Breaking news: Isabella County Road Commission Manager Jim Miller has resigned, effective immediately.
A statement released by ICRC Chairman Bob Curtiss said Miller quit "citing a desire to pursue other employment opportunities."
RetiredGratiot County Road Commission Superintendent/Manager Fred Walkington will take over the job on an interim basis.

Word on the street (tomorrow ... word in print) is that a date is finally set for the Borden Building chimney to come down. It is ... Oct. 6.

The chimney's demolition date has been the topic of rumors the last month and a half. One time -- memory tells me it was late-ish August -- residents of Riverview apartments were given a date that they needed to be away from their homes ... but that the chimney never came down. Since then, there was talk that the chimney might come down Sept. 22 (last Friday).

Part of the plan all along has been to erect viewing areas (prompting more than one snide reference to the Battle of Bull Run).

(Blogger's been acting up the last couple of days, and this is the third time I've tried to upload this dad-blamed post. If the Internets [sic] gods are smiling, three'll be a charm. -- E.B.)

Word on the street is that the end for the Borden Building chimney is near. A final date has been set ... Oct. 6.

The chimney has generated some confusion in the past. Rumors flew earlier that it was supposed to come down on an earlier Friday (August comes to mind, for some reason -- anyway, the rumors were so hard were the rumors that the parking lot at Riverview apartments was apparently cleared). Then, the date Sept. 22 circulated around.

Now, the word is Oct. 6. Earlier rumors also had the city setting up specific viewing areas for the spectators the demolition is likely to attract ... that is, if the weather isn't too lousy (there were also snark-filled references to the spectators at the Battle of Bull Run).

Word on the street is that the end for the Borden Building chimney is near. A final date has been set ... Oct. 6.

The chimney has generated some confusion in the past. Rumors flew earlier that it was supposed to come down on an earlier Friday (August comes to mind, for some reason -- anyway, the rumors were so hard were the rumors that the parking lot at Riverview apartments was apparently cleared). Then, the date Sept. 22 circulated around.

Now, the word is Oct. 6. Earlier rumors also had the city setting up specific viewing areas for the spectators the demolition is likely to attract ... that is, if the weather isn't too lousy (there were also snark-filled references to the spectators at the Battle of Bull Run).

As readers of the Morning Sun, some may have noticed that sometimes we run a "stand alone" photo, without a story. We do this when we need a dominant photo and the stories for that day's edition don't lend themselves to something.

So, i've had tons of readers over the years tell me about completely cool things they saw or did that would have been great photos, but I never knew in time, or they didn't know how to let me know.

Well here's an easy way to let me know of any ideas you may have for stunning photographs. Email me at lyanick@michigannewspapers.com, or leave a comment to this post. I won't promise that every suggestion will be taken, but I would love to hear any ideas. A day's notice is always helpful. Thanks!!

Word is that Dick DeVos' acknowledgement that he'd like to see intelligent design has sent his campaign into spin mode. Here is the attempted clarification.

I've followed the topic closely over the last couple of years, because it fascinates me (written about it here, and here, and -- forgot this one -- here, plus a couple of other times for which I can't find links), and DeVos' clarification is steeped in the words of Creationism. I mean, local control is all well and good and hard to argue with, which is why the appeal is couched as all about it. On the other hand, why not let schools teach that Pi is strictly defined as 3.14? The answer is because that is bad mathematics.

Following up on Dick's idea that intelligent design be taught as how to identify hogwash ... I think that would be a fine idea, if you wanted to devote your valuable science classroom time to picking apart hokum. I'd rather have kids learn good science, and how to arrive at good science, since it makes spotting someone's cheap ploy a lot easier by comparison.

By the way, for fun, go read the Wedge Strategy. You can also find it on the Discovery Institute's Web site (Center for the Renewal of Culture and Science, I think, is the precise wing), but it has five pages of disclaimers, all of them arguing that what the document says isn't what it means.

According to Public Acts 123 and 124 of (April) 2006, which set out new requirements for high school graduation in Michigan, legislative input now is required when the Department of Education develops curriculum “content standards.”

This was a compromise that eliminated a mandate written into the House bill on grad requirements to include the study of Intelligent Design theory in high school science curricula.

Some legislators in leadership positions are trying to “influence” the Michigan Department of Education to incorporate study of Intelligent Design into science curriculum content standards, according to recent news reports. Now we have gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos calling for it, too.

