In the last hours, the budgets for K-12 education and general government appeared to be the sticking points.

The Republican-controlled Senate could forward a temporary or continuation budget to the governor but Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, had said he did not want to do that in favor of passing a permanent 2009-10 budget.

At last report, the Democrat-controlled House was voting on the K-12 budget, which includes a $218 per-student funding cut. It appeared not to have the votes to pass.

On the Senate side, Republicans have gone into caucus.

Tempers flared in that chamber after some Democrats refused to give “immediate effect” to some budget bills they opposed and Republicans put an income tax up for a vote. (Immediate effect is a sort of supermajority required to send the budgets on to the governor.)

The tax increase — an income tax hike — put up for a vote by Republicans — was not the sort of budget-balancing revenues most Democrats had in mind. The measure was roundly defeated and Democrats cried foul, saying putting up the income tax for a vote — and not a more narrow tax such as a bottled water deposit — was political.

Afterward, Bishop said Democrats were playing politics because of their refusal to vote for immediate effect. Bishop claimed it was the governor — and her control of Senate Democrats — that blocked budget progress.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi, D-Ishpeming, called the income tax vote “crap” and said his caucus could not support the all-cuts budgets proposed by Republicans.

Some Democrats have said they want revenues as part of a solution, but most said they didn’t want to see a vote on a broad tax like the one Republicans put forth: an income tax increase.  (Revenue proposals have included ticket taxes or a bottled water deposit.) The vote failed overwhelmingly, with only two Senators supporting it.

After the votes, the party leaders in the Senate held dueling press conferences. Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop accused Democrats of disrupting the deal and said the governor was to blame.

Senate Minority Leader Mike Prusi called the income tax vote “crap” and said his caucus simply wouldn’t go along with an all-cuts budget solution.

Prusi said he doesn’t think Bishop will put up a continuation or temporary budget for an immediate effect vote, sending it to the governor.

The Senate would have roughly 50 minutes now to do that.

In the House, some members have said the plan is to push remaining budgets through before midnight — even the tougher ones like K-12 education and general government, which includes revenue sharing to cities.

But if the budgets pass the House, they would still need to pass the Senate.

Rick and I are still in Lansing — we’ll be here until at least midnight.

Follow twitter.com/tonytagliavia for the little bits and pieces coming out…

lots of little bits and pieces coming out — follow me on twitter (twitter.com/tonytagliavia)

House Speaker Andy Dillon is now on the floor (9:49pm) talking with Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop.

K-12 is one of the most contentious budgets because it would cut $218 in funding for every district for every student they teach. In Grand Rapids Public Schools, the cut would exceed $4 million. Kalamazoo and Forest Hills would see cuts over $2 million and Portage and Kentwood would each see a roughly $2 million cut.

The K-12 budget bill was put up for a vote in the House this afternoon but it didn’t have the votes to pass.

Which brings us back to the talk in the Senate.

Having no K-12 budget could be feasible, people on the Republican side of the Senate are saying, because state payments to schools aren’t due until later in October. The state would have several weeks, in theory, to figure out a school budget and how to fund it.

But a spokeswoman for House Democrats said the idea wasn’t really part of the plan in her chamber.

We’ll keep our eye on it.

–Tony

We’re waiting to see if the Senate will pass the continuation budget on to the governor, which would give lawmakers another 30 days to arrive at a final 2009-10 budget. A spokesman for the majority leader says he’d rather see work on a final budget rather than voting on continuation.

(Meanwhile, on the House side, the first attempt to pass the K-12 budget was ended after it could not get enough votes to pass.)

As far as the regular budgets, Senators are waiting to vote on the corrections and general government budgets, which will come from the House. (General government includes revenue sharing.)

The Michigan State Police budget will originate here on the Senate side.

Rick Albin and I remain at the Capitol and will keep you posted.

 UPDATE: The production has chosen Pontiac as one of the sites to shoot scenes for the remake of “Red Dawn”.  The Oakland Press reports that the production will spend two weeks at the end of September and a few days in October in Pontiac.  Crews will transform “the area along Saginaw Street, just north of Huron, into a movie set depicting Spokane, Washington.

Also, Connor Cruise (Tom Cruise’s son) and Edwin Hodge have joined the rest of the cast listed below.

According to various other sources, Cruise is playing Daryl, the mayor’s son and best friend of tech geek and Hodge will play Danny, the coolest kid in school and star wide receiver who helps establish the resistance.

