Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganCommittee to Ban Fracking Wins Court of Appeals Lawsuit!
Thursday , 2, April 2020 Election 2020, Environment Leave a comment
Are You Ready For Some Good News? The Committee to Ban Fracking, the intrepid organization from Charlevoix, Michigan, won their lawsuit in the Michigan Court of Appeals on April 2, 2020. The years-long battle to give the citizens of Michigan the right to decide if they want fracking to continue to Michigan now goes to the Secretary of State. If all goes the way it should, the people of Michigan will have the opportunity to bran fracking in the state.
On November 5, 2018, the committee brought 270,962 signatures to the State of Michigan Bureau of Elections. Enough valid signatures would put the ballot proposal on the 2020 ballot. The Director of Elections refused to take the 47 boxes of petitions. The Committee to Ban Fracking sued the Director of Elections and the Secretary of State in the Michigan Court of Appeals. The court refused to take any action on the suit.
The Director of Elections tried to illegally change their mind on an earlier court ruling in 2016 when the court told the Committee to Ban Fracking when they collected enough additional signatures they could file their petitions. Two years later, the Director of Elections attempted to block that filing.
On Thursday, April 2, 2020, the Court of Appeals decided for the plaintiffs. They did everything required and the Board of Canvassers must treat the filing as if successfully filed on November 5, 2018. That means the ballot proposal was filed in time for the 2020 election.
“In sum, plaintiffs submitted an initiative petition that was facially compliant with all statutory requirements. The Secretary was required to pass it on to the Board for the Board to determine the validity of the petition and canvass the signatures. If the Board rejects the petition, plaintiff may seek review before the Supreme Court. See MCL 168.479.”
What happens next is the Board of Canvassers will certify that the committee gathered enough valid signatures within the 180-day window (they did). The State Legislature then has 40 days to enact the proposal. If they do nothing, it goes to the 2020 general election ballot.
Congratulations and thank you to the Committee to Ban Fracking. All of your hard work will give the people of Michigan the opportunity to let their voices be heard.
Great Lakes Tissue Toilet Paper Sale Every Wednesday: The Times We Live In
Tuesday , 17, March 2020 Community Leave a comment
Today is the March 10, 2020 Michigan Presidential Primary!
Tuesday , 10, March 2020 Election 2020, Presidential Primary 2020 Leave a comment
It’s vitally important that every registered voter goes to the polls today and vote. There are some important changes with voting in 2020 thanks to people voting for those changes in the 2018 general election.
You can now vote by absentee ballot without a specific reason for needing one. If you didn’t get your ballot in the mail, you have until 8:00 PM tonight to deliver it in person to the County Clerk’s office.
If you’re not registered to vote and want to vote, you can register to vote today by going to your county or city clerk’s office or township office. If you will be 18 on or before November 3, 2020, you are eligible to vote and can register today. Bring a form of ID or proof you live in the voting precinct when you register. Go do it now!
No excuses, Michigan. Vote!
Now ICE Leases TWO Prisons in Michigan
Thursday , 20, February 2020 GEO Group, Punk Prison, Trumpenreich Leave a comment
On February 12, 2020 the Lake County Board of Commissioners approved with unanimous vote to accept a contract from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The contract will allow ICE to move prisoners from North Lake Correctional Facility, owned by GEO Group, to the shuttered Lake County jail annex located in Baldwin.
The annex up until October of 2019 was leased by the Michigan Department of Corrections as part of their Residential Reentry Program. The facility housed parolees, men and women prisoners, and eventually expanded into residential reentry. The facility, which has a capacity of 300 only had 20 residents at the time of its closure. The building is owned by Lake County and the dwindling population provided by MDOC couldn’t justify the cost of keeping the jail open.
The promise of rehiring personnel laid off with the closure of the jail annex persuaded the Lake County Board of Commissioners to unanimously vote in favor of the offer made by ICE. This new ICE facility will work with the Lake County Sheriff Department which currently handles transporting prisoners from NLCF. Undersheriff Wesley Bierling says rehiring corrections staff will take pressure off the County Sheriff for transportation.
Over the last six months, they have had around 200 releases. Every day we would be driving somewhere, picking someone up and dropping them off somewhere else. That would require two corrections officers from our jail.
