A new poll shows Michigan chooses the Tigers as their favorite professional sports team in the state.

Results from Public Policy Poling show: The Tigers get 29 percent of the vote; the Lions get 27 percent; the Wings get 20 percent; and the Pistons, 6 percent. 

The poll also shows there’s a significant racial divide in who voters pick as their favorite teams. Among white voters the Tigers win easily with 33 percent to 24 percent for the Lions, 22 percent for the Red Wings, and just 3 percent for the Pistons. But among black voters the Tigers take up the basement at 5 percent, trailing the Lions at 54 percent, Pistons at 23 percent, and even the Red Wings at 8 percent.

That’s just another sign that baseball has a lot of work to do to garner interest from African Americans.

It’s also notable in this highly political season that Republicans pick the Tigers over the Lions 36-27, while Democrats pick the Lions over the Tigers 32-24.

In other stats:

* 37 percent of voters in the state say they’re Michigan fans to 31 percent who side with Michigan State and 32 percent who don’t care either way. There is somewhat of an ideological divide on this question. ‘Very liberal’ Michiganders pick the Wolverines 55-26, while ‘very conservative’ ones pick the Spartans 37-30. White voters are pretty evenly split, going for Michigan 34-32, but 53-22 support from black voters pushes the Maize and Blue’s lead out to 6 points.

-Michigan State and Michigan fans are both pretty happy with their football coaches. Brady Hoke gets a 64/6 approval rating from Michigan fans, and Mark Dantonio does even better with Spartan partisans at a 68/4 approval. The Wolverine fan base has softened its opinions on Rich Rodriguez a little bit since his departure last year. He’s still unpopular, with only 26% of fans seeing him favorably to 32% with a negative opinion. But it’s an improvement from December of 2010 when his favorability breakdown was 20/38. Rodriguez’s Michigan poll numbers are certainly a lot better than in West Virginia where we found him at 15/56 last year.

-Tom Izzo has a 78/3 approval rating with the MSU fan base. Suffice it to say we don’t find many people from any walk of life hitting 78% in our polling. John Beilein’s at only 39/8 with Michigan fans, 53% of whom have no opinion about him. Getting Michigan back to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 18 years might be what he needs to get the fan base to take notice.

The full analysis is also available here.

“I must have had to make six phone calls before I got to the right place,” said Torres, 58, of Ypsilanti Township. “It was so frustrating. I even had a social worker friend trying to help me. And finally I got somebody.”

Torres’ story is not uncommon. That’s why the University of Michigan Health System has established a new phone number that connects patients and their families and friends to University of Michigan memory loss and dementia services. The number for the new UM Memory Connection is (734) 936-8803.

“We need to do a better job of helping our patients and families find their way,” says Henry Paulson, M.D., director of the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center and professor of neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School. “We don’t want patients, their families and friends to spend a lot of time on routes that don’t lead to answers. And the UM Memory Connection call center is a great start to solving that problem.”

The UM Memory Connection is designed to be a one-stop resource to learn about and connect to UM memory loss and dementia services. The goal is to help individuals and families affected by memory and/or thinking changes to learn about services in an easy, non-stressful way, Paulson says.

Calls will be answered by a trained professional who understands conditions such as mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body disease, frontotemporal dementia, and vascular dementia. The line is answered Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the goal of providing service within the next business day or sooner.

“This is a huge health problem that affects all of us,” Paulson said. “We need to do a better job of making the diagnosis but also implementing care … it can be very difficult for patients to navigate their way.”

UM Memory Connection can offer advice and information about multiple clinics and departments at the University of Michigan, including the Cognitive Disorders Clinic, Geriatric Psychiatry, Neuropsychology, Pharmacology and the Turner Geriatric Clinic.

The call center specialists also can provide links to services like the Silver Club Programs at the UM Geriatrics Center, social work and community programs, the Housing Bureau for Seniors and the Drive-Ability program through UM’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department.

Patients and families also can be connected to research studies on various topics.

“Many people experience changes with memory as they age,” said Cassie Starback, coordinator o the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center. “Some changes are normal, but other changes could be a sign of memory loss and we know it is important to understand that difference. Our call center specialists can answer some of the difficult questions you may have at the time of a diagnosis and beyond.”

