Mitch Gann’s

This is some sort of flowering vine / weed that is growing among the Japanese maples in our backyard. (Click the image for a larger view.)  Our yard is home to many varieties of fast-growing plants, few of which we have planted or encouraged. We are frequently visited by rabbits, turkeys, hawks, humming birds, opossums, raccoons and wood chucks. My wife had our backyard declared a nature sanctuary. I hesitate even to mow.

The Flint River, placid in the morning sun, just west of downtown Flushing, along the route of my daily walk. In this case "daily" means "done during the day time." Perhaps it will someday mean "done every day." We shall see.

“Jobs: ‘Not as bad as we thought’” CNN Money:

Employers trimmed jobs in April for the fourth straight month, according to a government report Friday that was not as weak as Wall Street’s expectations.

There was a net loss of 20,000 jobs in the month, according to the Labor Department report, compared to the revised loss of 81,000 jobs in the March reading. Economists surveyed by Briefing.com had forecast a loss of 75,000 jobs in April.

The unemployment rate slipped to 5% from the 5.1% reading in March. Economists had been forecasting unemployment would rise to 5.2% in the latest report.

“It’s not good news, but it’s not as bad as we thought it would be,” said David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor’s. “It’s consistant with the view it’s going to be a mild recession, but an extended one, where you spend a lot of time bouncing around the bottom.”

Comment: As long as the experts keep forecasting economic woes bigger than those that actually develop, we will be in good shape. Of course, in my home state of Michigan, we have an unemployment rate of 7.2%, so even the originally fore-casted rate of 5.2% would look good here. In fact, according to a chart at the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Michigan’s unemployment rate currently ranks 51st out of the 50 states. That’s quite a feat.

We’ve been bouncing around the bottom for several years now. It’s beginning to get irritating.