A Special Kind of Stupid: @Todd_Courser @GaryGlennUS @CindyGamrat and the Obtuse Electoral Vote-Rigging Bill

Sunday , 8, March 2015 Up North Progressive Presidential Primary 2016, Tea Party, Tealiban 4 Comments

Back in November Pete Lund came up with a really bad idea. Let’s split the electoral votes Michigan has in the presidential election between the winner and runner up. That way, the state becomes even more irrelevant to candidates who need to win the most electoral votes to make it to the 270 finish line and become the next President of the United States.

Michigan has 16 electoral votes, and despite losing votes due to shrinking population the state is still an important “swing state” in the presidential election. This means presidential candidates will come to Michigan and campaign more than other states where there are fewer electoral votes. HB 4310 if it were to become law would cause the opposite to happen. What’s the point of coming to Michigan to campaign when the most electoral votes you are guaranteed to win out of 16 is 11? This means Michigan will have the electoral power of a state like Oregon, which has 2 million registered voters. Michigan as 7.3 million registered voters. The Republicans in Michigan want to disenfranchise 5 million Michigan voters.

Why would tea party legislators want to do this? Because making millions of votes in Michigan not count means their garbage tea party candidate has a better chance of winning the state, or at least the majority of electoral votes in the state. They really believe this will help Michigan look better in the election. They’re wrong.

Here is what was said about this stupid idea in November on Up North Progressive:

House Bill 5974 4310 is not about making Michigan more enticing in a national election. The purpose of this stupid idea is to figure out a way to make sure a Republican wins more electoral votes in Michigan even if the Democratic candidate wins more popular votes. The Nerd said he would veto this bill if it makes it to the governor’s desk, but you can’t trust Snyder with anything he says. He likes lying to the people of Michigan too much when it suits him.

And the same holds true three months later. The Republican Party has nothing to offer the American people except a terrible ideology that embraces racism, hatred of women, unfair labor practices that put more people in poverty, and increased isolation in a world that grows more globally aware every day. Real election reform that fights the fraud Cindy Gamrat, Todd Courser and Gary Glenn want includes no-reason absentee voting, legislation to end gerrymandering of districts (and makes terrible bills like HB 4310 more desirable to the GOP), and possibly even state-wide vote by mail, which would ensure the most voter participation and render Republican election fraud obsolete. It takes a special kind of stupid to dredge up a really stupid idea like HB 4310, but consider the source.

Tom Casperson Just Can’t Take No For An Answer: SR 9 Approved To Support Construction of Marquette County Road 595

Saturday , 7, March 2015 Up North Progressive Environment 1 Comment

On March 3, 2015 a Senate resolution co-sponsored by Tom Casperson and Patrick Colbeck was adopted. The resolution supports the Marquette County Road Commission’s lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s ruling denying them building County Road 595 in 2013. Eagle Mine says they need the new road because it’s a shortcut to the Humboldt Mill 21 miles away. The only problem with this shortcut is it also cuts through the Dead River, the Yellow Dog Watersheds, The Mulligan Creek headwaters, Voelker Creek, Wildcat Canyon and other federally protected wetlands.

Now it appears that Tom Casperson and the Marquette County Road Commission think a few resolutions will make the Environmental Protection Agency back down and allow the road to be built, despite public outcry from residents and property owners. Others who oppose the road being built include the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, The Marquette County Board of Road Commissioners. and Save the Wild UP, which claims that the county road commission is attempting to circumvent federal regulations and go ahead with the road project.

The road would jeopardize waterways, ground water and drinking water for the local community. The road would also be almost exclusively used for commercial traffic from Eagle Mine. In 2012 when discussion about the proposed road took place, the issue with protecting wetlands and providing alternative routes were discussed, but nothing that satisfied current wetland protection regulations. The US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Army Corps of Engineers asked the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to deny construction of the road, because of the negative impact on protected wetlands.

Now in 2015 the Marquette County Road Commission considers a lawsuit against the EPA and Casperson pushes resolutions to support the road. Eagle Mine promised when they were approved to go into business that they would haul the ore from the mine to a railroad line and move the ore by rail to Humboldt Mill. Rather than make the mine owners keep their promise, Casperson and Colbeck want to undermine the EPA and build a road the feds have already told them they can’t build.

