When the nominations were released for the Grammy’s this year many were surprised to see Jill Scott not in any of the catorgories. Even Jill Scott herself. Now I will admit, her album hit number one on the Billboard top 200 charts,  it sold 135,000 copies in its first week and she is on a successful tour. Jill Scott voiced her opinion through twitter when she wrote…

“0 nominations. I’m speechless. Cover of Billboard, #1 cd in the country, tied/broke the record for Urban radio. Ok…so…ok. Wow.”

Well we know how she feels…

The charity is asking for donations of new and gently used goods. Items accepted as donations include clothing, along with household and furniture items.

Donations are being accepted at the Detroit Zoo’s Tower Parking Lot from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on December 3-4 and December 10-11.

Art Shell, jointly appointed by the league and the players’ association to hear such cases, ruled Friday that Suh’s suspension for stomping an opponent was appropriate.

Suh will miss Sunday’s game at New Orleans and a Dec. 11 home game against Minnesota. He can return for practice on Dec. 12.

Suh stomped on Packers guard Evan Dietrich-Smith during the game in Detroit and was ejected

State Treasurer Andy Dillon says the review begins Tuesday and will run “parallel to the city’s continuing effort to address its financial problems.” In a statement Friday, he says a review doesn’t mean an emergency manager will automatically be sent to Detroit.

Dillon says the longer the state waits, “the more painful the eventual solutions become.”

Mayor Dave Bing says the move is “unfortunate” but he’s promising full cooperation. City leaders are opposed to state intervention and insist they can solve the problems. Detroit faces a $150 million budget deficit, and a $45 million cash shortfall is projected without cuts.

Bing plans to cut 1,000 jobs.

Mayor Bing issued the following statement:

“While unfortunate, this decision by Governor Snyder is not unexpected. We believe we have the right plan to address the City’s fiscal crisis and we will continue to work with City Council, our unions and other stakeholders to achieve the necessary cuts and concessions, including pension, healthcare and work rule reform. I’m confident with yesterday’s demonstration of solidarity and shared commitment that we will continue to make progress. We are committed to full cooperation with the Governor’s fiscal team, who has had full access to the City’s financial information and plan for months.”

The billionaire passed away at the Spectrum Health System in Grand Rapids after suffering a stroke in his home early Friday morning, according to a statement issued by the company.

Meijer was credited with starting the supercenter store format in the 1960s that made Meijer a successful Midwest retailer. By 2009, Meijer had 180 of the giant stores throughout Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio with annual sales of $15 billion.

He and his wife also gave millions of dollars to causes in the Grand Rapids area, and arts projects were major benefactors.

“The Meijer family thanks everyone for their thoughts and prayers and requests their privacy be respected at this difficult time,” the company’s statement said.

Meijer was 14 when his Dutch immigrant father, Hendrik, opened his first grocery store in Greenville in 1934 with $338.76 worth of merchandise purchased on credit. The younger Meijer worked 40 hours a week at the store throughout high school.

“We were hard up, and you know what? I didn’t even feel deprived,” he said in a 2002 interview. “I had a good time in the store, I was a decent student in school — I had a B-plus average.”

Meijer and his father expanded their grocery operation in 1962 to include general merchandise, creating their first Thrifty Acres supercenter.

“I really enjoyed working with my dad till he died (in 1964, at age 80),” Meijer said. “We had a marvelous relationship.”

The stores were renamed Meijer in 1984, and the company became one of the nation’s largest family-owned retail businesses. Frederik Meijer was 82 before he took the title of chairman emeritus and began devoting less time to the company.

One of his three sons, Hank Meijer, previously said his father never thought he knew more than anyone else, so he trusted people to do their jobs and listened to the advice of others.

Meijer was born Dec. 7, 1919, in Greenville and in 1946 married Lena Rader after meeting her at the first Meijer store in Greenville, where she was a clerk. They spent their honeymoon visiting new stores.

The Meijers donated generously to programs in the Grand Rapids area through the foundation he established in 1990.

The Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, a 125-acre botanical garden outside Grand Rapids, opened in 1995. A 30-acre sculpture park featuring two dozen works by important modern sculptors was added seven years later.

