Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganWant 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.
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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!
Nestlé’s Loss to Osceola Township Won’t Fix the Real Problem with Michigan’s Environmental Protection Laws
Thursday , 5, December 2019 Environment, Flint Water, Nestlé 1 Comment
Water is, of course, the most important raw material we have today in the world. It’s a question of whether we should privatize the normal water supply for the population. And there are two different opinions on the matter. The one opinion, which I think is extreme, is represented by the NGOs, who bang on about declaring water a public right. That means that as a human being you should have a right to water. That’s an extreme solution. The other view says that water is a foodstuff like any other, and like any other foodstuff it should have a market value. Personally, I believe it’s better to give a foodstuff a value so that we’re all aware it has its price, and then that one should take specific measures for the part of the population that has no access to this water, and there are many different possibilities there. – Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, former CEO of Nestlé 2005 We Feed the World
Tuesday’s victory in the Michigan Court of Appeals for Osceola Township put another necessary roadblock up for Nestlé’s plan to build a booster station in Evart, Michigan, and pump 400 gallons of free water every minute out of the ground and sell it for profit. The 13-page ruling from the three-judge panel thoroughly covered every possible point in the case to make it clear what is considered a public good, and what a body of government can legally do to protect the interests of the people they represent.
In January of 2018, Judge Susan Sniegkowski ruled against Osceola Township, siding with Nestlé’s claim that their bottled water is an essential public service. Water is essential for life to exist, but not water drawn from the ground faster than it can be replenished and sealed into a plastic bottle with a price tag on it According to the ruling of the Michigan Court of Appeals. The court also stated concerns to the impact the pumping station would have on local agriculture in their decision, and that Nestlé’s claim that Osceola Township’s ordinance is illegal unfounded.
Nestlé came to Michigan in 2002 and set up shop in Evart, Michigan, to exploit the abundant water resources in Mecosta and Osceola Counties. The lack of laws protecting the extraction of large volumes of water coupled with the ridiculously cheap filing fee of $200 per year meant Nestlé could sell water with no real overhead. In 2003 The Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation filed suit to stop Nestlé and won, which ruled Nestlé must stop pumping water by December 17, 2003. On December 12, 2003, Nestlé filed for a stay, was ruled against, then filed an emergency stay, insisting closing them down would force them to lay off all of their employees. The court granted the stay, and Nestlé has profited from that ruling from then until now.
While Nestlé plans its next legal move, another court case will be decided in 2020 over whether the bottling plant can begin pumping 400 gallons per minute. In 2018, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality granted Nestlé’s request to double output despite the overwhelming response from local residents, organizations such as MCWC, Water Protector groups, and even residents of Flint, Michigan, where the human right to clean water is still not recognized by the state. It’s likely both cases could end up in the Michigan Supreme Court.
But even after the state’s system of courts is exhausted, will there be a final answer with how to handle large corporations like Nestlé who exploit the lack of clear law in states like Michigan to turn a natural resource into a commodity with a price tag just like former CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe said 15 years ago? Michigan’s Constitution is clear that the state legislature must protect the natural resources of the state, but thanks to Engler’s legacy with the Michigan Supreme Court making it more difficult for the people of the state to sue corporations who threaten our natural resources; and it was the original Nestlé case where this obstacle was tested, stopping corporate polluters is painfully troublesome for Michigan citizens.
Water will continue to be the battleground resource for the future, and the people of Michigan have the right to protect it. It’s clear that the state of Michigan needs to remove legal hurdles imposed in the past to favor profits over people and restore full jurisdiction to the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, or the courts will be swamped with more frivolous lawsuits demanding local ordinances be ignored when it’s inconvenient for big business to exploit our natural resources for profit.
Attorneys General of Three States File Brief Supporting the Shutdown of Enbridge Line 5
Wednesday , 13, November 2019 Enbridge Line 5 Leave a comment
The Attorneys General of California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin filed an amicus brief supporting Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s suit that the State of Michigan has the authority to protect the waters of the Great Lakes as a public right. The brief was to support Nessel’s response to filing a lawsuit against Enbridge. The response addresses Enbridge’s motion for summary disposition.
