Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganMichigan Board Of State Canvassers Get Ready To Approve Proposal 1 Language
Friday , 20, February 2015 Uncategorized 1 Comment
On February 26, 2015, the Board of State Canvassers will hold a meeting to approve language for the ballot proposal for the May 5 special election. If you’re wondering what’s taking them so long, it’s because besides the rules not applying to submitting ballot initiatives when the government does it, for some reason, there’s more than one version of the proposal being considered. Seven different groups submitted their own language for the board to consider, so they will have to read every version offered before making a choice. There is also the issue that they had to squeeze the total proposal into less than 100 words.
When you can’t easily phrase a ballot proposal into 100 words or less, you know you have a bad ballot proposal.
This proposal, currently being called proposal 1 so when the Board of State Canvassers pick the real name for it people will be even more confused about what’s going on, claims if passed will generate $1.2 billion dollars to fix Michigan’s roads, bridges and all of the other infrastructure that’s been neglected since John Engler was governor. If you’re thinking $1.2 billion won’t cover that much road repair, you’re right.
Safe Roads Yes, the only group in favor of Proposal 1, submitted language for consideration along with six others – all opposed to the ballot initiative. Of the other six (and the Up North Progressive read them all), the best proposal language is that submitted by John La Pietra of the Michigan Green Party:
A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO RAISE SALES AND USE TAXES,
EXEMPT ROAD FUELS FROM THOSE TAXES, AND CHANGE THE PERMITTED USES OF
FUNDS RAISED BY THOSE TAXES.This amendment would:
- raise base state sales and use tax rates from 4% to 5% (and overall rates from 6% to 7%);
- dedicate 12.3% of the 5% base rate of use taxes to the state school-aid fund;
- exempt gasoline and Diesel fuel from state sales and use taxes; and
- remove “higher education” from the definition of permitted uses of the state school-aid fund,
replacing it with “public community colleges, public career and technical education programs,
[and] scholarships for students attending either public community colleges or public career and
technical education programs”.Should the amendment be adopted?
Yes [ ]
No [ ]
The Board of State Canvassers meeting is open to the public. Anyone wanting to speak as a witness needs to put their request in writing and submit it to the board with their name and address no later than the day before the hearing.
Recap of Steve Ingersoll’s Felony Fraud Trial While A Juror Is Out Sick
Friday , 20, February 2015 Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 Leave a comment
The Steve Ingersoll federal fraud trial adjourned until February 24 due to a juror becoming ill. The first week already revealed the long-established habit of money mishandling that brought Dr. Ingersoll to a federal district court room. Miss Fortune and Bay City Times crime reporter Cole Waterman both do an excellent job covering the trial.
Something significant to already come out of the proceedings is the testimony of James Camiller, a CPA from Lewiston (Idaho?), who very aptly described Ingersoll’s financial methods in a single word. Camiller was hired by Ingersoll in December of 2010 to help with his finances, by April of 2011 Camiller told Ingersoll he didn’t want to work for him any more and that his lack of accurate, clear records were going to cause issues with his taxes. The word James Camiller used to describe what he found was:
Sound familiar?
Statute of limitations in federal cases when financial institutions are involved can be extended past the normal 5 years, which is a good thing because thanks to a brave teacher coming forward and sharing their story, there’s evidence that Steve Ingersoll’s shady practices go back at least 20 years:
I worked as an administrative assistant in the office that treated kids with disabilities such as ADD/ADHD and autism. I never once saw someone cured, but of course I’m not a doctor and was too young at the time to fully understand the BS he was spreading. Lots of shifty practices, sub-companies and corporations that moved A LOT of money around.
This teacher worked at Livingston Developmental Academy, the first school Ingersoll opened with then partner Chuck Stockwell in the mid 1990’s. The optometrist turned educator even then had the habit of moving money from company to company to make funds disappear when he needed funds to reappear in his personal bank account. What makes this even more repugnant is Steve Ingersoll has been playing the Enron shuffle game with taxpayer money.