As a matter of personal opinion, I think high school science students probably should be exposed to the study of Intelligent Design, as an exercise in critical thinking. Learning to recognize hogwash – and especially, cleverly dressed up hogwash -- when it’s splashed your way is an important life skill.

As a margin note on this:

Politicians can’t resist the impulse to legislatively meddle in the details of public school curricula. PAs 123-124 were signed into law in April, but at the end of June, House Bills 6296 and 6297 were introduced to mandate “certain African history course content.” A similar bill – HB 5546 – was introduced in January, but went nowhere as the high school graduation bills moved through the legislative mill.

Well, this certainly seems like an interesting development, doesn't it?

There's been a little talk around the newsroom tonight on how bad this hurts him, and I don't think there's any chance that this is going to do him any good. I'm probably a little close to this issue, having been immersed in it for the last two years, but I was a little surprised to find that I was essentially alone in thinking that this wouldn't hurt his chances significantly.

On the other hand, I've already talked to one person -- a Republican -- who said this revelation might cause them to change their vote to Granholm.

Mt. Pleasant's own Nancy White, Democratic challenger for the 33rd Senate seat, says that Mt. Pleasant's busing problems are tied to spending cuts spurred by Republicans in the state Legislature. White, in a press release, said that we can expect more of the same and that at the root is the continued effort to run government as if it's a business.

What's prompting this was the theft of my bike trailer sometime in the last couple of days. Most of my neighbors -- the ones I've talked to -- seem to think it might have been college kids from a big party at the corner of Oak and Illinois this last weekend (you know, wacky college prank -- eating goldfish, stuffing bodies into a phone booth, vandalism and theft of private property).

Another dude, close to the local bicycle community says it was probably the work of a band of local misfits who steal bikes and trailers at night, and that my own little trailer was probably chopped for parts in less than a couple of hours.

True? False? Who knows, but this last summer -- according to the dude -- apparently saw a dramatic rise in the number of bicycle thefts across the city. The evidence is anecdotal, mostly related to people who complain about it. But, the problem is apparently worst down in the blocks of Pine and Oak streets between Michigan and High streets -- coincidentally where I live.

Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos will square off in three televised debates over the next month.

A photo assignment Monday morning took me into the heart of downtown Mt. Pleasant, a visit that left me with two thoughts.

First, those diagonal parking spaces on Main Streert and Broadway are popular real estate. I had to make a full circuit to find one open, passing up all sorts of available wiggle-in parallel parking places in the process.

Second, in the aftermath of last Friday’s downtown gala, walking the sidewalks on Main and Broadway was something akin to running an obstacles course created by planting chewed-up-spit-out wads of bubble gum. Or other similar stuff. Yuck!

I got gumbo-ed ... twice. It was long ago scientifically proven -- beyond a shadow of doubt -- that soup is good food, and the first bowl of the autumn season around these parts is something of a religious festival. Chicken, sausage, shrimp, okra ... yes!

But, the parade. Oh, the parade. There was something in the back of my mind telling me to stay away, that I was too tired and crabby and that I knew how it'd turn out. And, what unfolded was precisely as I'd envisioned -- we got there early, picked a decent seat, and within five minutes the view was promptly blocked by kids pushing out into the street with their hands outstretched for free candy. By the time the last cars were pushing through, parade volunteers had to regularly play (parent) crowd control and keep breathing space between the pushing line of kids and the parade. Even the boy was getting into the act. I looked up and down the street to see if I was just unlucky. Nope.

I'm fairly certain that whoever set up the robo-calls to whip up anti-Granholm sentiment among the state's citizens of Asian ancestry didn't mean that the chairman of the Isabella County Commission would be on the list.

And, although the ad's use of Chinese buffet music was kind of puzzling (I saw the ad yesterday ... before I could get the remote and change the channel), it was produced for the Michigan Democratic Party and not the Granholm campaign. Of course, the point isn't really to get anyone to call Granholm's office and complain.

An EPIC/MRA poll released today by the Detroit News and several TV stations, including WJRT-TV, puts Gov. Jennifer Granholm back in the lead over challenger Dick Devos.

She's up 50 to 42 percent, beyond the margin of error, in this poll.