In September, 2019, both Attorney General Nessel and Enbridge filed motions for summary disposition. Both parties filed their responses on November 12, 2019 in Ingham County Circuit Court. Nessel appreciated the support of the Attorneys General for filing their brief supporting the will of the people of Michigan in decommissioning Enbridge Line 5.
“It is rare to have the amicus support of other state attorneys general in a state case but the attorneys general for two of our fellow Great Lakes states and the state with one of the longest coastlines in the country clearly recognize the severity and the magnitude of this issue and the important role states play in protecting the public trust. We are grateful that the Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California Attorneys General have joined forces with us to put the protection of our freshwater lakes over corporate profit.”
California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin highlighted the public trust doctrine from their perspective. Minnesota and Wisconsin are also Great Lakes states. California has the longest coastline in the United States. Wisconsin’s shoreline would also be impacted by an oil spill from Enbridge Line 5.
While the Attorney General battles Enbridge at the state level, the energy company earlier in the year went to Michigan’s counties asking the County Boards of Commissioners to vote on variations of a resolution supporting a tunnel Enbridge wants built in the Straits of Mackinac to house the two pipelines currently resting at the bottom. Enbridge went so far as to sponsor the 2019 Michigan Association of Counties conference in order to interact with commissioners and get support for 2018 PA 359, the lame-duck law passed through last December in a last-ditch effort to circumvent the will of the people of the state. The law requires a new Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority to authorize building of the tunnel. Attorney General Nessel’s response explains that law has no bearing on her lawsuit.
The next date in the ongoing lawsuits is December 10, 2019. Both Enbridge and the Attorney General’s office will file briefs and await Judge James Jamo of the Circuit Court’s decision on how the lawsuits will proceed. Thanks to the Attorneys general of California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin for supporting the will of the people of Michigan.
School Millage Whack-A-Mole: How to Convince Voters Every Time to Vote NO Pretending to Be a Local Property Owner
Sunday , 10, November 2019 Section 16 Leave a comment
Another election day in Michigan fades from memory and people are either celebrating or trying to figure out what went wrong. In Baldwin, Michigan, dismally low voter turnout sank yet another millage vote for an aging school building with a leaky roof and crumbling infrastructure that would be cheaper to replace than repair. Baldwin Community Schools once again put up a proposal for the voters in the district, and by only a few votes, it was defeated.
Social media drives so much of how people are informed about anything it’s become a source of information for the media. People living in Lake County, Michigan, are no different, and use social media like Facebook to chat about issues in the area and also inform people about upcoming events, and advertise goods and services of local businesses.
Social media allows anyone to create as many accounts as they can manage and be anyone they want to be online. In the case of one particular troll who enjoys posting on Facebook groups dedicated to Lake County, Michigan, during elections where a millage or bond proposal hangs in the balance, the online presence and posting are guaranteed to appear just before the election and disappear once the bond or millage is defeated. For Baldwin Community Schools, the troll’s name is John Murphy, or Steve Mallery, and possibly even other names.
Steve Mallery’s presence became a daily occurrence in mid-October, just in time for the school districts to inform people about the upcoming bond proposal and encourage people to vote yes. Baldwin Community Schools desperately needs new facilities. “Steve” lamented about how he, a poor retired man living in the district, would be burdened with more taxes he couldn’t afford to pay on his fixed income. He claimed to have inside knowledge about how BCS handles funds from his days as a substitute teacher. He claimed he had a child graduate from BCS. He claimed there was rampant corruption in the district being mishandled by administration. He even went to far as to claim the district bought teachers new cars with millage money instead of spending it on what they said they needed the money for. Every claim Steve Mallery made was a complete lie.
That didn’t stop others from jumping on his bandwagon however and also claiming there were corruption and mismanagement of funding. Another vocal opponent who also disappeared shortly after the bond election was defeated claimed they had been on the school board decades ago so they just knew Mallery was right. Of course, they had never actually seen any corruption and hadn’t bothered to do any research to prove they were right, but they believed it was happening and that was enough for them to vote no.
Mallery suggested the best solution was to close the problem of school building down and bus those students to another school district. That, or everyone who wanted to vote yes needed to donate money to the school. The parents of the children attending the school should also be the ones to foot the bill, not people like him, who had no children attending BCS.
Once the BCS proposal was defeated Steve Mallery and his friends went silent. You would think after a successful campaign to convince people to vote against the BCS millage they would be celebrating.