Eagle Mine needs to keep their promise and use the railroad to haul their ore, not destroy wetlands by building a road they were already told once they can’t build. Political theater supporting corporate interests should not be our elected official’s primary purpose.

Jay McNally Doesn’t Want To Answer Questions About Tea Party Charter School

Friday , 6, March 2015 Up North Progressive Section 16, Tea Party 2 Comments

It’s fun to watch people who deserve attention finally get it. Especially Jay McNally, Pasquale Battaglia, John Conely and Nick Fiani; all members of the team working to make American Christian Academy American Classical Academy Lindbom Classical Academy Livingston Classical Academy a reality in Brighton.

Except these guys don’t like the attention they’re getting. They don’t seem to understand that once they take public money to open a school, the community has every right to know what they’re doing with their tax dollars. It’s almost as if they were unprepared for what it means to open a for-profit charter school in the first place. They certainly don’t know how to handle the media when they’re asked perfectly reasonable questions. Even more puzzling when the guy answering questions is supposed to be a professional in journalism and public relations. His refusal to answer questions from WHMI and instead reply with a “I’m not going to answer your questions” response however can give us some insight into what the problem is. Let’s take McNally’s response line by line.

In the past few days I have been repeatedly misquoted by WHMI

“WHMI has been reporting facts that I don’t agree with.”

… and have tried to correct factual errors by corresponding with the news director to no avail.

“The news director at WHMI is not Roger Ailes, thus has no interest in providing the proper spin on facts in the way we’re accustomed to our “news” being delivered, preferably with an attractive blonde female.”

Thus, at this time, we decline to answer WHMI’s questions. Most news organizations allow feedback through letters to the editor or in a website combox…

“i.e. Fox News, The Blaze, Breitbart, The Daily Caller, and local talk radio that carries Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity provide the kind of echo chamber we’re used to enjoying.”

Thanks to Saint Ronnie Reagan, news organizations are no longer required to allow equal time for opposing views. The fairness doctrine was a good thing, but Republicans didn’t think so. That’s why they got rid of it in 1987 and WHMI doesn’t have to allow you feedback if they don’t feel like it.

but not WHMI.

Praise Saint Ronnie!

When asked if there was a way for us to present information to WHMI that will not be edited or censored, the news director replied, “As far as a method to convey your message without editing, purchasing advertising is your only avenue.”

Yay, capitalism!

The radio station did nothing wrong, and don’t have to give the whatever classical charter school a platform. If they don’t like having to pay for advertising, they could, you know, answer the questions provided by WHMI. They’re four questions, and none of them are hard to answer.

Unless the “God and country education project” has something to hide.

Game, Set, Match: The Continuing Story of Dr. Steve Ingersoll (But continuing how much longer?)

Thursday , 5, March 2015 Up North Progressive Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 Leave a comment

Yesterday the Up North Progressive had the pleasure of eating lunch with a group of dedicated public school education professionals working at a juvenile detention program. While chatting over our turkey soup, pork fried rice, and pizza, a quick browse through the local headlines brought up the most wonderful news: Testimony from an attorney who had represented Grand Traverse Academy in the past that Steve Ingersoll had told the school board of the for-profit charter school, Grand Traverse Academy, he needed help from them reclassifying money he took from the for-profit charter school on their books because he couldn’t pay then back and pay the taxes on it. This excellent news had to be read twice it was that good, and then shared with the other teachers eating lunch.

The teachers had all heard of GTA, and some of them knew about the fraud trial. The Up North Progressive gave them a quick recap of the investigation, how taxpayer money had been shuffled around to make it disappear from the books and reappear in Ingersoll’s personal bank account for decades, and now testimony had been offered that he knew he was stealing money from GTA and even asked the board to cover it up for him. They were all shocked of course, because anyone working in public education knows how for-profit charter schools siphon money away from public schools leaving less for public schools to effectively educate, while people such as Steve Ingersoll treat our tax dollars like his personal bank.

The discussion shifted to how Ingersoll is an optometrist not an educator and how he used his for-profit charter schools to push his vision therapy, IVL, as an alternative to special education services and his claim that IVL cures ADHD and Autism. The special ed teacher sitting at the table looked up from their lunch and smiled, “We’ve had a couple of kids from GTA come here. They were not cured.”

Let Dr. Steve Ingersoll be the poster child for School Choice. He’s certainly earned it.