It's instructive to look at why. Devos has been running entirely on the economy, and, indeed, people are unhappy and pessimistic about the state of Michigan's economy. Devos beats Granholm there.

But that's the only issue where he beats her. On health care, stem cell research, the Great Lakes, water quality and the environment, equal opportunity, gay rights, fuel prices and abortion, Granholm is seen as the better candidate.

It's not a referendum on George W. Bush. This poll seems to indicate that President Bush's positions are only a slight factor in why people are supporting a gubernatorial candidate. Nine percent say they like Devos because they like Bush; 12 percent say they like Granholm because they hate Bush.

The economy is the biggee, but it's not the only thing.

DeWitt's own Alan Cropsey, state senator for Isabella County, will appear on this weekend's episode of Off the Record. Although he'll be talking about the spat over the DeVos-China ad, he'll also be talking about important stuff, too, like the prison controversy the Free Press whipped up with its package of stories a couple of weeks ago.

On a related note, the Free Press (at least one of its columnists) gives Cropsey props for his call to reinstate the prison ombudsman.

Granholm, in the latest Detroit News poll, increasing her lead by one point to eight. Stabenow's lead gets a bit bigger.

I have thoughts about this, but most of them are highly influenced by the cold I picked up over the weekend. So, they're evil thoughts, not meant to see the light of day, and mostly directed to media outlets and pollsters who express wonderment that people don't automatically vote according to the latest unemployment figures.

Well, the streamers are up downtown. Fat Tuesday is Friday in downtown Mt. Pleasant.

Businesses, of course, are already preparing. T-shirts are on sale for $6 apiece (Where? Same place you can get a Bird Burger. Maybe a couple of others.). One local business is already planning a big tent in the street for tomorrow evening, and in addition to their usual fare they plan to offer extra sandwiches and gumbo to go along with their usual menu. Anytime you can bring people downtown, the business owner was telling me as I left with lunch, it's a big boon for them.

I don't know if I can endorse the use of the name Mardi Gras, since there's always an outside chance that a kid could grow up thinking that Mardi Gras is supposed to be a family festival with beads handed out to kids, and parades and face painting, and as an adult wander down New Orleans way for the real thing and a rude, rude shock. But, I do endorse supporting our downtown merchants; but more to the point, I do endorse gumbo.

I also won't spill the beans on which business is cooking it, but I can tell you that on a completely unrelated note that The Daily Grind -- as of about an hour ago -- was out of roast beef.

Today, some folks opposed to what will be Proposal 5 stopped by and visited with the editorial board.

They were this year's first, but won't be the last.

The P.R. firm in charge of the campaign is the same one -- if I'm not mistaken -- that handled opposition to the Great Tobacco Cash Swindle from a few years ago. Back then, a guy name Dave Waymire ran the campaign. He's since left the firm and started his own. I didn't catch the name of the woman who coordinated today's visit, mostly because it usually takes about 10 minutes to clear the sweet, sweet music (and visions of flowers! ... and of pixies! ... and of little unicorn ponies!) from my head when I get to work.

But, the format of the visit was remarkably similar as in 2002. A few local folks -- County Commissioner Christine Alwood, Mt. Pleasant public safety director Bill Yeagley, Chamber president Jim Kostreva, and Paula Arndt of the Central Michigan Association of Realtors -- plus the hired P.R. gun.

Proposal 5 (here is the site for the folks in favor of it ... no endorsement intended) spends money from the general fund on education by short circuiting the legislative process. Mostly, from what I gathered, the real purpose is to pay teacher pensions (maybe, he says with shifty eyes, there will be a more thorough examination of the issue in a future edition). At least, that's what a read of the ballot language tells me.

The Morning Sun has agreed, as part of an ongoing project with The League of Women Voters, not to release ballot proposal endorsements until after publication of The League's Voters Guide near the end of October ... so we'll suspend until that time any comment that might appear editorial in nature. That includes the snarky ones that are kind of fun to make, since I've heard dark and sinister things about how the League handles people who break promises to it (kneecaps smashed, tires slashed, bricks thrown through windows, dead chickens hung above front doors ... the list goes on and on).

The maple across the street, in the last week, has a branch that went bright red. I hear the signal maple down in Island Park has already changed colors, too.

And, it was such a lovely summer.