Meijer collected sculptures for years, filling a garage with statues of animals and people before he found a home for many of them in the botanical garden. Those pieces, placed throughout the garden, are separate from the works in the sculpture area.

His interest in the arts stemmed from his youth. Even in the hardest of times, his parents made sure their children learned about culture.

“When I was young, I had piano lessons, clarinet lessons and violin lessons,” he said. “My sister had piano, violin and viola (lessons). I was encouraged to sing in choirs. …

“The point is, no matter how hard up we were in the Depression, certain things like that — music lessons — came as a part of life, rather than saying we couldn’t afford it.”

Meijer carried that belief to the community. Declaring that city dwellers needed to get outdoors to preserve “mental stability,” he donated seed money to develop a network of hiking and cycling trails in western Michigan.

“Beyond raising a family and working and surviving, that’s where the arts come in, and that’s the sugar and spice,” he said.

Meijer is survived by his wife, Lena, and sons Hank, Doug and Mark. Funeral arrangements are pending.

The death was first reported by The Grand Rapids Press.

Only twice since 1975 — the past two years — has there been no COLA.

Congress adopted the measure in the 1970s, and since then it has resulted in annual benefit increases averaging 4.2%. But there was no COLA in 2010 or 2011 because inflation was too low. That was small comfort to the millions of retirees and disabled people who have seen retirement accounts dwindle and home values drop during the period of economic weakness, said David Certner, legislative policy director for the AARP.

“People certainly feel like they are falling behind, and these are modest income folks to begin with, so every dollar counts,” Certner said. “I think sometimes people forget what seniors’ incomes are.”

Some of the increase in January will be lost to higher Medicare premiums, which are deducted from Social Security payments. Medicare Part B premiums for 2012 are expected to be announced next week, and the trustees who oversee the program are projecting an increase.

Monthly Social Security payments average $1,082, or about $13,000 a year. A 3.5% increase would amount to an additional $38 a month, or about $455 a year.

Most retirees rely on Social Security for a majority of their income, according to the Social Security Administration. Many rely on it for more than 90% of their income.

Federal law requires the program to base annual payment increases on the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W). Officials compare inflation in the third quarter of each year — the months of July, August and September — with the same months in the previous year.

If consumer prices increase from year to year, Social Security recipients automatically get higher payments, starting the next January. If price changes are negative, the payments stay unchanged.

Wednesday’s COLA announcement will come as a special joint committee of Congress weighs options to reduce the federal government’s $1.3 trillion budget deficit. In talks this summer, President Obama floated the idea of adopting a new measure of inflation to calculate the COLA, one that would reduce the annual increases.

Advocates for seniors mounted an aggressive campaign against the proposal, and it was scrapped. But it could resurface in the ongoing talks.

“We’re very concerned about that,” said Web Phillips of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. “I think that what this illustrates is the dangers of trying to make Social Security policy in the context of deficit reduction.”

Social Security payments increased 5.8% in 2009, largest increase in 27 years, after energy prices spiked in 2008. But energy prices quickly dropped and home prices became soft in markets across the country, contributing to lower inflation the past two years.

For example, average gasoline prices topped $4 a gallon in the summer of 2008. By January 2009, they had fallen below $2. Today, the national average is $3.47 a gallon.

“A lot of that increase had to do with energy,” Polina Vlasenko, an economist at the American Institute for Economic Research, based in Great Barrington, Mass., said of the 2009 change.

As a result, Social Security recipients got an increase far larger than overall inflation. However, they weren’t to get another increase until consumer prices exceeded the levels measured in 2008.

So far this year, prices have been higher than that, Vlasenko said. Based on consumer prices in July and August, the COLA for 2012 would be about 3.5%. Vlasenko estimates the COLA will be from 3.5% to 3.7%.

Advocates for seniors say it’s about time.

“If you’ve been at the grocery store lately and remember what you used to pay for things, see what you’re paying for things today,” Phillips said. “The cost-of-living adjustment makes sure that the Social Security benefit that you qualify for when you retire or you become disabled continues to stay current with prices so that the buying power of your benefit does not decline over time.”

Here is part II of the interview I did with my good friend Stephanie Mills…

Check out me and my good friend Stephanie Mills in the studio!