Our Christian School Was Never A Christian School: Isn’t Lying One of the Thou Shalt Nots?

Tuesday , 3, March 2015 Up North Progressive Section 16 2 Comments

Yesterday Jay McNally of American Christian Academy American Classical Academy Lindbom Classical Academy Livingston Classical Academy wrote a rebuttal to Eclectablog after a series of articles were published on the blog reporting the treatment of Glenn and Sue Ellen Ikens after they tried to enter the Lindbom Elementary School last Saturday for an “open to the public” open house. McNally called Ikens a unionist (as if belonging to a union is a crime), and claimed he was behaving in a threatening manner that made the owner of the building, our friend Pasquale Battaglia, call the police.

The rebuttal goes on to say that no one from Eclectablog ever spoke to Battaglia or anyone else involved with opening their for-profit charter school. As for the term Tea Party Charter School, that was the title given to the first article published on Up North Progressive about Battaglia and his plans to open his school in Brighton. The purpose of that article was to showcase Battaglia’s rampant racism, homophobia, hatred of Islam, and his blatant disrespect for the president and first lady on social media. Essentially, anyone who doesn’t fit into Battaglia’s narrow fundamentalist Christian ultra nationalist ideology deserves his abuse as far as he’s concerned. And he wants to open schools where children will be taught this same bigotry and ignorance.

I have briefly exchanged words with Battaglia over social media. He used the word progressive against me as if it were an insult, asked me if I was Anonymous and did I just get back from Ferguson, and then told me the reason Jefferson sent the Navy to fight the Barbary Wars was to destroy Islam.

Jay McNally also insists the charter schools they want to open in Brighton, Warren, and Ann Arbor were never intended to be Christian schools. Up North Progressive has already written about the origins of the “classical” academy model and offered evidence to prove McNally’s statement is false. But if that’s not enough, then by all means, let’s go to the source.

On October 21, 2011, Pasquale Battaglia wrote a blog on the Lapeer County Tea Party Patriots website with the title, “The God and Country Education Project.” This is also part of the title of an 80 page ebook on Amazon written by Matthew May being sold for the bargain price of $5.99. There are no reviews and it’s non-existent in site rankings. Battaglia rambles through the blog with plenty of grammatical errors and jarring turns of phrase, but through it his intentions for his for-profit charter schools are clear. He states that, “schools of choice will not be a good choice as long as there was a government hand on the curriculum and the purse strings.” He is correct of course, as schools of choice will never be a good choice, but it’s ironic that he eschews government involvement in his schools while he’s begging the government to fund them.

Battaglia then gets all nostalgic, describing a scene from Little House on the Prairie where the school was a perfect harmonious microcosm of the local community and, “the first and foremost “text book” was always the Holy Bible.” So much for claims that Battaglia’s tax-funded schools will be non-religious.

The real meat of this blog however is his reasoning for doing this. Battaglia believes if he can open these schools nationwide then children can be indoctrinated into fundamentalist Christian ultra nationalist ideology, and those “classical” academy children will grow up to be god-fearing patriotic voters. He wraps up his blog quoting Samuel Adams and Joseph Stalin. Still haven’t figured out which one is God and which one is country.

Battaglia, McNally and everyone else involved with this for-profit charter school can make the case that they really intended all along for their school to not be a religious school, but Hillsdale College is a college with a far-right fundamentalist Christian doctrine. The classical academies they have opened with the Barney charter school project make no effort to hide the fact they are Christian in origin and use curriculum that teaches creationism. Honestly, who do they think they’re fooling? Glenn and Sue Ellen Ikens, and the other people of the Brighton community who don’t want Battaglia’s schools to open know the truth. That is the reason why the people behind Livingston Classical Academy feel threatened.

If nothing else, Battaglia hasn’t toned down the hate and vitriol on his twitter account.

1994 Michigan Militia “Brass Roots” Plaque Installation Bill Reintroduced To The Michigan House

Saturday , 28, February 2015 Up North Progressive Tea Party Leave a comment

In 1994, Libertarian Senate candidate Jon Coon held a rally on the Michigan capital steps. 10,000 people, many of them from the Michigan Militia, attended the event. Along with speakers such as Ted Nugent, Gary Stewart of Speak Out America, and Ray Southwell of the Michigan Militia. Hundreds of pounds of spent brass shell casings were donated and melted down into the above plaque. For 21 years, 2nd amendment fans have worked to get the Brass Roots plaque placed permanently on the Michigan capital lawn as a memorial for those who refuse to give up their guns.

