Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganMichigan NRC: No Gray Wolf Hunt This Season
Tuesday , 16, September 2014 Environment Leave a comment
This article has been edited for errors
More good news from the Department of Natural Resources. The Natural Resources Commission issued a statement that there isn’t enough scientific data available to determine if a wolf hunt in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is feasible in 2014, and with the two referendum ballot initiatives on the November ballot, they announced no hunt would take place this year because there wouldn’t be enough time to prepare for a 2014 hunt even if the referendum measures pass.
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected filed petition signatures on two proposals. One would protect Michigan wolves from trophy hunting, the other would put the power back into the hands of the people of Michigan to have a say in wildlife management in the state. The Republican controlled state legislature passed a law in 2013 that set up the Natural Resources Commission, a seven member board completely made up of political appointments. The commission has not one person with any wildlife background, and instead rely on trophy hunters for input on what can be classified as a game species in Michigan.
In 2013 the NRC set a quota of 43 wolves but only 22 wolves were harvested from the Upper Peninsula. The DNR stated that their wildlife experts are studying the data they have about Michigan’s wolf population and will base their research on updating the management plan for wolves. A new law, called the Scientific Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act, passed in August of 2014 through special state legislature rules gives the RNC authority to designate game species for hunting in the state, but it doesn’t go into effect until March of 2015.
Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, with the Humane Society of the United States will urge voters on November 4 to vote NO on both wolf hunt referendums. A no vote would keep Michigan’s wolves protected from trophy hunters and give the wolves a chance to live in their natural habitat. Voting no on both ballot issues with also restore the constitutional right of the people of Michigan to propose new laws and reject bad ones, something the Republican-controlled state legislature doesn’t like the voters doing.
The wolves are protected for 2014. On November 4 vote NO on both wolf hunt referendums to keep wolves in Michigan protected permanently.
Grand Traverse Academy’s “Good Science” Education Model: The Continuing Story of Dr. Steve Ingersoll
Monday , 15, September 2014 Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 Leave a comment
Grand Traverse Academy made many changes over the summer to make it appear like they have distanced themselves from Dr. Steve Ingersoll. His business partner, Dr. Mark Noss, formed a new LLC to act as management company for GTA. The school has a new superintendent and the person doing the books at Smart Schools LLC, who happened to have the same last name as Steve Ingersoll, has been brought into question for being too closely related to Steve Ingersoll. So far so good, the school is cleaning things up and making it look nice and neat and like a charter school trying desperately to appear as free from any involvement in Dr. Ingersoll’s federal felony fraud case.
Except GTA is still a for-profit charter school being run by an optometrist with close ties to Steve Ingersoll thanks to the Excel Institute, and the use of Integrated Visual Learning at GTA as part of the curriculum. IVL according to Excel Institute cures 90% of ADD/ADHD and greatly benefits people with other disabilities. In fact, in a new white paper available on GTA’s website titled, “Continutity At Grand Traverse Academy”, this report lays out the learning model the school is based on, and cites Dr. Steve Ingersoll as the source of this learning model.
One particular passage from the section on the use of Integrated Visual Learning in GTA’s learning model makes a bold statement on child development and learning disorders:
Eighty percent of the information we receive is processed visually, so the better we learn visually, the higher our achievement. Teachers receive special IVL training for both diagnostic and instructional classroom application. Many of the difficulties that commonly lead to special education can be prevented or solved with IVL intervention.
This passage implies that the only special ed services offered by GTA is IVL, is that possibly true? Education rating website Great!Schools may hold a clue. Parents, students and teachers all leave comments on this website about GTA. Many are good, but many are also bad, and one comment left by a parent in 2008 goes to the heart of what GTA claims in their white paper:
Posted June 16, 2008
Nice school, safe atmosphere. Ill equipt to serve children with learning disabilities. Don’t offer companion programs for learning. All that is available is IVL, which is what they try to put everyone in who is struggling. My daughter was by a private IVL consultant who told us she didn’t qualify for the program but needed other special ed services. GTA only had IVL, so that was all they offered her…a Program that wouldn’t help. It is a nice school, if your child doesn’t need ‘helps’; do expect them to be very helpful with this. It took me 6 months to get my child into a program that wasn’t even going to help her, and it didn’t! The grades 1-2-3 didn’t work either, the teachers seemed to pressured to ‘move on’ to the next grade, no time for errors that children might make. Parent involvement was great.
—Submitted by a parent
A for-profit charter school taking public tax funds and using it to peddle controversial vision therapy that has never been peer-reviewed, but the optometrists who develop and sell it to the public claim it can cure any learning disability requiring special education services. Federal special education law is very specific on how students are evaluated and matched to the services they need. The white paper goes on to explain why decades of education research is completely wrong on how people learn:
In 1970 about 2 % of nation’s students received special education services. These children were severely, often multiply impaired, children. Today, roughly 20% of our students receive special “compensatory” services at nearly 3X the cost of general education services.