UM Memory Connection was developed in collaboration with the UM Dementia Consortium, which was established by the Michigan Alzheimer’s Disease Center. The consortium is comprised of various UM departments and institutions, such as Neurology, Geriatrics Center, UM School of Public Health, UM School of Social Work and also the local chapters of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Torres said she’s glad to know that UM is offering a phone line that can help others find the support and information they need. Torres, who was eventually diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, actively participates in programs through the Silver Club, but wishes she could have found out about it sooner.

“I really needed to be with people who are like me,” says Torres, who is a retired statistical analyst. “This group looks like me, is dealing with the same issues. I knew I was going to be fine in this group. I have a lot of people who understand me.”

The University of Michigan’s Department of Neurology is an academic medical department with a full range of activities in patient care, education and research. The Neurology inpatient service provides care for acutely ill patients with neurologic disease and includes a dedicated intensive care unit, a separate stroke unit, and inpatient epilepsy monitoring beds. Our faculty also investigate the causes, treatments, natural history and phenotypic spectrum of inherited neurologic disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Our studies range from describing novel inherited neurologic syndromes; to family studies including genetic mapping; discovering genes for neurologic diseases; and the creation and analysis of laboratory animals of neurologic disease.

More at www.med.umich.edu.

And I get it!

With the exception of the team’s true fans, nobody likes the Wings. They are the Yankees of the NHL! Every season hockey fans get great glee and joy when Detroit gets knocked out of the playoffs, meaning somebody else gets to hoist the cup. People are sick of hearing about the Winged Wheel and the dominance of this franchise over the course of the last two decades. From the 4 championships to making the post season every year in both era’s to the ability to bring in players who have struggled everywhere only to flourish in the Motor City, people hate this franchise because they are jealous and you should love it! I definitely do.

But even I admit that now it has gone too far.

I’m not one of these guys that get upset anymore when all the Detroit bashing takes place on a given day. I’m used to it and actually sort of like it at times because it displays a total lack of creativity from the main stream media. Of course some of it is even true too.

But I admit that the negativity of the streak has gotten to me. I’m so bored of people telling me it’s not legit or that it means nothing. So I have decided to fight back!

Below I have compiled a list of the 5 most impressive stats and accomplishments that have taken place during the streak. The list is in no particular order.

1. Outscoring the opposition.

In the 23 games that the Wings have won at home, they have outscored the opposition 92 to 32. In case you stink at math that is outscoring the opponent by a nice round number of 60 goals. As for what the Wings have done in each game, below is the breakdown…

Detroit has scored 8 goals once, 7 goals once and 5 goals six times during the record. The Wings have shutout the opposition four times and allowed 1 goal six other times. The most an opponent has scored against Detroit was 3 goals and that happened just once. Every other contest, Detroit has held their competition to 2 or less scores.

2. Everybody pitching in.

Through the course of the 23 wins, 17 different players have lit the lamp and 18 skaters have registered at least an assist. Johan Franzen leads all Wings with 12 goals during the streak while Nick Kronwall has 8 followed by Pavel Datsyuk and Valteri Filppula who each have 7 goals. Nick Lidstrom and Drew Miller have 6 scores while Jiri Hudler, Darren Helm, Todd Bertuzzi and Tomas Holmstrom each have beat the opposing goalie 5 times. As far as the assists go, Datsyuk leads everyone with a mind boggling 21 as Filppula has 15, followed by Ian White with 14 and Lidstrom with 12. Through the 23 games, Datsyuk has the most overall points with 28; Franzen and Filppula each have 22. 22 of the 92 total goals have come from defenseman.

3. Keep on shooting!

Detroit has out shot opponents by an eye opening 717 to 589 through the streak. One time the Wings registered 50 shots on net while shooting at least 40 pucks at an opposing goalie 3 other times. The lowest amount of shots on goal throughout the streak by the Wings was 27 against the Kings back on December 17th; Detroit won that game 8-2. It’s ironic that on the night where the Wings shot the least amount of pucks, they scored the most goals during the 23 games.

The Wings have been out shot in 5 of the 23 games and another couple times they have registered the exact same amount as the opposition. During the streak Dan Cleary has shot the puck the most with 63 attempts, crazy that the forward has missed his last 5 games with a knee injury. Lidstrom has the second most shots with 56.