The mid 1990s were a tumultuous time in the United States. After the 1993 standoff at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and the bombing of the federal government building in Oklahoma City in 1995, many people believed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms was going to take away people’s guns. This led to a blatant misinterpretation of the 2nd amendment of the U.S. Constitution and groups of people who liked wearing military gear and carrying guns began to pop up around the country. The Michigan Militia became infamous when the FBI and BATF arrived at a Decker farmhouse to arrest co-conspirators Terry and James Nichols, the brothers who assisted Timothy McVeigh in making the fertilizer bomb that destroyed the federal building in Oklahoma, and took McVeigh with them to at least one Michigan Militia meeting.

The new bill trying to get the plaque out of storage is HB 4240. Introduced on February 25, 2015, it is part of a bill amending the Michigan State Historic Site Act. This bill, like the bill introduced last year numbered HB 5595 is sponsored by Martin Howrylak. Last year’s bill never got out of committee.

In the 21 years since the plaque was made, not one law infringing on second amendment rights has happened in this state, or anywhere else in the United States. We can still buy and own guns despite the FBI and BATF existing. In fact, many of the laws that gave the BATF their teeth have been throttled by Republican politicians through NRA lobbying. In 2015 we have people carrying assault weapons into grocery stores and restaurants, insisting not allowing them to do so infringes on their 2nd amendment rights.

HB 4240 hopefully will end up just like previous bills to put this plaque created by the likes of Ted Nugent and the Michigan Militia on the lawn of our capital – mothballed.

“Efficacy of the Curriculum is Relevant to the Charges”: The Continuing Story of Dr. Steve Ingersoll

Saturday , 28, February 2015 Up North Progressive Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 1 Comment

Up North Progressive recently had the distinction of being featured on Diane Ravitch’s blog this week. The Steve Ingersoll trial received much deserved national exposure when two teachers’ accounts of their experiences working for Dr. Ingersoll, published on this blog, was quoted by MSU Music Education Professor, Dr. Mitchell Robinson. More people need to know the state of for-profit charter schools in Michigan, their lack of oversight from authorizers, and the continued operation of poor-performing “schools” receiving our tax funds.

The comments on Ravitch’s blog were especially revealing. One commenter has experience with the machine Ingersoll used at LDA to test students’ eye movements and prescribe Integrated Visual Learning:

Back in 1968, I was a reading specialist who worked in a federally funded project. We were “encouraged” to use this same tracking approach. It was called a Controlled Reader. There were probably 1,000-2000 kids we serviced. Everyone had to use these machines for part of their instruction. At the end of the project, reading eye cameras were used to track the eye movements as children read texts. The result of this research study was that there was no significant difference between groups who used the machines and a control group.

If only it were possible to discover if Dr. Ingersoll’s controlled reader machine was from the 1960’s.

It’s important to bring up IVL again because this week during the ongoing trial in Bay City, Ingersoll’s ‘innovative’ curriculum came up after reading Cole Waterman and Miss Fortune’s most recent accounts of the ongoing proceedings. The Smart Schools model was brought up by prosecution and defense.

During the hearing, the government argued that the efficacy of the curriculum—that is, the successes of the Smart Schools model—was irrelevant to the charges in the indictment. Defense counsel for Steven Ingersoll claimed that the information may be “relevant to his state of mind but that the issue of relevancy should be determined during the trial”. Ludington agreed, noting that a relevancy determination would depend on the factual situation presented at trial.

It appears that IVL may be used as part of the defense to prove that Ingersoll’s vision therapy has beneficial results; that his claims of curing 90% of children with ADHD attending his school were so successful, that they were taken off Ritalin. What evidence can the defense provide to prove IVL’s success? The only study available to the public is the 20 year old “Brighton Study” which has never been peer reviewed and as far as anyone knows, has never been independently researched to find if the initial results were even accurate. Of the people so far willing to disclose their observations about IVL in Ingersoll’s schools, they were unimpressed, never saw anyone cured, or found their children’s academic achievement falling behind their peers in public schools. This has never stopped Ingersoll from claiming that IVL is superior to current, research-based Special Education programs used in schools nationwide today.

The large gains made by the IVL and syntonics combined group may indicate a dramatic new avenue to be used as a special education intervention.