Well, we returned from the Wheatland Music Festival yesterday, and I was thinking of stuff to toss up here, but I was frankly just too burned out to do more than write up today's piece and do my regular day job. I couldn't even watch much more than the first half of the Giants-Colts game before I staggered off to bed (that's my opening weekend of football season -- a few series on Sunday night). A few tidbits:

*--Following yesterday's Mamadou Diabate set, there was an interesting exchange near backstage. A couple of the Wheatland folks had a conversation about getting more of the group's CDs down to the performer sales area. There was apparently a rush immediately afterwards. The Morning Sun coverage team had to leave right away to get back to Mt. Pleasant to get the stories written for today's edition, but before I left I heard that it all got sorted out.

*--Buzz built immediately after his Saturday night set. There were more than a couple of folks I talked to who came down for his Sunday afternoon set -- when there is usually a thin exodus of people -- after hearing about what happened Saturday night. I was there for both, but didn't have a very good view Saturday night, and made sure I was there for Sunday afternoon in a pretty good seat. I've been to four festivals now, and this seems to happen at each one -- an artist previously unknown comes out and just blows away the crowd, and has everyone talking by the end of the weekend.

*--For the second year in a row, there was a music writer there with me. Chris Hatfield graduated from CMU's music program, and has also toured with his own indie rock group, Those Transatlantics. He also did a little writing for CM Life during his undergrad days, so I thought he'd be able to do stuff I couldn't do ... like cover the music.

*--I decided to write columns about the atmosphere and mood this year rather than straight journalism pieces because it's a more flexible format. It seems like every time, in the past, that I'd sit down to write something I'd find myself thinking, "Oh yeah, well what about this?" Atmospheric details are critical to understanding how the festival works. Everything in today's column, for instance, really happened how I described it. I really did wake up with charley horses, there really was someone yelling in the middle of the night (might not have been a hippie, but then again, it might have ... and hippies are always easy targets), there really were some very memorable performances at Centennial Stage, and someone really does come out to inspect the food vendors.

To leave one out would be to ignore an important facet. I tried Saturday to write a piece about how the lousy weather couldn't kill a performance by Ira Bernstein and Riley Baugus first thing (noon) Saturday. Unfortunately, I wound up trying to write too straight a piece. God, who I think hates a stretched premise, intervened with some "difficulties," and I wound up with just 300 words on the weather.

We're starting to run into territory best left suited for future festivals, like on the expertise required to pull one of these things off, the work that goes on behind the scenes, or alumni who show up for no reason other than that they like the festival.

Note: Eric Baerren and Chris Hatfield are currently embedded within the Wheatland Music Festival and sent this message back to us:


As the sun rises, the Highwoods campground in the northeast corner of the Wheatland Music Festival grounds is all but deserted. In the distance, however, is what on most days is an empty lot. The night before the festival begins, space is rented to campers and tents.


By 3p.m., the lines outside the festival grounds have disappeared, and campgrounds like Highwoods have filled.


The Morning Sun media complex at the Wheatland Music Festival.


Pat Harris, bass player for The Mountaintown Moonshiners.


Yellowjackets from this nest bedevilled the Mountaintown Moonshiners, scheduled to play tonight on Wheatland's Centennial Stage, while the band set up camp.

Note: Eric Baerren and Chris Hatfield are currently embedded within the Wheatland Music Festival and sent this message back to us:


As the sun rises, the Highwoods campground in the northeast corner of the Wheatland Music Festival grounds is all but deserted. In the distance, however, is what on most days is an empty lot. The night before the festival begins, space is rented to campers and tents.


By 3p.m., the lines outside the festival grounds have disappeared, and campgrounds like Highwoods have filled.


The Morning Sun media complex at the Wheatland Music Festival.


Pat Harris, bass player for The Mountaintown Moonshiners.


Yellowjackets from this nest bedevilled the Mountaintown Moonshiners, scheduled to play tonight on Wheatland's Centennial Stage, while the band set up camp.

A Rasmussen Poll released today puts Devos up 48-46; obviously, it's within the margin of error.
The same poll puts 77 percent of respondents rating the state's economy as "fair" or "poor," which has to be bad news for the gov.

All three mid-Michigan state senators seem to be lining up behind Sen. John McCain.

