A dentist and a chiropractor are squaring off to hopefully raise thousands of pounds of food for the Red Cross.

...

You can join in and drop off canned goods at two locations in Owosso: the Mid-Michigan Dental Center on North M-52 and Owosso Chiropractic on Main Street.

The drive ends Nov. 21.