In actuality, Ingersoll and his IVL partner, Dr. Mark Noss believe IVL should replace Special Education. From what limited access to IVL is available, and from what those who have experience with it have said, it’s doubtful Ingersoll’s brand of vision therapy can claim to be very  successful.

Using the efficacy of Steve Ingersoll’s curriculum to prove he’s not a fraud will be entertaining at least. Thank you, Judge Ludington for allowing the defense to present this incredible evidence. More on the trial will be posted here when available.

The Conservative Political Action Conference Has Begun: Try To Contain Your Glee

Thursday , 26, February 2015 Up North Progressive Candidates, Presidential Primary 2016, Tea Party Leave a comment

Every year the most far right of the conservative fringe flock together to Washington D.C. for a three day orgy of ultra-conservative values conferencing, keynote speakers and breakout sessions. The purpose is to rally the base, motivate youth to join their cause, and anoint the most exalted among them for the 2016 presidential election with a straw poll. It’s the royal palace of echo chambers, and only the most ideologically pure are invited to attend.

Of course, it might be a good idea to check if you have the stomach to handle watching even a few seconds of CPAC coverage. Mash the button on this classic from a 2012 breakout session and see how long you last. One of the “rappers” in this video is Steven Crowder. Yes, that Steven Crowder.

Only the strongest can pass that test.

Speakers at CPAC are all of the people one would expect to come to a right-wing echo chamber. Sarah Palin hopefully hasn’t sobered up too much from the Iowa Freedom Summit and will provide more incredible convoluted word salads for us all to snicker at. One speaker’s name comes as a surprise – not because he’s less than conservative enough, but that he’s not a red-blooded guns and guts American. Nigel Farage heads the United Kingdom Independent Party. The best way to describe UKIP is they’re the British answer to the tea party. Nigel makes Maggie Thatcher look like a bleeding heart liberal.

Some of the highlights of the CPAC agenda’s list of speakers, breakout sessions, workshops and panel discussions include:

  • The Conservative Replacement to Obamacare
  • America the Military Superpower: What is the Right Size for our Military?
  • Frack That! What Is Fracking and How Will it Change America?
  • Reining in a Lawless President: Obamnesty and Other Pen and Phone Affronts.
  • Supply-side Strategy: Exposing and Confronting the Abortion Industry as Big Business.
  • Can Islam and Democracy Co-Exist?
  • How Capitalism Empowers the Poor

The grand finale of CPAC is the straw poll. This year is important, as 2016 presidential hopefuls want to make the best impression for that totally important nod from the nation’s conservatives, and is a good barometer of the Republican Party’s honest chances of winning the White House.

There’s plenty of fun things happening outside of the conference too, as this video from the 2012 CPAC conference shows when some Occupy Wall Street protesters were graced by the appearance of the late Andrew Breitbart.

So load up CPAN online if you can, listen to the speakers (if they ever get their audio equipment working this weekend), and immerse yourself in what conservative America would look like if these people were in charge.

Horrifying thought, isn’t it?

Both of These Are Just Like The Other: Both of These Do Not Belong

Wednesday , 25, February 2015 Up North Progressive Michigan Women Leave a comment

At the same time HB 4147, the bill that requires public schools to allow all and any form of public religious expression to take place anywhere and any time on school property was introduced, another house bill, HB 4140 was sponsored and sent to committee. This bill is just as ridiculous, but for completely different reasons. It’s not alone either, for over in the Senate there is an almost identical bill called S 84. These bills are almost identical because they are written by an organization from Florida called Choose Life Inc. The founder of this organization is ultraconservative former county commissioner and plumber Randy Harris.

What do these bills want to do?

Both bills, if passed, would require the state to offer an anti-choice license plate with the phrase “choose life” on it and make it available for sale at the Secretary of State offices in the state.

But wait, there’s more!

  • The S.O.S and Choose Life Michigan fund will design the plate.
  • The Choose Life fund will be created by the Michigan state treasury and managed by the Secretary of State
  • the S.O.S places the fees collected for the Choose Life fund license plate into the Choose Life fund account set up by the state treasury.
  • The money in the Choose Life fund account will be disbursed to the Choose Life Michigan fund by the State Treasurer.
  • The money specifically must be used to pay for anti-choice projects promoting alternatives to abortion, such as, crisis pregnancy centers, other anti-choice groups, such as Right to Life, anti-choice media campaigns that target minorities, teens, college age women and post abortive women.
  • adoption campaigns.
  • The money in this fund will never go into the state general fund.