4. Special on specialty teams.

It wasn’t too long ago that everyone was concerned about Detroit’s power play and it was for good cause. It seemed like the Wings should have been better on the man advantage considering the talent they have. However throughout the course of the 23 games, the Wings have been very good with the extra attacker. Detroit has been put on 87 power plays, 18 of which they have scored on. If you do the math and I did, with a calculator of course. Detroit is almost at a 21 percent success rate on the man advantage which actually is good enough to be considered a top 5 power play in the game.

As for the penalty kill, Detroit has won in spite of not being able to kill off as many power plays as they would have liked. The Wings have put opponents on 83 man advantages and only have killed off 67 of those chances. If you do the math and again I did with a calculator that is only an 80 percent kill rate which puts the Wings in the middle of the pack in the NHL. The 80 percent also equals Detroit PK percentage throughout the course of the season, a stat where the Wings rank 21st of 30 teams. There is a bright side however as the Detroit has killed off the last 25 of 28 power plays that they have put opponents on at the Joe.

5. Packing them in.

Maybe the most important stat over the course of the entire streak is attendance. Every one of the 23 games has been a sellout and it has been evident. On some nights, Downtown Detroit seems like the playoffs are going on and it’s the spring. The atmosphere on a given night has been sensational and seems to get better game by game. This may sound crazy, but Friday nights win against the Predators, you know the game where Pavel Datsyuk scored with about 5 seconds left to win was intense. I heard people comparing that atmosphere to unforgettable playoff games and I would agree with those thoughts. People are excited every single night for this streak to continue and we are still in February.

So there it is, some of the more impressive stats and facts that have taken place while the Wings have put together this remarkable 23 game home winning streak. Whether it has been Detroit winning in a route, which they have done in about half of the games or winning a one goal contest, like in the last 6 of 12 games, this has been awesome! Overtime, shootout, who cares? As far as I’m concerned, a win is a win and 23 in a row have been pretty damn amazing!

So what do the haters have to say now?

The main bill in the package, approved 67-39, also would put into state law a requirement for asset tests to help determine eligibility for food and cash assistance programs in the state. Some asset tests already are used in Michigan through state department policy.

The measures advance to the Republican-led Senate.

Lottery officials would be required to notify the state’s Department of Human Services about winners of $1,000 or more. That provision won overwhelming bipartisan support in the House.

But some Democrats are worried that putting asset test requirements into state law would make decisions about assistance eligibility too inflexible.

“It could ultimately affect thousands of children,” said Rep. Maureen Stapleton, D-Detroit.

Stapleton also questioned how the state could monitor casino and other gambling winnings not covered by the state lottery.

The legislation comes after a Bay County man last spring acknowledged he continued to use food stamps despite winning a $2 million lottery prize in 2010. State officials said at the time that lump sum payments weren’t counted when judging eligibility for food aid.

Rep. David Agema, R-Grandville, said the legislation is designed to make sure that people who are truly poor receive benefits while blocking eligibility for people who don’t need the help.

Welfare has been a recent hot topic in Michigan. Last August, the state removed about 30,000 college students from its food assistance program after enforcing federal guidelines. Then in September, Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a stricter, four-year lifetime limit on cash welfare benefits. Lawmakers have also considered mandating drug tests for welfare applicants.

TM and © Copyright 2011 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

O’Neill Swanson, CEO of Swanson Funeral Home, said a chamber of commerce serving the needs of black-owned businesses will be critical to the growth and development not only of Detroit, but the rest of the state of Michigan.

The new chamber will have members in Pontiac, Southfield, Grand Rapids, Flint and Lansing.

The goal, per the new Detroit Black Chamber of Commerce is to “broaden access to financial assistance and health services for black business owners and their employees.”

Tony Stovall, president of the Detroit Black Chamber of Commerce, hosted a media day on Tuesday at the St. Regis Hotel in Detroit where representatives from PNC Bank, the state of Michigan, the city of Detroit and a local healthcare provider shared their support.

The core focus of the DBCC is to demonstrate effective leadership in the pursuit of parity, equity and inclusion in all areas of business growth and development in the Detroit region.

“Membership and involvement is the essence of an effective Chamber of Commerce. Businesses become members because they take pride in their community and want to grow their companies.  As a chamber member, they become a voice in the community where they conduct business,” Stovall said.

The DBCC plans to serve as an advocate to address the challenges facing black business owners with policy makers, investors and others to access capital.