The cast reportedly is going to military training in an undisclosed location for a few weeks and then shooting begins after that.  MGM hopes to release the movie September 24, 2010.

 Originally posted August 8th:

Earlier this week, WXYZ reported that the production crew for the remake of  ”Red Dawn” (1984) will be coming to Michigan, mostly in the Southeast part of the state, but some scenes may be shot in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula from September through December.

Information from casting websites and Facebook say that there is a call for hundreds of extras (18 and older), many of which will be needed for consecutive days, some for multiple weeks.   They are ALL PAID positions. 

The new “Red Dawn” is the story of a group of midwestern teens who form a small resistance when their hometown is invaded by Chinese and Russian soldiers.  The group of renegade teens call themselves the “Wolverines”. 

The original movie starred Patrick Swayze, Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, Lea Thompson, and Jennifer Grey.

The new cast includes Chris Hemsworth (who played George Kirk in the latest “Star Trek”) in Swayze’s role of Jed Eckert, the group’s unofficial leader.   His younger brother Matt, originally played by Sheen, will be played by Josh Peck, best know for the voice of “Eddie” in the “Ice Age” movies.   Adrianne Palicki (NBC’s Friday Night Lights , “Women in Trouble” (2009)) will reprise the role of Toni, originally played by Jennifer Grey.  Josh Hutcherson (”Journey to the Center of the Earth” (2008), “RV” (2006), “Zathura” (2005), “Kicking & Screaming” (2005)) will play Robert, the role C.Thomas Howel origiated.  Isabel Lucas who recently starred in “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”  will be Erica the character played by Lea Thompson in the original.  The remake’s director is Dan Bradley, who was the second unit director on the “Bourne Ultimatum” and the “Bourne Supremacy” films.

MGM is scheduled to start filming September 8th, with an expected release date of September 2010.

If you want to be an extra on “Red Dawn”, e-mail your name, age, photos (label the files with your name), your height, weight, basic clothing/shoe size, relevant experience and complete contact information to RedDawnExtras@gmail.com.

Skilled film crew interested in working on “Red Dawn” can e-mail a resume to: RedDawnProds@gmail.com.

For more information check out Extrascasting website and Facebook.

– 

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“What’s Wrong With Virginia” Casting Changes

TicTock Studios announces that Academy Award Nominee Ed Harris (“Appaloosa” (2009), “Gone Baby Gone” (2007), “A Beautiful Mind” (2001), “The Truman Show” (1998), “The Rock” (1996), “Apollo 13″ (1995)) is joining the cast.  Harris is replacing Liam Neeson as a sheriff that sees his state senate bid slide away from him when his daughter begins to date the son of a woman (Academy Award Winner Jennifer Connelly) with whom the sheriff has engaged in a 20-year affair.

Check out my interview with Ed Harris for “Appaloosa”

Academy Award-Winning screenwriter of “Milk”, Dustin Lance Black, wrote the story and will also direct.  Academy Award Nominee Gus Van Sant will executive produce.

The movie is expected to start shooting in September.

Here’s the details on the open casting call, from a press release:

We are seeking:
Real looking people of all shapes and sizes Ages 18 and up Union/Non-Union Non-actors welcome

Of particular interest: 18+ year olds who can play younger, Male and Female Caucasian – principle roles

Speaking parts are available for the following:
Caucasian Females, ages 18-60
Caucasian Males, ages 18-95
Korean Female, age 50-70
African American Male, age 60-70
African American Female, age 40-50
Asian American Male, age 40-50

The casting call will take place:
Saturday, August 15, 2009 from 3:00PM – 6:00PM

11172 Adams St, Holland, Michigan
(Corner of Adams/16th St. and Country Club Rd., parking in rear of building)

Please bring proof of age!

Note: This is an OPEN casting call – there will be NO auditions. 
Selected people will be invited back for an audition at a later date.

5/18 “What’s Wrong with Virginia” announced

—

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During remarks at his last meeting as a board member, Allen said union leaders, including President Paul Helder, did not bring a potential contract agreement to member teachers in February.  District teachers just finished their second school year without a contract.

“Imagine that: seven people deciding the fate of over 1,700.  That does not sound like a democracy, it sounds like a dictatorship, ironically one of the things of which [the union] accuses (Superintendent) Dr. Taylor,” said Allen, a one-time board president. He said the union’s tactics have mirrored a 2003 warning presented by a staffer at Michigan Association of School Boards

Allen, who has served since 2002, also discussed what he saw as successes during his tenure: the passage of a school bond, making needed building and program cuts, more schools meeting state and federal standards and looming high school reforms.