Stay tuned, the fun resumes next week. It’s a good idea if you haven’t done it yet to bookmark Miss Fortune and Cole Waterman for updates. There may also be the occasional article here as well.
Upper Peninsula Cougar Caught On Video
Thursday , 19, February 2015 DNR, Environment Leave a commentHunters from Remus found a deer kill in Mackinac County and tracks that looked like a large cat. They set up a camera and caught a cougar returning to eat the deer several times.
Cougars are native to Michigan and they have been sighted in both the Lower and Upper peninsulas of the state. Cougars are a vital part of the ecosystem. They cull out weak and sick animals, making wildlife healthier and making sure there aren’t too many animals for habitat available.
Michigan hunters are fortunate we have cougars and wolves in our state, they make our state better for us and future generations.
If you’re outdoors and spot a large cat, the Michigan DNR has a form you can fill out to report the sighting. This information helps the DNR monitor how many animals are in the area.
Michigan Companies Enjoying Snyder Tax Cuts Donate $3.2M To Tell Taxpayers To Vote Against Their Own Interests
Wednesday , 18, February 2015 Nerd Problems 46 Comments
On May 5, 2015 Michigan voters will be asked to vote yes or no on a proposal to raise the Michigan Sales Tax from 6% to 7% to fund road repairs, and bring with it a long line of other tax increases. Governor Snyder cut taxes on Michigan businesses in 2011 while raising taxes on poor people and old people for what he called, “shared sacrifice.” Four years later, poor people and old people just don’t have as much money as corporations making billions, but the governor decided if we want roads sans potholes, it will be up to those of us with no money to pay the bill.
Rather than pay their fair share of taxes, Michigan businesses instead formed a committee called Safe Roads Yes! and raised $3.2 million dollars to convince Michigan taxpayers they should be the ones to pay for fixed roads those businesses need to do business. Most of the donors to this committee are businesses with a stake in the road construction business, so if this bill passes it means our tax dollars will pay them to fix the roads.
A list of businesses making donations to this committee include:
- Michigan Infrastructure & Transportation Organization – $2.3 million
- Michigan Energy First – $250,000
- Asphalt Pavement Association – $200,000
- Consumer’s Energy – $125,000
- Angelo Iafrate Construction – $100,000
- Hoffman Brothers Inc. – $100,000
And $3.2 million is just the beginning, the committee will donate up to $15 million if necessary to fight the Proposal 1 nay sayers and fight to get the bill passed, if the opposition groups can raise enough money to put up a fight. So far, those groups haven’t come close in fund raising.
If people vote yes on this proposal and it passes, then ten other bills will also be triggered and become law. They include a raise in fuel taxes, raising and modifying vehicle registration fees so that the amount will never depreciate, taxing electric car owners because they don’t pay gasoline taxes, and the only good thing that will come out of passage of Proposal 1 (and the incentive to get poor people to vote yes), the restoration of the Earned Income Credit.
It’s hard to say if the $300 million in promised education funding is real. Snyder’s voodoo accounting claims per pupil tuition will increase by $75. According to one school superintendent who took the time to crunch the numbers – because that’s what school superintendents do – the actual increase in student funding would only be $2 per pupil. What Snyder isn’t telling the people of Michigan is he’s cutting some other important school funds while increased costs for schools in Michigan add up thanks to adopting Common Core, and yet another new state standardized test – M Step – that will only be used once.
Snyder and the state legislature must be pretty confident that Proposal 1 is going to pass in May. How confident? Just today the state house voted to take $250 million out of the School Aid Fund and put it into the General Fund to cover a deficit in the state budget. Corporate tax cuts means less money coming in, and that makes it harder to balance the books. Being an accountant, the Nerd should have known that.
Be ready for slick ads on the radio and TV telling you to vote yes for Proposal 1, because it’s going to fix the roads and help our kids. Like a carrot on a string, the people of Michigan are expected to keep walking because they’ll eventually get what they want, if they just keep going.