The Arizona Republican’s Straight Talk America political action committee announced today that Sen. Alan Cropsey of Dewitt, Michelle McManus of Lake Leelanau and Mike Goschka of Brant are among the 10 Michigan Senate co-chairs of the McCain group’s Michigan Legislative Advisory Team.

MCain's PAC, like Mitt Romney's Commonwealth PAC, is officially dedicated to collecting money for Republican candidates. In reality, they are essentially ways for McCain and Romney to announce they've gotten some endorsements and the backing of people on the ground. These PACs are ways to put together campaign organizations without officially declaring candidacies, when different rules apply.

Between Romney and McCain, the two have practically locked up the backing of most of the Republican lawmakers in Michigan. Now think about this: Romney’s been derided in some parts of the GOP as practically a loony leftist. People like Rush Limbaugh have long been bashing McCain, deriding him as part of the “soft center.”

Hmmmm. Al Cropsey backing someone in the “soft center?” McManus and Goschka getting behind someone whom commentator David Limbaugh, Rush’s brother, describes as “a long shot for the GOP presidential nomination because of his regrettable advocacy of campaign finance reform, his unpredictable temperament, his social liberalism and his pronounced disdain for Christian conservatives, which he reaffirmed quite recently.”

Something isn’t quite squaring up here.

The other Michigan Senate co-chairs of Straight Talk America are Sen. Jason Allen of Traverse City, Sen. Pattie Birkholtz of Saugatuck, Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo, Sen. Wayne Kuipers of Holland, Sen. Ron Jelinek of Three Oaks, Sen. Laura Toy of Livonia and Sen. Gerald Van Woerkom of Muskegon, obviously all screaming liberals.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dick Devos' media team has gone into high gear to try to discredit the latest ad from the state Democratic Party backing Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Early this morning, the Devos campaign released a statement describing it as a "lie." A press conference followed, followed by the release of a letter going to Michigan TV stations demanding that the "inaccurate, misleading and deceptive" ad be pulled. [UPDATE THURSDAY: The Devos campaign announced that WWTV-WWUP-TV, TV9&10, had, indeed, pulled the ad.]

The Democrats' ad trots out the thoroughly discredited claim that while he was president of Amway/Alticor, he sent Michigan jobs to China. It isn't true.

Amway opened a manufacturing plant in China in 1995 to serve the Chinese market. It was essentially a plant to put out finished products using materials partially processed in Michigan and California.

Three years later, Amway cut its bloated bureaucracy in Ada.

That's been twisted to "sent jobs to China."

Expect the Democrats to continue to make this claim. Even though it isn't true, it sounds true.

Why? We all know Michigan jobs have gone to China. We all know Amway has had a trust issue for years; anybody who's ever been trapped in a room with a circle-drawing Amway/Quixtar dream peddler has learned that the hard way.

That reputation of "Amway? Hold on to your wallet!" is hurting the GOP candidate, and allowing the Big Lie from the other side to stick.

It's sticking, even though Devos is telling the truth. Alticor, which is what the company is called now, actually employs more people in Ada today than Amway did in 1995.

But who's counting?

Is Bill Caul part of Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign team? According to a post over at Republican Michigander, he is. The conservative Howell blog seconded this post, at Hotline.

Romney's presidential chances, of course, could be greatly swayed by his performance this November, and most indications suggest that perhaps he ought to focus on the present rather than the Oval Office.

Amos Williams, Democratic candidate for attorney general, is the featured speaker at Thursday night's annual picnic. Details on the Isabella County Democratic Party's blog ... here (sheesh, everyone's got a blog these days).

A Sound Off caller asks where the land for the Bluegrass and Mission roundabout will come from, raising fears that we'd have to lose a 7-11 and Red Lobster to make room for it.

Not so, says Union Township planning guy Woody Woodruff.

Woodruff e-mails and says that the land for the roundabout will come from the Comfort Inn and the entrance to CMU on the other side of Mission. We also writes:

Specifically, the consuting group DLZ keeeps coming up with them, as do other consultants. The roundabout clearly is one of those things the experts support and lay people fear.

Other readers might remember that Alma's proposed traffic circles caused some consternation, and consultants involved in that project essentially said the same thing -- they're a better way to smooth traffic flow once people get used to them.

The riotously raunchy and ribald "Spartanette," who blogs for the East Lansing alternative Web site Spartan Edge, has a wonderful take on freshmen at Michigan State. Just change the locations and it's the same story in Empty Pleasant.