Not only will the Lake County Sheriff provide transportation for prisoners released from NLCF, they will also work with ICE to transport anywhere within the ICE field office based in Grand Rapids, which services 13 counties in West Michigan.
When the Lake County jail annex closed last year, the County Board of Commissioners was faced with the problem of finding someone who could legally use the facility. Publicly owned facilities cannot be leased to private companies. The fact that an ICE facility will be located on a major Michigan highway, M 37, should also be cause for concern.
ICE is coming to northern Michigan. The Democratic Party winning the election in November becomes more critical every day.
Enjoy an Extra Day of Michigan Free Fishing Weekend with This Cool Trick: Fish Hate It
Monday , 10, February 2020 DNR Leave a comment
The first Michigan Free Fishing Weekend of 2020 will be this Saturday, February 15, through Monday, February 17, 2020. During this weekend, anyone in Michigan can fish without a license. All other fishing regulations still apply. Anyone wanting to use boating access sites at state parks during the Michigan Free Fishing Weekend can do so for free.
This coming weekend is also the time The Michigan Department of Natural Resources will be upgrading their license and permit purchasing system. If you need to buy a permit or license for anything other than fishing, you need to apply for it now or wait until 12:00 PM on Tuesday, February 18, 2020, when the new purchasing system goes live.
And since you can’t buy any fishing licenses until then, the DNR will allow an extra day of Michigan Free Fishing Weekend on Monday, February 17, 2020. State parks will also be free on Monday.
Many state parks have planned events happening during the Michigan Free Fishing Weekend. Winter festivals, ice fishing derbies and other events are already scheduled all over the state. You can check for dates and locations at by clicking this link.
Enjoy an extra day of free fishing this weekend during the DNR’s Michigan Free Fishing Weekend this February 15th through the 17th.
@TruckerRandy and Friends Use “Resolution” to Nullify Common-Sense Gun Laws: It’s Not Very Effective
Monday , 3, February 2020 MAGA, Sad!, Trumpenreich Leave a comment
Have you bothered to read the minutes of your County Board of Commissioners lately? When did you last attend a meeting? Have you ever attended a meeting? True, they like to convene those meetings during the middle of the day when most people are at work. If you’re too busy to be bothered to even read up on what’s happening, keep in mind the people Up North Progressive is going to talk about today definitely are going to meetings, and what they’re up to is alarming.
Red hats, second amendment fetishists, and valknut wearing neo-nazis converged on Richmond, Virginia, on January 20, 2020, to protest the state’s legislature adopting common-sense gun laws to protect Virginians. Most Americans regarded the midlife crisis LARP at the Virginia capital a bad day to find parking in Richmond. For the participants, however, it was a call to bring the crazy back to their home state.
Randy Bishop aka “Trucker Randy” attended the Type 2 Diabeetus gathering for 2A rally. Now he’s back in Michigan using his radio show and social media for his Second Amendment resolution campaign. This is how it works:
- Download this blank resolution document, edit out (YOUR COUNTY’S NAME) and replace it with your county’s name.
- Take it to your County Board of Commissioners meeting and demand they put it on their agenda and bring it to a vote.
- Call up all of your 2A loving friends and have them show up at the meeting so it looks like lots of people support it.
- …
- PROFIT!
According to Trucker Randy and everyone else involved in this project, this magic document will nullify any common-sense gun law they don’t like. The magic 2A sanctuary county resolution empowers the County Sheriff to ignore state and federal government laws involving guns.
What Randy Bishop and his gun-loving friends don’t understand is that resolutions at the county level deal with policies for how the county government will function. These policies affect the budget, personnel, the various agencies and so on. There are limits to a County government’s legislative powers. All resolutions and ordinances passed by the local government require permission from the Governor. Any policy or ordinance that conflicts with laws at the state level is not enforceable.
The red flag law Trucker Randy and the rest of the 2A gun fetishists are worried about was introduced last year to the Michigan Legislature but hasn’t been assigned to a committee. These people are so terrified of their guns being taken away they think they need this resolution in place before a law exists. Protection to do things like this.
Or this.
Or this.
Or this.
Their agenda is to intimidate every County Board of Commissioners into passing this resolution. Five counties have approved it so far, and there will be more in a matter of days. Now would be a good time to take the time to check in on what’s happening. These people will be there demanding their 2A protection resolution in your county as soon as possible.