In an interview after the meeting, Helder told 24 Hour News 8 Allen is entitled to his opinion.  But he said there never was a tentative agreement he could have presented to his membership.  And the union president said he would literally be willing to be locked in a room with negotiators until a contract is settled.

“We’re offering right now again: go into a building, chain the doors — we’ll get flat food, you can slide it under the door,” Helder said.  “And we’d like Dr. Taylor there as well.”

Also Monday night, the board approved pink slips for 141 teachers.

The district typically recalls most of the teachers who receive the slips, although because of lower than expected retirements and the elimination of 95 full-time positions, that may not be the case this year.

Those 95 positions will be cut through not replacing retirees, moving some teachers from full- to part-time and laying off some teachers.  Helder said he expects roughly 30 retirements this year.
Also Monday night, Superintendent Bernard Taylor offered a moment of silence for two members of the school community who lost their lives recently, including Nathaniel Jones, who was shot Thursday afternoon near Fuller Avenue and Kalamazoo Street SE.

GRPS has announced LEED certification, a nationwide environmental designation, for Gerald Ford Middle School. It’s the third district building to receive the honor.  A fourth has applied for it.

The board also approved the lease of Park School, 1150 Adams Street SE, to Michigan Family Resources/Head Start.

Keep it here for the latest.

–Tony

Even the menu seems epic. (click to enlarge)

I’ve taken my time with the Demigod review.  I wanted to make sure that the game I enjoyed playing, the game underneath all of the issues that plagued its launch, got a fair shake.

The issues were bad enough for the Stardock CEO Brad Wardell to post a blog called “Demigod: So what the hell happened?” a couple of weeks back.

I feel it’s had enough time though, and that playing the game now and offering my review gives an accurate view of what the game is like now that Stardock and Gas Powered Games have had a chance to get things under control.

You're going to want to investigate the many Demigods and settle on the one that's right for you. (click to enlarge)

Demigod is a unique kind of game because it combines various RPG and RTS elements to make something that’s pretty unique in the game space (at this point).  If you’re familiar with WarCraft III’s Defense of the Ancients (or DOTA) then you’re going to be at an advantage in terms of how the game is played.

There can be a multitude of objectives depending on the game-type you choose, but essentially it boils down to your units defeating the enemy.  There are flags on every map that give bonuses to the team that controls them.  If you capture the flag next to the gold mine and portal, that means your team will get more reinforcements and your cash flow will increase allowing you to buy better upgrades.

Other flags will give your team experience boosts or strengthen the hit points and damage of your reinforcements.  There’s also a nice flag that reduces the cooldown time for your Demigod abilities.

Demigod’s strength is in its Demigods

There are eight Demigods to choose from.  The most recognizable would have to be Rook (the huge walking castle which is the game’s essential title character).  One for suggestions, Rook was also the first character I played as when I jumped in the game.

The way I play Rook could be very different from the way other people play it, as there are different ways to level up your character.  (A web-based talent tree can be found here.)

I wanted to slam the Rook’s hammer, so for me I upgraded “Hammer Slam” as often as possible, which was every third level.   It proved to be a pretty potent weapon that did nice area of effect damage.

The Rook can also upgrade its team’s defenses by constructing towers on the map to guard key choke points.  Additionally, you can upgrade Rook to be a walking tower, which puts archers, a tower and a trebuchet in its arsenal.  If that’s not enough, Rook can heal itself by draining surrounding towers of their hit points to give the walking monstrosity some staying power.

Regulus will snipe you down. (click to enlarge)

Regulus is one of my favorite Demigods.  He’s the one I logged the most time on, and played with different styles.  My favorite ability on Regulus is Snipe.  A massive range lets you snipe from quite a distance away, and if you start casting while your target is running or teleporting away your shot will still land. (I kind of thought this was overpowered when post-teleport I found myself dead from someone else’s snipe, but there are similar abilities on other units that act the same way.)

Another favorite ability of Regulus for me was Angelic Fury.  Essentially it adds bonus damage to every shot at the cost of mana, and Regulus sports a cool pair of wings that let him loft above the action.  (Though he cannot truly fly, and thus skip walking around a corner).