This is true, but not for the reason the white paper asserts. Since 1970 special education has improved how children are found, evaluated and assigned special education services. What the federal government requires of special education also changes periodically. The last revision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was in 2005. In public schools, there is no method, therapy or curriculum used with a child receiving special education services that hasn’t been thoroughly researched and peer-reviewed.
The paper goes on to claim that despite all of the research supporting different learning styles, which it calls “education dogma”, that the only people who don’t learn visually are people who are congenitally blind. Other research-based methods of learning the paper claims are completely wrong includes the use of phonics instruction:
Phonetically inventive spelling is an attempt to make sound come out of a pencil. More phonics instruction is as ineffective as hitting 500 more practice shots with improper technique. Both problems are examples of habituated errors. Poor students work much harder (until they give up) than good students. Good students and good golfers use proper technique and expend much less effort to achieve far superior results.
The paper ends with an optical illusion that informs the reader if the circles are moving it’s because you have poorly developed eye movement control. The final analysis the paper ends on is:
… our message is simple and clear; character, consistency, engagement and effort, good science and traditional common sense gives rise to the quality environment that our children deserve.
A single, non peer-reviewed study completed nearly 20 years ago is the “good science” GTA’s educational model is based on. This for-profit charter school appears to function in much the same way as a cult. Tell people the research is wrong, just because it’s what everyone else accepts doesn’t make it true, and they have all the answers to your child’s learning disabilities. Parents of special needs children want what’s best, and these people must work very hard every day raising their special needs child so that they can become as functional in society as possible. Parents need real methods with proven results to help their children. Anything that is kept mostly out of the public eye and requires people to pay large sums of money for their cure should be the first warning sign something is very wrong. Michigan’s tax dollars need to pay for learning methods that will actually help people achieve in school and in society. That is the point of educating people in the first place. The people of Michigan are paying for Dr. Mark Noss and Dr. Steve Ingersoll to peddle snake oil cures to parents looking for real help.
Our education tax dollars should not be paying for this.
Hartwick Pines Saved From Oil Drilling And Fracking
Monday , 15, September 2014 Environment Leave a comment
On Thursday, September 11, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources announced they would take Hartwick Pines State Park off of the auction block, saving it from future oil exploration and fracking. The decision came after a large protest from Michigan residents, including two grandchildren of Karen Hartwick, spoke out against the state allowing any mining under the only remaining stand of virgin forest in Michigan. The land would have been offered up for lease on October 29.
Karen Hartwick donated approximately 8,000 acres of land near Grayling, Michigan, to the state in 1927 to preserve the remaining virgin forest from being logged off and sold. She stipulated that the land be named after her husband, Major Edward E. Hartwick, who died while serving during World War I. The land was to be made into a park as a memorial to her late husband and to the logging industry that had once dominated Northern Michigan. The stumps of trees from that era are visible today in the old logging regions of Michigan.
Despite Directer Keith Creagh’s insistence that there were no safety issues to worry about from drilling under the state park, people were not satisfied, stating that preserving the virgin trees of the park had more to do with their disagreement than altering the surface of the land. The soil the trees take root in is also important and provides what the old-growth forest need to survive. There are things more valuable than the bottom line of an oil company’s profit statement. Pristine land, virgin, old-growth trees, and clean water free of pollutants and chemicals all oil and gas drilling create regardless of precautions and standards are more important, than how much oil or gas might exist underground at Hartwick Pines.
The Michigan DNR did the right thing to take the state park off the list of land available for auction in October. People are rightly concerned about what oil drilling and fracking are doing to our environment. Once the oil companies pump the oil and gas out of the ground they go home, while we have to live with the results of their work. Hartwick Pines needs to be preserved as is above and below.
Cheboygan Rock and Roll Party for Jerry Cannon
Sunday , 14, September 2014 Candidates Leave a comment
On Tuesday, September 16, Cheboygan, Emmet, and Presque Isle Democratic Parties will hold a Rock n’ Roll party for Jerry Cannon, our next U.S. Representative from the 1st Congressional District. John “Bowser” Bauman of the band Sha Na Na will make an appearance.
The party will run from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Cheboygan Public Library on 100 South Bailey Street in Cheboygan. Refreshments will be provided.
Donations are being accepted for the event. $20 Crooner $50 Greaser $100 Rocker
$250 Virtuoso $500 Boss. If you can not attend the event, you can also donate online.
Email Erik Polyak or call 231.384.8185 to RSVP.