A license plate fund raiser that anti-choice groups can use to pay for facilities that coerce and scare women into not having an abortion, and media campaigns that shame and humiliate women possibly considering abortions. All of this maintained and managed by our public institutions paid for by our tax dollars. The problem with this of course is the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, but also Article 1, Section 4 of the Michigan State Constitution.

Every person shall be at liberty to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. No person shall be compelled to attend, or, against his consent, to contribute to the erection or support of any place of religious worship, or to pay tithes, taxes or other rates for the support of any minister of the gospel or teacher of religion. No money shall be appropriated or drawn from the treasury for the benefit of any religious sect or society, theological or religious seminary; nor shall property belonging to the state be appropriated for any such purpose. The civil and political rights, privileges and capacities of no person shall be diminished or enlarged on account of his religious belief.

The Senate and House bills, because they’re identical, violate both Federal and State constitutions. If these bills were to become law, the chances of lawsuits being filed seem likely. In North Carolina, the ACLU successfully sued the state assembly in that state because they refused to allow pro-choice license plates, but voted in favor of the Choose Life fund plates. That ruling is currently on appeal. In Michigan in 1995, Pam O’Leary was told by then Secretary of State Candace Miller she had to surrender her vanity license plates because they read 4 RU 486 on them. The S.O.S office later backed down when it became public they had also approved anti-choice vanity plates but had no intention of demaning their surrender.

Of course, if these plates are approved, then pro-choice plates would have to be approved too, and provided the same benefits of the Choose Life fund plates. The S.O.S would have to allow a design for the plate, the sale of the plate would go to the State Treasury, and the State Treasurer would have to disburse those funds to pro-choice programs and media campaigns informing women of their legal reproductive health care choices.

Randy Harris, the man in Florida responsible for the Choose Life fund is ultraconservative and used his multiple terms as county commissioner to push his conservative agenda. These days he is back in the private sector and identifies as a member of the tea party. He felt the need to create the fund because according to him, women had no other choice but Planned Parenthood, and they tell women to have abortions. Completely false, of course, as most of Planned Parenthood’s services have nothing to do with abortion, but provide women’s health care and other health services for both women and men.

If the Choose Life plate is approved, will the Michigan State Legislature also approve a pro-choice plate? If not, that could mean the anti-choice license plate violates state and federal laws. Perhaps in the future, our elected officials will take the time to read the constitution and make sure the bills they pass don’t violate our laws as S 84 and HB 4140 clearly do.

March Is Reading Month: Todd Courser Is Having A Bookmark Contest

Monday , 23, February 2015 Up North Progressive Section 16, Tea Party, Tealiban Leave a comment

Are you ready for March to get here? It’s about -30º F this morning. Third day of no school, which means kids will have an extra day come June thanks to our Republican legislators back in the 90’s deciding schools need to be punished when Mother Nature sends us extreme weather. Now that climate change is here, even though Republicans still deny it, schools will just have to get used to spending more time at school in June.

If school children in state legislative district 82 are fortunate, the entire month of March will be canceled due to inclement weather. Just in time for March is Reading Month, Todd Courser announced a bookmark contest.

“Reading to students is one of the most important things we can do to prepare children for the future, I encourage youngsters from across the district to get involved in March is Reading Month by participating in the bookmark art competition. I also look forward to reading to elementary students during March.”

Usually March is Reading Month is about encouraging children to read, but okay, kids like to draw pictures too. Also, Todd Courser is going to read to children in March. Will he just randomly show up, or will teachers need to invite him? This feels like something out a vampire movie. Maybe he can’t come into the classroom until the teacher gives him permission.

Anyway, teachers who want to have their class participate need to fill out and send in a form to Todd Courser’s office. He also provided a template so the kids could make the bookmarks the right size for printing. The winners – one each from an elementary, middle, and high school in the 82nd district – will have their bookmarks printed and handed out to everyone in Lapeer County. Todd Courser will also display the winning bookmarks in his office in Lansing.

It’s a shame I’m not a student in a school in the 82nd state house district, but I couldn’t resist making a couple of bookmarks for fun.

What do you think? Did I make a couple of winners?