John Boehner In The Deep End: Who Needs Homeland Security Anyway
Tuesday , 17, February 2015 Uncategorized Leave a comment
There’s another deadline showdown coming between Congress and the White House at the end of this month. It’s not about budgets, the debt ceiling or Obamacare this time, it’s about immigration. President Obama intends to go forward with his executive order to help out millions of people living in the US be able to stay here legally. The House decided to try and stop him by attaching amendments that strip funding for immigration to the Department of Homeland Security funding bill that needs to pass by February 27. Boehner refuses to pass a clean bill, and believes he can try and blame this on Senate Democrats.
The Department of Homeland Security is the newest government bureaucracy in Washington DC. In the days after September 11, President Bush announced the creation of this new agency to handle terrorist threats in the United States. The bill to create the DHS passed through Congress with almost bipartisan support. 7 Democrats in the Senate and 111 Democrats in the House voted no. In those days no one wanted to appear weak on fighting terrorism, so many bills were passed with bipartisan support, such as the bill to create the DHS and the Patriot Act.
Once Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, they decided that it would be used as an umbrella department for 22 other government agencies, including FEMA, INS, the Coast Guard, TSA and the Secret Service. If the deadline comes and the bill isn’t passed, not only does DHS lose their funding, but all of those other essential government agencies lose their funding too. This doesn’t mean all of the people who work for those agencies get to take a vacation until some middle of the night deal is hashed out, they are essential services. They have to keep working whether they get paid or not. Something to remember if you plan on flying soon, and your friendly TSA agent is patting you down to make sure you’re not hiding a bomb in your underwear.
Why on earth would Congress lump all of those government agencies into DHS? Didn’t they know something like this could possibly happen? That’s why the Republicans did this back in 2002. They wanted to make sure no one tried to defund Homeland Security, so they tied all of these other agencies into it and made them all rely on funding in the same spending bill. The rationale for doing it was also to put all of these agencies into a single department, which is how most other countries handle national security.
Now, Republicans think they can once again shut down the government and blame it on the Democratic Party. What’s fun about this is President Obama’s used an executive order in a way Republicans don’t like, so now they have to threaten to shut the government down. This is potentially a political nightmare for Republicans, and Democrats can sit back and watch them try to squirm their way out of it, just like they have every single time Boehner has unsuccessfully used this strategy to try and force President Obama to back down. Boehner’s thinks he will convince people that the Senate Democrats are to blame, but the only one who’s buying that story is John Boehner. Of course, if the DHS is shut down and there is a terrorist attack, there will be plenty of blame to fling around. Democratic Party members of the house such as Dan Kildee are calling on Speaker Boehner to send a clean bill to the House floor.
So to summarize, Republicans don’t like President Obama’s plans for immigration. Boehner thinks defunding DHS and 22 other agencies providing essential security services under it’s umbrella will force Senate Democrats to vote in favor of Boehner’s dirty DHS funding bill. The Republicans have already set this idiotic ball into motion and the Democrats are giving them enough rope.
Why Does Tom Casperson Hate Nature?
Monday , 16, February 2015 DNR, Environment, Wolf Hunt Leave a comment
Michigan State Senator Tom Casperson recently pushed through a resolution meant to take wolves off of the endangered species list. Again. Wolves were returned to that list in December, 2014, after Michigan voters soundly defeated two ballot initiatives to stop wolf hunting in the state. As is the norm for Republicans in the 21st century, the will of the people comes second to special interests. Casperson has always been a strong supporter of wolf hunting, since he first rallied for it in 2011, even lying to the United States Congress about a wolf attack that didn’t happen. It’s taken three years to undo the damage he’s done, and continues to do working to make it legal once more to trophy hunt these protected animals.