It’s necessary, Stovall said, for black business owners to gain access to ”mainstream economics.”

The chamber plans to address barriers to capital, which Stovall believes now limits the expansion of black-owned businesses, provide effective training and support in best business practices for continued success, and to “level the playing field for black businesses to obtain opportunities in the private and public sectors.”

Specifically, chamber members said their primary goal is to increase membership to more than 500 and represent members at public hearings and with the media on issues that impact “not only the business community but the community at large.”

The Michigan Information & Research Service, MIRS, released a poll Tuesday showing Romney leading Santorum 32 percent to 30 percent in the race to win Michigan’s Feb. 28 Republican presidential primary. The poll of 420 likely GOP primary voters was done Monday by Mitchell Research/Rosetta Stone and has a margin of error of 4.7 percentage points.

It shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich trailing the two Michigan frontrunners with 9 percent and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas next with 7 percent. However, the poll showed the potential for a great deal of change with 22 percent saying they were undecided.

Polls last week showed Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, had grabbed a lead nationally and in Michigan following a three-state sweep of Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri the week before. He spoke a few days ago to WWJ-TV’s Carol Cain about his campaign, where he addressed the question of making Mitt Romney his running mate were he to win the nomination.

Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts who grew up in Oakland County while his father was governor of the state, had been considered a shoo-in the win Michigan a week from Tuesday before that.

Romney’s forces, in particular, seemed prepared to outspend Santorum by a great margin in order to hold Michigan, since losing it could hurt him going into Super Tuesday, March 6, when 10 states are set to vote, including neighboring Ohio. In an attempt to woo Michigan voters, Romney released ads that showed him as a child growing up here, which some criticized.

He also stopped in metro Detroit last week and this week to talk up his campaign, clarifying his position on the auto bailout for WWJ Newsradio and discussing why Detroit “breaks his heart.”

Last week, a Mitchell/Rosetta Stone poll done for MIRS showed Santorum with 9-point lead on Romney. Another poll, by Public Policy Polling, which showed Santorum ahead by 15 points last week, indicated by Sunday that Romney had closed the gap to within 4 points. Taken together, they could be indicative of Romney’s drawing close to Santorum as more voters have become engaged in the campaigning ahead of Feb. 28’s vote.

The MIRS poll showed Santorum’s lead among tea party voters cut from 15 percentage points to five, and his lead among evangelical Christians reduced from 16 percentage points to 11. And where he had led Romney by 31 percentage points among self-described very conservative voters, that was down to 15 points in the latest poll. Among all self-described Republican voters, meanwhile, Romney has gone from 10 percentage points behind to 4 points ahead of Santorum.

Santorum is leading out west, in the Grand Rapids media market, by 33 percent to 19 percent for Romney. But in the larger metro Detroit region, Romney was leading 40 percent to Santorum’s 28 percent.

Once upon a time there lived a bakery (and deli). This special hidden gem of a place sat across the street from a liquor store and was surrounded by an all-too-familiar scene in Detroit – i.e. abandoned, boarded up houses next to vacant lots. This two-family generational bakery is now 40+ years old and run by the original owner’s son who is now a grandfather himself. I like to call him Mr. Old School Detroit Baker.

Yesterday morning, I walked into this painted brick bakery with a friendly and inquisitive attitude. I needed to find out why I couldn’t find one article (other than yelp reviews) written about its history or paczki. I quickly found out why.

When searching for information and doing a guerrilla style interview, I like to ease my way into it — feel out the vibe, try to be inconspicuous (which can be a very difficult thing for me) and observe the signs that could possibly get me my “in”. I smiled at a young girl behind the counter and said I was going to have a look around and figure out what I was going to get as I pulled out my camera. A short but mighty woman in a white apron and furrowed face quickly appeared and yelled at me. “No. No. No! The owner doesn’t want to be on TV,” I hadn’t muttered a word. “Oh. No. I’m not a TV person…but thanks for thinking that.” She didn’t get my joke and after an awkward pause and cold stare I felt uncomfortable. Do I abort? “Actually, I was wondering if I could speak to the owner?”