Meet The Candidates: State Representative District #70 James Hoisington
Sunday , 14, September 2014 Candidates Leave a comment
James Hoisington lives in Stanton, Michigan with his wife, Patricia. He is running for state representative for the 70th District, which is made up of Montcalm and a portion of Gratiot counties. Hoisington has been a factory worker, a UAW member and a business owner living in the 70th District. He’s an avid hunter and gun owner. James Hoisington believes in doing more for Michigan than only helping out the rich. He wants to represent the people in Lansing and fight for seniors, the poor and people unable to find a good paying job.
James Hoisington worked for the Electrolux factory for 27 years making refrigerators for the Frigidaire company. In 2006, Electrolux closed and many people living in the district lost their jobs. The factory moved operations to Mexico despite efforts made to keep the company in Michigan. James Hoisington was a proud member of the UAW Local 137 where he served as union president. After the factory closed, Hoisington opened his own lawn care business. He also works as a bus driver for the Montcalm Area Intermediate School District.
Hoisington’s primary campaign issues include tax increases on the poor, middle class and seniors that unfairly raised taxes on those who can afford it least. Big business in Michigan received tax cuts with the promise that there would be more jobs made available by the job creators. That has never happened, and won’t happen as long as these businesses don’t have to offer jobs to locals for the extra money they receive from the state. James Hoisington feels strongly that taxes must be based on fairness and the ability to pay. The rich and big business need to pay their fair share,and Lansing needs to do more to provide good paying jobs for hard working people in the 70th District.
James Hoisington will appreciate everyone’s support. He can be reached by email or telephone by calling 989.287.1904. On November 4, voters in the 70th District will remember to vote for James Hoisington.
Dean Vanderstelt, Our future US Congressman representing the 2nd District, has an updated blog with many new features. Check it out!
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL
Saturday , 13, September 2014 Nerd Problems 1 CommentDear Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan:
I realize the state of Michigan is out of your jurisdiction, but I wanted to bring to your attention that one of your citizens has been in our state for nearly four years and frankly, we’re really sick and tired of him.
Illinois resident Richard Baird came to Michigan in 2011 after his former employee, Rick Snyder was elected governor. Once Baird arrived in Michigan, he bought a house in Bath Township outside of Lansing and started a consulting firm for a single client – Governor Rick Snyder. This consulting firm run by Baird took an office right next to the Governor’s at the Capital in Lansing and began working for the governor in secret. You see, we didn’t know who Richard Baird was until some unpleasant things were made public about him and what he was doing. It started with something called “Skunkworks.”
Skunkworks in Michigan had nothing to do with Lil’ Abner, moonshine, or even Lockheed. Skunkworks became the name for secret meetings being held where plans to set up a back door school voucher system were discussed. The only problem with that is school vouchers are unconstitutional in Michigan, which is why the meetings were secret, and involved no one from the Michigan Department of Education or from any public schools. Then we found out that while Rick Snyder was telling the public he didn’t think Detroit would ever be in a financial emergency, Richard Baird was already interviewing Kevyn Orr for the job of being Detroit’s emergency manager. But wait, there’s more. We found out that Richard Baird helped Rick Snyder’s cousin get a sweet furniture contract with the state, while everyone else was suffering budget cuts due to “shared sacrifice.” None of this was public knowledge to the state until people began digging to find out who this secret guy in the office next door to Rick Snyder’s was and what he was doing here.
We eventually found who Richard Baird was, and that his consulting fees were being paid through a secret fund called the NERD fund. Secret consultant, being paid through a secret fund of undisclosed donors and doing shadow government work in Michigan. I’m sure you can understand how annoyed the good people of Michigan were and still are with this guy and what he’s been doing. He told a judge when he was ordered to divulge the names of who he talked to when he vetted Kevyn Orr that he didn’t have to tell him, because Rick Snyder gave him executive privilege. Then Baird’s lawyer cited Richard Nixon’s attempts to not release documents about Watergate as a precedent. I’m not a lawyer, but that sounds like hogwash to me. It certainly did to the judge.
Despite being outed to the state, given a title as “transformation officer” in the Governor’s office and being put on the state payroll instead of being paid through the secret NERD fund, Richard Baird has still been a problem for the good people of Michigan, and still doing stuff that’s not legal. Rick Snyder decided he needed lots of delegates at the Republican convention in August so he made a list of names to add and he included Richard Baird. By doing this, the state became aware of some interesting things. Richard Baird owns two houses, one in Illinois, where his family lives, and one in Michigan where he lives on weekdays while he’s here being Rick Snyder’s personal consultant and transformation officer. He filed a primary residence exemption on both houses, which is illegal, and he was also registered to vote in both states. That’s illegal too. When this was all exposed, Baird paid the money owed to Michigan, but did so while blaming it on the assessor who wasn’t really at fault, but had to take the blame anyway because Richard Baird certainly can’t take any responsibility.