Wolves are a vital part of every healthy ecosystem. Ten years of research at Yellowstone National Park where wolves were reintroduced shows significant improvement to not only the wildlife that shares the park, but with the health of the river system too. Healthy forests and wetlands don’t mean much to the senator however. Tom Casperson recently let the state know he holds no love for state or national forests – places where wildlife live – either. He’s currently promoting the sale of over 10,000 acres of state forest land in the Upper Peninsula to a company from British Columbia called Graymont. They want to turn state land in three counties into a limestone quarry for 30 cents a ton. Wetlands, forests, and wildlife currently living there will all be affected. Once the mining destroys the soil, air, and water quality it will affect people too.
While Dan Benishek, Bill Huizenga, and Tim Walberg stump for Casperson in Washington DC, Public Act 21, and the Michigan Natural Resource Commission Initiative, the laws passed to undermine the will of the people of the state goes into effect in March. This law will have little effect with Michigan wolves currently protected. That’s why Casperson is working so hard now to get wolves off the list, so by March of 2015 when the Michigan Natural Resources Commission has authority to sanction wolf hunts, they will have something to do. The seven member commission, all appointed by the governor, are made up of four Republicans, two Democrats and one Independent.
Michigan citizens need to let Tom Casperson know they don’t appreciate him helping foreign companies buy up land that belongs to the taxpayers of the state so they can mine it, and he really needs to leave the wolves alone. If you haven’t done so yet, you still have time to let the DNR know your opinion about the Graymont land deal by email or by writing to: Customer Service Center, ATTN: Kerry Wieber, 8717 N. Roscommon Road, Roscommon, MI 48653. Make sure to contact them by March 19.
You can also contact Tom Casperson and let him know what you think about his efforts to allow trophy hunting of wolves and the destruction of land that belongs to the people of Michigan. By mail: Senator Tom Casperson P.O. Box 30036 Lansing, MI 48909-7536. By phone: (517) 373-7840. By fax: (517) 373-3932 and of course by email. Remind him he’s elected by people, not by corporations and special interests.
Please Support House Bill 4147 And Radically Change Our Public Schools
Saturday , 14, February 2015 Section 16 Leave a comment
Every week, the Up North Progressive’s email inbox receives a list of bills introduced to the Michigan state legislature. This week, the Michigan House wants to make teaching Reading, Writing, and Math illegal with HB 4143. They also don’t want Michigan schools teaching Science either. The Michigan House also believes they need to tell women who work for the state what they can do with their bodies. There are the bills that deal with guns (too many to count) … and then there is the rare gem embedded in the schist. This week, that gem is House Bill 4147.
This bill, co-introduced by a long list of house reps, including Tom Hooker, Lee Chatfield, and Joel Johnson, would make it law that a public school shall ensure:
That the public school does not discriminate against a pupil or a pupil’s parent or legal guardian on the basis of religious viewpoint or religious expression.
Isn’t that already happening in public schools? But wait, there is also this:
A pupil may express his or her belief about religion in homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free from discrimination based on the religious content of the pupil’s submission.
That homework and classroom assignments are judged only by ordinary academic standards of substance and relevance and against other legitimate pedagogical concerns identified by the public school.
Wait, they’re not suggesting …
That a pupil or group of pupils in a public school may pray or engage in religious activities or religious expression before, during and after the school day in the same manner and to the same extent that pupils may engage in nonreligious activities or expression.
Pupils may organize prayer groups, religious clubs, see you at the pole gatherings or other religious gatherings before, during and after school to the same extent that pupils are permitted to organize other noncurricular pupil activities and groups.
Religious groups are given the same access to school facilities for assembling as is given to noncurricular groups without discrimination based on religious content …
And it goes on and on. Essentially, if a student, without discrimination, wants to pray, form a religious group, and use religious expression in their homework, they can. This bill covers everything, including jewelry and clothing, speaking at public events, providing facilities, and even school ceremonies such as graduation. The only caveat is the student can’t be vulgar, use profanity, or do anything lewd.
This is amazing, it’s incredible. This astonishing document of religious tolerance and freedom blows my mind. Let’s indulge ourselves and imagine what a typical day at school would be like if this bill had a snowball’s chance of ever becoming law.