Regulus’ arsenal is complimented by a talent that increases range and another that slows his enemies movement speed.  Additionally, you can lay mines as traps that explode for a nice chunk of damage and slow targets movement speed.  You can also rig Regulus’s attack with a tracking bolt, to give you the location of enemy Demigods wherever they are.  There’s also a Mark of the Betrayer attack that will explode for damage when the targeted Demigod performs an ability.

Capturing the flags are important for your team's success. (click to enlarge)

Rook and Regulus are examples of the “Assassin” Demigods, there’s also a set of “Generals.”  In that group, the most eye-catching would probably be the scantily-clad Queen of Thorns.  The Queen’s history says she was one of the fairies of the forest, but she’s no Tinker Bell.  The Queen can summon Shamblers to defend herself, and in turn can also destroy Shamblers to both heal herself and damage enemies.  There are also some more offensive weapons at her disposal which you can check out at the skill list page.

In the same group of generals is Oak.  Oak has a knack for bringing the dead back to life.  Oak can also shield his allies from damage, and a more powerful version of the shield actually heals them.

But don’t worry damage-dealers, Oak’s not all defense.  He can also cast Penitence on enemies, which not only damages them, but also slows them down and makes them susceptible to more damage.

Demigod’s strength is in its Demigods.  The Diversity of Demigods at level 20 (the level cap) can be pretty substantial because of the large number of talents you can spread points out to.  For instance, you could run into an Unclean Beast who is a ferocious melee fighter who has Foul Grasp (a stun that also damages).  But another player who chooses the Unclean Beast may choose to focus on leveling up Unrelenting Wrath (a 10 second buff that increases attack speed by as much as 65%).

The fog of war looks much more amazing when animated than in a screenshot. (click to enlarge)

This Is Your Battleground

The maps in Demigod provide good variety for their limited number.  (There are only 8, but more releases are planned).

Leviathan, the map to the right, is a round map with flags scattered over it.  As said before, controlling flags is important for controlling the battle.  Each map also has a unique defensive layout to start the game.  An equal number of forts, towers, unit spawn points and healing stones will be positioned around the map.

The healing stones are important for your Demigod, because if you’re interested in not dying in the battle it may be of interest to run away to live and fight another time.

The towers’ and forts’ range is limited though, providing ranged units an opportunity to snipe away from a distance, whittling away the hit points.  Regulus, my hero of choice, was particularly adept at this and would be able to take several towers down if I wasn’t rebuffed by an enemy.

The layout of the map you play is very important to the strategy for battle. (click to enlarge)

All of the maps are symmetrical so neither team is put at a disadvantage because of their starting location.  Crucible, the map to the right, takes the player away from the central battle location from the spawn before pushing you right into it.  It’s also one of the more popular maps in the Pantheon.

You can see a full listing of the maps and a tally of the number of games played on Demigod’s site here.

The most popular maps are generally smaller in size.  The larger maps, Mandala and The Brothers have less than 10,000 games played each.  I would presume this is because it’s harder to field a game with 10 players, and there have been connection issues getting people into a game.

Like most every other game I’ve played, I don’t tend to jump around from map to map.  I settle into my favorites and try to become an expert at those.  In the single-player game you can choose the specific number of opponents you want to face, including outnumbering yourself in battle (which if you’re in the mood for a comp stomp isn’t all that bad if you set the difficulty to easy).

If you've found favor, the items you can equip are more potent. (click to enlarge)

Do Me A Favor

Demigod incorporates an MMO-type element to the game play in with “Favor Points.”  You earn favor by being awesome in battle.  The better you do, the more favor you gain.

I actually really like the system because it gives you the option to either save up for some truly spectacular items and forgo weaker items.

I started out with the “Charm of Life” because it was cheap and seemed to offer some nice benefits.   The fact that I didn’t have to re-buy it every time was also a nice factor.  After that though, I didn’t go after other items along the way, but instead saved up honor points for an “Amulet of Transportation” that allowed me to quickly jump to allied buildings (which include captured flags) after a four second cast.

Other players may have preferred to spend as soon as they were able to, and that’s an option but I chose against it.  The persistence of the items is a great feature though, and one that keeps people playing the same way that MMO item-grinding keeps people playing.

The compliment of weapons and armor you can equip is broad and ranging. (click to enlarge)

It’s Dangerous To Go Alone… Take This

In the non-persistent realm are two different types of items.   There are the items that you can purchase from your main base,  the Citadel.  You can also purchase items from an Artifact Shop, which on some maps is capturable and other maps is not.