And there are even more more problems with Richard Baird being very confused about which state he actually lives in. Currently, he drives a Mercedes SUV GL550 on Illinois plates and driver’s license that expired on August 24. In the state of Michigan you’re required to change the registration and title on your vehicle immediately after becoming a resident. Mr. Baird has lived in Michigan on weekdays since 2011 in a house that apparently until a few weeks ago was listed as his primary residence and registered to vote. He’s already committed a misdemeanor in Michigan for not changing the license plate on his vehicle. In Illinois he still owns a house and claims it as a primary residence because the wife and kids live there, but I was wondering, is he evading his mandatory Illinois vehicle emissions test and tax by driving in Michigan on expired Illinois plates? Here in the state of Michigan you can drive your clunker until it falls to pieces and no one bats an eye as long as you pay your annual registration fee.
So here is my question for you: Is there any way possible that you could come and get Richard Baird and remove him from the state of Michigan? He doesn’t seem to know where he lives and he’s driving on expired Illinois plates and driver’s license in Michigan. He’s done nothing good while he’s been here and as far as anyone can tell, he’s breaking the law in two states. Your time and consideration of this serious matter is deeply appreciated.
Regards,
A Concerned Michigan Resident
Some Northern Michigan Public Schools Have Higher Enrollment, But Still Suffer From Snyder’s State Budget Cuts
Thursday , 11, September 2014 Section 16 Leave a comment
Cadillac Public School’s fall student enrollment is higher than anticipated according to district superintendent Jo Spry. That’s good news for the district, because it means in October the 4th Friday Count will provide a boost in per-pupil funding. School tuition in Michigan is still below 2006 school spending levels in the state, and public schools struggle to keep their districts open thanks to Rick Snyder’s 2011 one billion dollar school budget cut.
Michigan’s public schools more than any other state must compete with “school choice” for-profit options like charter schools and online education. The purpose of school choice of course is to take even more money from public education and make it harder for our schools to function. For-profit charter schools alone pull a billion dollars per year from the state school budget, and far too much of that money never gets spent on education, but rather goes into management companies’ profits. Online education such as K12 Education is promoted by Mackinac Center, and board member and former Michigan Governor John Engler owns over eight thousand shares of stock in the “school choice” company. Our tax dollars don’t offer parents and their children school options, they line the pockets of people siphoning tax dollars from our public schools.
Rick Snyder insists he raised funding for K-12 education in Michigan, but what he really did was an old accountant trick called “cooking the books.” He lumped secondary education together with K-12 education and by combining the budgets of both into one he pointed at the bigger number and proclaimed, “I raised school funding!” No, he didn’t. Our schools are still grossly underfunded and many districts are suffering from the continued budget cuts. An increase of $50 to $125 per pupil still puts our school funding below what Michigan public schools received eight years ago.
Hopefully Cadillac Public Schools’ good news about higher enrollment will be reflected in other Northern Michigan schools. Many districts no longer have music, art, home economics/life skills classes because the money doesn’t exist for those subjects to be taught. Sports programs for many districts now are pay-to-play because there is no money for the district to fund athletics. Marion High School has no varsity football team this year due to lack of students signing up to play. As more people learn the truth about the real damage school choice has caused our state public education system, we will have the opportunity to do something about it on November 4, when we elect Mark Schauer as our next Governor, and reverse the damage Rick Snyder has inflicted on our schools.
Helicopters Hovering In Northern Michigan Skies Next Week
Wednesday , 10, September 2014 Community, Environment Leave a comment
If you see low-flying helicopters hovering over your property or nearby next week, it’s the power company inspecting power lines, poles, steel towers and equipment for damage caused by lightning, wind, storms, and other problems. The inspection area ranges from US 10 to the tip of the mitten and will run from Monday, September 15, to Wednesday, September 24.
When the helicopters come to your area please remember the reason why and do not assume they are the infamous “black helicopters” sent by the New World Order to prepare for the UN invasion of the United States. It’s not the NSA spying on you, or the military using infrared from above to scan the heat signatures in your house. No one is using secret scanning rays to read your mind, email, or listen in on your phone conversations. They probably won’t even notice your illegal marijuana crop, unless there are power lines running over it, then they might notice.
The power company will be working to repair damage done to electrical lines, poles, towers, conductors and other equipment. Power lines with overgrown trees threatening lines will also be trimmed after the inspection. Routine maintenance work for the power company to provide better service now before winter sets in, which if the recent weather change is any indication, is probably going to be some time this weekend. Northern Michigan is awesome.