The morning prayer at the flagpole begins when the first student group arrives. It’s become a race to be the first to pray for their deity at school. Today, the Pastafarians wear colanders on their heads and full pirate regalia. With a loud “RAMEN,” they head into the school to start their day. The Wiccan Coven, an organized school club, has just finished its quarter calls—another group. Yoga enthusiasts are in the middle of the Sun Salutation with their mats rolled out on the lawn. Christians hold hands in a circle while a group of Jewish students also pray nearby. Sufis, Sikhs, and Satanists were all around the flagpole praying.
The halls are filled with religious expression everywhere you look. There are crosses, both upright and inverted. Pentacles, both upright and inverted. Stars of David, t-shirts with the name of Allah screen printed, and the Pastafarians wear their colanders and full pirate regalia. A Scientology student wears a bracelet with the symbol showing she is “clear.” Religious expression is all the rage now at school, and the students participate because they’re protected by state law.
A Hindu student dances in a fine arts appreciation class to glorify Krishna. In English, a Pastafarian reads a poem he just wrote expressing the joy of being touched by the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s noodly appendage. Shortly after lunch, the student body class president arrives to play the call to prayer over the PA system. Muslim students all head to a room designated for them to perform Dhuhr – the midday prayer. The bell rings, and a group of Wiccans stands outside of Chemistry class, raising a cone of power to help them pass a big exam. In Social Studies, a Satanist gives his oral presentation on the person who inspired Satanism’s core beliefs, Ayn Rand. The young Satanist provides an analysis of the Nine Satanic Statements and how they correlate to John Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged. That student will be class Valedictorian by the end of the week and make a speech at graduation, thanks to the new Limited Public Forum requirement included in House Bill 4147.
Friends, if there were ever a bill that needs support from the people, this is it. Please get in touch with your state rep today and let them know you want them to vote yes on House Bill 4147. Let’s make this happen; with all of the changes the state legislature wants to make to students using school to express their religious beliefs, it makes sense that they like to ban teaching all those other subjects. Who will have the time to do that?
Brighton Area Schools Say No To Battaglia’s ‘Life’s Passion’: And A Response From A Challenger About Hillsdale College Promoting Religious Schools
Wednesday , 11, February 2015 Section 16 4 Comments
On Monday night in a 6 to 1 vote the Brighton Area Schools board decided not to charter Pasquale Battaglia’s Hillsdale College American “classical” academy. As the parents and concerned citizens of Brighton are relieved that their district won’t be responsible for allowing this school to open in their district, the people involved with the for-profit charter school insist they’re not defeated; now they’re looking for a university to authorize the school.
@ShareThis The Founders of this American Republic, (I mean from 1620 on) all received #ClassicalEd. Don’t your children deserve the same?
— Pasquale Battaglia (@BattagliaPat) February 3, 2015
Battaglia’s twitter account has been very quiet lately. Perhaps he’s contemplating how his reprehensible online footprint may have had something to do with Brighton Area Schools turning him down?
After the last piece about Hillsdale College promoting religious schools through their outreach project, the Barney Initiative, A commenter insisted this blog was all wet claiming Hillsdale College was promoting religious schools paid for with taxpayer funds. What made the comments strange was the insistence there was no proof Hillsdale College was anything but a secular college, and made a comparison to Harvard University. They also suggested that public schools should be closed due to the “near continual instances of official corruption, child molestation, and statutory rape in the news.”
No proof? Large sections of text were quoted from Hillsdale’s own literature that they are a college based on Judeo-Christian ideology. How is that not proof?
The commenter lives in Leander, Texas, home to a Hillsdale College for-profit charter school called Founder’s Classical Academy. This for-profit charter school in Texas, like charter schools in Michigan, is maintained by a privately owned management company called ResponsiveEd, one of the largest third party managers in Texas with 65 for-profit charter schools. The CEO of ResponsiveEd is Chuck Cook.
