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Vigilance and Responsibly Keys to Motorcylce Safety

Sgt. Mark Thompson of the Michigan State Police discusses motorcycle safety and the heroes of Boston.

Don’t like the weather? Wait it will change. Speaking of weather, on those few warm days and some not so warm days one of the early signs of spring has made its presence known. I’m talking about motorcycles. I’m going to ask everyone to remember to be vigilant and look more than once for motorcycles. A few seconds of safe driving techniques could save everyone from years of heartache and pain. That being said, motorcycle operators and their passengers also have a responsibility for the safe operation of a motorcycle.  Drivers have you done your equipment safety check?  Is everything working? Have you re-acclimated to your motorcycle’s equipment, switches, grips, brakes and shifting?  Myself, I take a couple of days to re-acclimate myself …

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Vote for Your Favorite Easter PEEPS Creation

Which of these designs do you like best? Tell us in comments.

Three Patch readers submitted entries for our PEEPS creation contest. Using the marshmallow candies, they made "5 Golden Peeps", "Peeps on the Virgina Beach Boardwalk" and "Peeps on the Farm". Two of the Patch users have a chance to win a Prize Pack worth $25. It includes a PEEPS® Plush Chick Basket valued at $15 and an electronic gift card valued at $10 from PEEPS and COMPANY®. Use the comments section to vote once for your favorite Patch entry. The two with the most votes will each win a prize pack. Voting ends at 12 p.m. EST on March 30. Which of the three entries is your favorite? Vote once in the comments below for "5 Golden Peeps", "Peeps on the Virgina Beach Boardwalk" or "Peeps on the Farm".

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Joni Hubred-Golden

1:49 pm on Saturday, March 30, 2013

Thanks to everyone who voted, we'll have an announcement soon about our winners!   more ›

Enter Patch's Easter PEEPs Contest!

If you've got a creative streak and a passion for PEEPs, enter Patch's Easter PEEPs contest for a chance to win a prize package.

Editor's note: This contest is now closed. PEEPS, those famously delicious and delightful marshmallow candies, aren't just for eating anymore. These days, crafty PEEPs creations are all the rage. You can find them on display on Pinterest. And transformed into everything from the White House front lawn, to re-creations of children’s books, historical settings and other unusual situations. Think you can invent something fun with PEEPS? Now's the time to show us! Enter Patch's Easter PEEPs photo contest. Here's how: Read the complete contest rules here.

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Teresa Mask

5:15 pm on Thursday, March 28, 2013

And thank you to the user who submitted the creation via pdf. Need your name.   more ›

Boiled Cabbage Gets St. Paddy's Day Makeover

To accompany corned beef, we forgo boiled cabbage for a slightly fancier (and just as easy) braised version.

St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday that Americans of all backgrounds have embraced wholeheartedly. For some, the celebrations don’t go beyond wearing a green sweater to work or putting green dye in a Budweiser. For others it’s an excuse to make one last hearty winter meal before spring: corned beef and cabbage. [What are your St. Patrick's Day food traditions? Leave a comment!] Appropriately enough for a holiday celebrated with much more gusto in the United States than in Ireland, corned beef was born on the Isle of Manhattan, not the Emerald Isle. It was eagerly adopted by Irish Americans and somewhere along the line it became  the traditional dish associated with St. Patrick’s Day. Instead of the usual boiled dinner, we're changing it up a …

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REVIEW: ‘Good People’ up Next at Performance Network Theatre

David Linday-Abaire’s play captures the drama of the 2009 economic recession.

ANN ARBOR — Performance Network Theatre continues its season with another new play: David Linday-Abaire’s Good People. The cast features Suzi Regan, Alex Leydenfrost, and Qamara “Peaches” Black, supported by an entertaining ensemble. Featuring a variety of character types that are both new and familiar, the story is set in the midst of the economic crisis of 2009, when single middle-aged mother Margie (Regan) is fired from her job at a local dollar store. On the hook for rent money as well as the means to care for her grown but mentally handicapped daughter, she seeks whatever means she can find, even going so far as to track down a former boyfriend (Leydenfrost) who has since become a successful physician. She initially approaches him in …

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Superstorm Sandy's Ongoing Recovery is a Great Lakes Priority, Levin Says

The economic impact of damage to shipping in Michigan will be felt across the country.

More than four months after Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of the Eastern United States, recovery and reconstruction efforts are far from complete. And while most of the attention has rightly focused on the need for aid to areas in the Northeast that were devastated by the storm’s landfall, Sandy’s power was so great that its effects were felt as far west as our own Great Lakes. When Sandy reached land in October, it cut a deadly path across the country. More than 120 deaths are blamed on the storm, and Americans will never forget the scenes of devastation in the storm’s wake. Sandy was not just powerful, it was huge. Hurricane force winds were recorded in an area more than 900 miles across, making it the largest Atlantic Ocean …

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Superstorm Sandy's Ongoing Recovery is a Great Lakes Priority, Levin Says

The economic impact of damage to shipping in Michigan will be felt across the country.

More than four months after Superstorm Sandy devastated parts of the Eastern United States, recovery and reconstruction efforts are far from complete. And while most of the attention has rightly focused on the need for aid to areas in the Northeast that were devastated by the storm’s landfall, Sandy’s power was so great that its effects were felt as far west as our own Great Lakes. When Sandy reached land in October, it cut a deadly path across the country. More than 120 deaths are blamed on the storm, and Americans will never forget the scenes of devastation in the storm’s wake. Sandy was not just powerful, it was huge. Hurricane force winds were recorded in an area more than 900 miles across, making it the largest Atlantic Ocean …

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Stamp is Powerful Reminder of Rosa Parks' Legacy

During Black History Month, we are reminded of how one person can, through character and conviction and strength, change the world.

On Feb. 4, I was honored to attend a pair of events celebrating the life and legacy of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks with the issue of a U.S. postage stamp on the 100th anniversary of her birth. It was especially appropriate that these events came at the beginning of Black History Month, and that one event was held at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, where visitors today can sit in the bus seat that Rosa Parks refused to give up, and in doing so, changed the world. I’m sure you know the story: On Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks boarded a city bus in Montgomery, Ala., after a long day’s work, and took a seat. When all the seats filled up, the bus driver, following the city’s segregationist practice, demanded that Mrs. Parks give up her seat to…

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REVIEW: Dexter’s Encore Musical Theatre Presents a Mixed ‘Joseph’

Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" will run at the Encore through March 3.

For all his successes, Andrew Lloyd Webber is a composer whose work divides critics and audiences alike. One of his earlier shows, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, fairly explodes with spectacle and excitement. Recognized now for his mega-hits Cats, Evita, and Phantom of the Opera, Webber (along with lyricist Tim Rice) had his first taste of popularity as the creator of Joseph, a family-friendly piece, now featured onstage at the Encore. The musical follows the Biblical tale of Joseph (Kevin Rose), the favored son of Jacob (Mike Szymanski), who is given a coat of many colors and is immediately the envy of his hoard of conniving brothers. Kevin Rose, a New York-based actor, is highly appealing in his performance as the title …

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