The polls might not agree on the numbers, but they do agree on the trend -- support for Gov. Granholm is on the upswing. The latest, from an Iowa polling firm, has the Guv. up on Dick DeVos by a pair of points. It's still within the margin or error, but a earlier poll by the same company had DeVos up on her by the largest margin of any of the polls. Now, Selzer has her up by the smallest margin among the polls. So, at least the trend is consistent.

That's changed the media angle on this ongoing campaign story. About a month ago, the standard media angle was that Granholm was in trouble. Now, the angle appears to be that Granholm has erased DeVos' lead in polls where it existed, and has gained the momentum. Next month, maybe David Broder will parachute in to update his annual Michigan column.

I don't suppose it's entirely inaccurate, but one would hope that less attention would be paid to how the race would play out if the election was today and more -- you know -- on how the two would govern.

Meanwhile, the same polling company says that half of Michigan voters would vote in favor of a mourning dove season, while 40 percent says they're against it. Of course, it's probably a little too early either way to get an idea of how these things will play out on election day -- early polls like this are notoriously inaccurate, and the final results can sway wildly depending on what happens in the last couple of weeks of the campaign.

Dracula will have a little competition this weekend. This is the weekend for the annual Wheatland Music Festival, which draws something like 10,000 (conservative estimate) to a small farm in Mecosta County's Wheatland Township. Ticket sales for the weekend are now closed, but day tickets for Sunday are still available and can be purchased at the gate for $25 for adults and $2 for seniors and kids aged 5-12.

This year, in keeping with an effort to promote the festival as a family event that focuses on keeping alive the traditional arts, and not a weekend-long party, the festival will again feature private security and patrolling sheriff's deputies. According to the latest edition of Quarter Notes, the organization's newsletter, if you plan to drink you're asked to keep your I.D. on you at all times -- you could be carded if you look younger than 21. If you get too rowdy (and aren't stashed away in an appropriately dark and secluded corner of The Lost World campground), you could get the boot from the festival grounds.

A couple other changes this year (mostly cosmetic) -- Expanded T-shirt sale hours (will it end the Sunday morning lines that stretch back along the craft sales tents) and a location swap between the Information Area and the Performers Sales area.

Again, as has been the case for the last few years, the Morning Sun (well, me and a stringer, and the odd photographer) will be on site all weekend, sending stories and photos back to Mt. Pleasant for publication. I'm still hoping to arrange the occasional Internet connection to post from the festival grounds.

Last year, the organization spent $485,438 towards programming designed to promote and preserve the traditional arts. They also tossed a nice-sized chunk of change to a Louisiana effort designed to prevent the loss of the culture and heritage of southern Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (the festival every year features a Cajun band the plays a dance that is essentially the center of the festival once the main stage shows end for the day).

This weekend marks the start of the two-weekend run of Dracula at the Broadway Theatre, a production by The Broadway Players. Show times are, well, I'm frankly too lazy to write it all down, and I'd probably get it wrong anyway. But, we can go to the source.

Okay, skip the lazy journalism: Show times are 7 p.m. this Friday and Sept. 16, and 3 p.m. Saturday and Sept. 17. There's a premiere performance Friday at 6 p.m., and $30 gets you in the door to mingle with the cast, for snacks, and for general opening night nuttiness.

Tickets for other performances are $7 for students and seniors; $8 for adults. They're available at the Mt. Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, Ace of Diamonds, Ric's Food Center, the Doherty Hotel in Clare, and Shepherd IGA in ... well ... Shepherd.

If you've cruised through parts of Mt. Pleasant's downtown lately, you might notice that some of the maple leaves have a black blotches on the leaves.

I noticed it a couple of years ago while living north of downtown. Now, living just west of downtown (between downtown and the Chippewa River south of Broadway), I can see it again.

From what I've gathered, it appears to be something called Tar Spots. Not lethal, probably no need to worry.

On the other hand, if you've got a garden, or have driven past a garden or farmer's field and seen the cucurbit leaves wilting under a dense sheet of white ... it's a mildew, and it's killing the plants.

Most of my squash is already gone. The summer squash especially has taken a beating (almost luckily, since I've got so much of it these days I'm just giving it away), and although I ought to get enough winter -- acorn and butternut especially -- squash to last me the winter, those will soon succumb, too.