ResponsiveEd has been criticized for the curriculum used in their schools. The science <a href=”http://web.archive.org/web/20140209124636/http://secondgiantleap.org/?attachment_id=151>curriculum teaches creationism is scientifically viable, that evolution is an untested theory with no evidence backing it, and even suggests more research needs to be done before anyone knows for sure if vaccines cause autism. There were numerous instances of incorrect history in the curriculum as well, including the New Deal didn’t help with the Depression and feminism led women “to turn to the state as a surrogate husband.”
Chuck Cook responded to these allegations in a long screed posted to an Arkansas newspaper comments section. He ranted about how his schools do teach evolution, along with alternate theories to the origins of the Earth, but that shouldn’t be a problem because we’re just telling students question what scientists say because they really don’t know the truth (what?). The long rant is mostly cut and paste from the heavily leaning to creationism theory curriculum, but there was a paragraph that shared some personal information:
As applied to me, according to Slate’s reasoning, ResponsiveEd must be incapable of meeting our contractual and legal obligations because I, as the CEO of the organization, am a professed Christian, attend church each week, have a degree in religion, have worked at a Christian rescue mission, and have worked at Accelerated Christian Education. Once again, the logic fails. I would suggest that the pertinent inquiry is ResponsiveEd’s actual operations, not the personal beliefs of some of our past and present associations.
Remember ACE? The insane Christian school model with campuses all over the world, turns the classroom into a cube farm where students never interact with each other, and teaches children to pray with and thank the adult who spanks them? Chuck Cook used to work for these people, and now he’s running charter schools that teach creationism as science. His management company rakes in $82 million taxpayers’ dollars every year to teach Christianity in a “public school.” ResponsiveEd can be connected to ACE; and partners with Hillsdale College to open charter schools in Texas.
But they’re not promoting religion at taxpayer expense. Chuck Cook’s LinkedIn profile also fails to mention he worked for ACE. Now why would a man who is a professed Christian, has a degree in religion, and worked at a Christian rescue mission not want to list that as professional experience?
ResponsiveEd currently has four charter schools operating in Arkansas with the help of the Walton Foundation. They are expanding. With Pasquale Battaglia’s ‘life’s passion’ to open six of these charter schools teaching creationism and revisionist history, it’s not possible to sit back and think we’re done putting an end to the spread of schools teaching religion for science and the bible as an original source document for historical research, and making a profit from our tax dollars while they do it.
Journalist Of The Year Jennifer Dixon Brings Steve Ingersoll To The Detroit Free Press
Monday , 9, February 2015 Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16, Uncategorized Leave a comment
Detroit Free Press investigative reporter Jennifer Dixon this week was honored as Michigan’s first Journalist of the year for her excellent eight-part series on for-profit charter schools in the state. She highly deserves this recognition, especially with her continued dedication to expose corporate reform of our public schools. Dixon this week reported on someone who’s been written about extensively at Up North Progressive, Dr. Steve Ingersoll. Her article is spot on and gets into the meat of the problem with for-profit charter schools and the fraud so many of them perpetuate. To say that corporate ed reform puts kids first in education is abusive.
Ingersoll’s getting much-deserved press thanks to his federal felony fraud trial starting on Tuesday, February 10, 2015 in Bay City, Michigan. Miss Fortune promises to provide frequent reports of all of the grisly details, just the way we like it. It might be a good idea to bookmark her blog right now.
Plenty of pre-trial shenanigans have gone on leading up to the big day. Roy Bradley was found guilty on four counts of removing asbestos from a church being converted into a school building. He hired a lawyer he said he couldn’t afford, which is why he had a court-appointed lawyer, and had Gayle Ingersoll ambush witnesses leaving the courthouse with subpoenas from the lawyer who wasn’t even the attorney representing the defense at the trial. The judge told Ingersoll, his brother and Bradley to leave the witnesses for the prosecution alone, But Ingersoll said he couldn’t do that because those witnesses were his friends and business associates. The judge told him to he would just have to do that anyway. Or else.
And the trial hasn’t even started yet.
Keep an eye on Miss Fortune’s excellent blog. Up North Progressive will also post updates.