The Artifact Shop sells much more powerful items, but with that power comes a hefty price tag.  For instance, the first item I buy is usually a +mana helmet that costs in the range of 3,000 gold.  But my favorite item at the Artifact Shop rings in at 25,000 gold.

You get room for 5 items and 3 consumables in your inventory, maybe this is my lack of experience speaking, but I always focused on getting items instead of consumables.

So how do you keep yourself flush?  You earn gold throughout the course of the game.  The amount you earn is based on upgrades to your citadel, the number of gold mines you control (which are capturable with flags) and finally the number of heroes you kill.

This shot will kill that soldier, and then some. (click to enlarge)

Then There’s The Pantheon

The defining aspect of Demigod’s multiplayer action is The Pantheon.

The Pantheon is the grand arena with thousands of players ranked nicely in the ladder system.  On the Demigod site, there is a plethora of information breaking down almost any stat that you want to read about.

You can sort players by rank, experience, favor points, playtime, wins and losses.  Alternatively, you can just search for the player (I’ve managed to get half up the rankings in my limited Pantheon play time).

The Pantheon site also shares stats on Demigods.  As you can see, Regulus isn’t just my favorite, he’s the Demigod of choice for the masses (narrowly edging Unclean Beast for the top spot).

The amount of information on the site is pretty impressive, and in scale is comparable to World of Warcraft’s Armory. Granted the WoW Armory tracks millions more users with even greater detail.

When you kill opposing Demigods, you get gold. And the longer the kill-streak, the more you are praised. (click to enlarge)

But There Are Some Issues

Connectivity issues were bad enough with Demigod at one point for Stardock’s CEO Brad Wardell to come out with a public statement.

He provided this analogy to kind of explain what was happening with the online gameplay.

“So in Demigod, on launch day, Alice would host a game. Tom would be connected to Alice by the network library and then that socket would be handed to Demigod.  Then, Alice and Tom would open a new socket to listen for more players to join in.  As a result, a user might end up using a half dozen ports and sockets which some routers didn’t like and it just made things incredibly complex to connect people and put a lot of strain on the servers to manage all those connections.”

That’s one positive thing I can say about the problems that plagued the Demigod launch.  The company actively works to fix what’s broken.  In their defense, the testing of games was probably done on a LAN, and thus they would not have been able to foresee the connection issues that players faced online.   In his post, Wardell talks about delays of information being sent between players that would kill any game.

Here it says I'm rampaging, I guess I was killing a lot of opposing Demigods. (click to enlarge)

In my experience, I did have some connectivity issues.  Running the game in a window afforded me the opportunity to start the search for a game and do something else.  At least three times while searching/connecting to the game it crashed.  This was after the first patch Wardell talked about in his post on May 18th.  There was a subsequent patch though and things seem to be getting better.

In a game like Demigod though, this is a make or break issue for a lot of players.  If you’re going to have a matchmaking system it has to be sound.  Connectivity aside, I did not find I was outmatched by other players, as say the matchmaking in the older Warcraft 3 so often displayed (link has some salty Penny-Arcade language & euphemisms).

More Regulus killing. What can I say? He really was my favorite. (click to enlarge)

The Michigan Connection

Demigod also has a Michigan connection.  Stardock is located in Plymouth, Michigan.  (Which is actually just in my backyard, hailing from Canton).

Stardock is also doing a pretty awesome thing.  All of its games are released 100% completely free of any DRM (digital rights management) system.  DRM creates nothing but headaches for paying consumers, and often times can devalue a game if its frustrating enough.  I have to commend Stardock for putting the consumer ahead of the pirate.  It may make games easier to steal on torrent networks, but even games laden with restrictive DRM will still be there.

Additionally, Stardock is also embracing the future of digital distribution.  You can actually save some money by purchasing Demigod on its Impulse service.  And just like Valve, the company I’ve heaped praise on for Steam, you can download the games you own to any computer you own.  This kind of consumer-first thinking is really encouraging to see.

A Game Has To Be Fun

Overall, a game’s value really comes down to whether or not its fun.  In that respect, Demigod delivers.  The units, the maps, the persistent elements all come together to form some very nice gameplay.  It’s a game I’d recommend because I see that they’re working to address any problems that crop up.

Questions, comments? Hit the section below, and follow me on Twitter because I update that more often than the blog.