“Ehh, I don’t think so. He’s a very busy man.” My instinct was to apologize for bothering her and flee the scene, especially since this was a Hamtramck bakery on the day before the big show-Fat Tuesday. But, I gulped my overly intimidated lump in my throat and turned on the charm. With an extra crinkly eye-browed face and in the sweetest Amelia voice I could muster I said, ”Oh, I’m sure he is but it would only be just a little minute”. Boom, within two minutes, a jolly mustached man was beaming at eye level in my direction. Meet Mr. Old School Detroit Baker. 

I was happy, but so confused. Why was this man so sweet, while this woman– who turned out to be his wife – was so scolding? If you haven’t figured it out yet, he is this week’s photo. The three hearts? His daughters. The photo without a face? His gracious request to respect his privacy and anonymity. 

I like to think it was my smile and sweet charm that got me behind the counter and into, not only his heart, but his kitchen as well. However, it was probably because I admitted to him that my blog viewership was well below average. “I promise your customer number will not change due to my blog post.” He laughed.

He brought me into his kitchen where carts of full trays of paczki lined the walls, piles of boxes for pre-ordered paczki filled the counters and his three daughters and wife ran around. The aroma was suffocating in the best way possible. I was listening to Mr. OSDB open up on a personal level when his youngest daughter handed me a piping hot plain pączek (the singular tense of paczki) to taste. I was in heaven and so grateful to be let into this precious kingdom of doughy goodness and inside family jokes.

Mr. OSDB told me about moving from the “the old country” (one of the Big 5) as an educated Tool and Die man with his parents and two sisters in the late 60′s. Their story resembles many local Detroiters in the sense of being an immigrant family moving to the city and opening a small business. The bakery and deli business officially became Mr. OSDB’s in the early 90′s and rose in success, becoming Mayor Bing’s No. 1 for sandwiches and lunches. This is when the music changes and things get sad. He was vague on the details but basically once upon a time he was the go-to man for many local companies’ picnics and events at Cobo Hall and then, in his words, “nothing.” 

His business is still afloat but it’s not what it once was and because of that there are layers of bitterness and resentment, which explains the privacy. He and his parents’ life’s work has been burned, so fiercely guarding his privacy is his way of protecting what still remains. “Soon” he says he will retire but it’s his desire to find someone who wants to buy his history and continue the bakery tradition. This won’t be any of his daughters. Even though Mr.s OSDB’s three hearts were there on Monday baking and bubbling with jokes they have their own achievements, interests and degrees and only help out when it is needed.

Out of respect for Mr. OSDB’s contagious smile, his three hearts and sweetly protective wife, I’m not going to mention the name of their bakery because that isn’t the purpose of this post. This isn’t a review but rather a lesson. A moral to teach people to wander off the beaten path, don’t always opt for the most written about place and experience things with an open heart. However, if you do figure out this particular bakery-you won’t be disappointed.

Their sandwiches, breads and donuts are to die for and their history is one to honor, just like so many of our own families’. 

Amelia Kanan is freelance writer/photographer and a returning native of Detroit. A graduate of Columbia College in Chicago, she wrote for an Emmy nominated sketch comedy show and pursued her passion for documentary filmmaking in Los Angeles. An incomplete list of her loves: books, human rights, improv, the smell of new shoes, talking to strangers, libraries, France, yoga, furniture, music, sociology and pushing the limits.

Scott Turske of the Southeast Michigan Beacon Community, a partner in this effort, says the campaign kick-off will feature a new mobile educational tool called Text-4-Health.

“They simply text the word “health” to 300400. Then, they go through a process in which they do a risk assessment. Then, based on their risk assessment, they receive they receive targeted, personalized messages over a 14-week period that gives them helpful hints on how to lead a healthier life,” said Turske.

Listen to the full interview below:

The U.S. Surgeon General, Regina M. Benjamin, MD, will be addressing the epidemic of type 2 diabetes in Detroit at a private luncheon on Wednesday.

Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes, accounting for about 90-95 percent of all diagnosed diabetes cases in the United States and can lead to heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, blindness, kidney and nervous system disease, and amputation.

According to the Michigan Department of Community Health, an estimated 700,000 Michigan adults have been diagnosed with diabetes, and another 365,000 have undiagnosed diabetes.

This means more than 1 million adults in Michigan are directly affected by this ever-growing epidemic.

Text-4-Health could potentially get diabetes control messages out to millions of people. Turske says the free service is already active. But standard text rates will apply.