Want to Vote Early in the March 10 Michigan Presidential Primary? Here’s How!
Friday , 24, January 2020 Election 2020, Presidential Primary 2020 Leave a comment
Apply for a no-reason absentee ballot and you will receive your ballot in the mail. You have from now until March 10, 2020, to vote in the Michigan presidential primary. Want to be a permanent voter by mail? Contact your local Democratic Party and they can assist you with making your absentee ballot application permanent.
The State of Michigan Water 2020: Nestle Enbridge and now Michigan Potash LLC
Wednesday , 22, January 2020 Enbridge Line 5, Environment, Flint Water, Michigan Potash LLC, Michigan Water, Nestlé Leave a comment
2020 is a big year for the state of Michigan’s water. Nestlé Waters looks forward to pumping 400 gallons of fresh water out of Osceola County every minute. Enbridge makes plans to begin building their tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac. PFA testing and cleanup continue across the state. It couldn’t possibly get worse. In Osceola County, a geologist from Colorado wants to pump 1200 gallons of water every minute to extract potash, endangering groundwater and vulnerable wetlands. This is the year he might get started.
Since 2013, Ted Pagano struggled to become a Michigan potash tycoon after seeing core mineral samples at Western Michigan University. Around the same time, Mosaic ceased extracting potash from the ground in Evart, Michigan. Mosaic closed shop because the bottom fell out of the world potash market in 2013, and the market has not recovered.
.
The three main potash producers globally are Russia, Belarus, and Canada. Russian and Belarusian potash producers controlled the potash price through their cartel until 2013, when the cartel fell apart over fighting between the two countries’ potash producers. The potash price has made sluggish gains since then but nowhere near the cartel-controlled price levels of 2013. Despite the abandoned building and rusting equipment of Mosaic Salt littering the landscape outside Evart, Pagano insists that 65 Billion dollars of a mineral that’s already in surplus worldwide will bring jobs and prosperity to the northwest lower peninsula. Like Nestle Waters, GEO Group, Chesapeake Energy, and every other billion-dollar corporation trying to exploit this region of the state starved for jobs and revenue has claimed and failed.
The sluggish market isn’t the only problem with Pagano’s potash fever dream. How will Michigan Potash transport minerals? The railroad that once ran through this area pulled up tracks decades ago. Will Pagano tear up our crumbling roads hauling potash with trucks? Transporting the potash is the least of many concerns Pagano’s vague plans will have on the region’s water and wildlife.
Lawsuits from groups like Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation struggle to make it through Michigan’s courts. The next time MCWC can file briefs fighting Michigan Potash is March 20, 2020. A November hearing with the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (Formerly MDEQ) left the issue undecided. Earlier in 2019, a judge refused to rule on the case claiming the court had no jurisdiction.
However, the next environmental threat to Michigan’s water doesn’t come from extracting potash from the ground but from what happens with the waste and how Michigan Potash LLC disposes of it.
Let the Beauty of Michigan’s Porcupine Mountains Inspire You as an Artist In Residence
Monday , 6, January 2020 Upper Peninsula Leave a comment
The Porcupine Mountains Artist-in-Residence Program for Spring, Summer, and Fall, 2020, and Winter, 2021, residencies are accepting applications until February 14, 2020, for any artist interested in a chance to create art while living in the pristine forest of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park; Michigan’s largest state park
For two weeks, artists have the opportunity to live in the park where rivers, waterfalls, wooded mountain peaks, the Lake Superior shoreline are there to inspire and enchant any artist’s creative spirit. The virgin forest hosts numerous wildlife plant life for writers, artists, composers, and performing artists to experience the beauty of the park.
The artist will have a cabin located on the Little Union River to stay during the residency, and the opportunity for a three-night backcountry trip to explore more of the park. During the residency, artists will share their experiences with the public through demonstrations and lectures.
The final selection of residencies will be based on the artist’s ability to live in a rustic wilderness, the willingness to donate a finished piece inspired by their stay at the park, and their ability to interpret the park through their art. All forms of art will be considered except those that are considered inconsistent with the park’s mission.
The deadline to apply for any of the residency periods offered is February 14, 2020. For more information and to apply, go to the Friends of the Porkies website.
Good luck to all the applicants!