Some people grew suspicious and began looking into Steve Mallery’s activities on Facebook. When they clicked on his account, they found this:
Jacob Sullivan? Who the hell is Jacob Sullivan?
He’s nobody. This is a fake account on Facebook. The family photo came from this photography studio in Pennsylvania. As for the background image, pretty waterfalls, but you won’t find those anywhere near Irons, Michigan.
Steve Mallery/Jacob Sullivan realized people figured out what happened because this happened in a matter of minutes:
Mallery’s Facebook group also disappeared very quickly.
You can even see that Jacob Sullivan, who used to be Steve Mallery, is an admin.
This reminded people of a similar situation last year when BCS had a bond proposal and someone named John Murphy was the loudest fingers in the group complaining about his taxes going up and how he couldn’t afford it. When another member of the Facebook group pointed out his profile photo was a stock image, he promptly disappeared. The damage was done then too, and the bond proposal for Baldwin Community Schools was defeated.
How much noise did Steve Mallery make? Enough noise that Pioneer Group Staff Writer Catherine Sweeney contacted Mallery for her October 24, 2019 article in the Lake County Star.
It’s obvious Catherine Sweeney read Mallery’s posts on Facebook and decided he would be a good person to quote for her article. How did she verify he was a real person?
Baldwin Community Schools’ proposal was defeated. This means they do not have the funds they need to even repair their 60-year-old school building that desperately needs attention. Next time Facebook group admins need to be more alert to the comments and posts on their groups when the next incarnation of John Murphy/Steve Mallery/Jacob Sullivan pops up to begin his campaign of lies once again in Baldwin, Michigan.
Shell Game The CSA Way: Chuck and Maria’s Partners Properties
Monday , 14, October 2019 Section 16 2 Comments
The best thing with sharing warm and fuzzy stories about Michigan’s for-profit charter schools and the hi-jinks they get themselves into is when a voice in the crowd is eager to share their experiences. Up North Progressive early this morning received an anonymous comment.
Some time in the mid-2000’s Chuck wanted to build a new school building so the high school and middle school grades could have their own space, and asked parents to donate funds to buy land on Taylor Road in Brighton. The company Chuck Stockwell and partner Maria Dockins set up for this real estate deal was called Partners Properties.
That’s easy enough to verify. A quick search on LARA will show if this company exists or ever did. If you have never used LARA to look up a person or business, give it a try. It’s fun to see what pops up.
As for Partners Properties, there isn’t a single listing for it. There are six of them.
Partners Properties LLC through Partners Properties Five LLC all list Maria Dockins as the resident agent. Some of the articles of incorporation are signed by Stockwell, Some of them are signed by Dockins. Partners Properties LLC was incorporated in 2007, so that could be the shell company anonymous says was created to buy the land on Taylor Road.
Except we know a new high/middle school for CSA was never built there. That school is currently the building renovated by Corrigan Construction on 1032 Karl Greimel Drive.
A former R & D facility? Neat.
The other Partners Properties LLC’s were registered after that, with the most recent one, Partners Properties Five LLC, registered in 2017. You can see handwritten on the Articles of Incorporation document in Article II the words “Real estate holding company.”
Could this Partners Properties Five LLC be the shell company created to buy land on Brighton Interior Drive, wait for Chuck Stockwell to beg parents to open their wallets, then announce instead of breaking ground the new middle school would be across the street from the existing CSPA?
What were Partners Properties Two through Four for?
Thank you anonymous for your enlightening comment. CSA’s Chuck Stockwell has quite a shell game going on with parents who send their children to his schools believing he founded CSA because he cared about kids.
Eviction Notice The CSA Way: And Where’s Mr. Beyer Going?
Wednesday , 9, October 2019 Section 16 1 Comment
October has been a bizarre month for Charyl Stockwell Academy. An email went out to parents on Monday, October 7, 2019, that Steven Beyer, the principal turned superintendent for the last 60 days abruptly resigned. On October 8, 2019, it was officially announced that CSA would lease the building across the street owned by Michael Corrigan, a businessman who has just about every business you can imagine, and Corrigan construction company will renovate the office building into facilities more suited for a school.
While parents pass around a petition demanding Mr. Beyer return to CSA only days after they demanded he be fired for the way threats to the school were handled, questions float around the school among parents and staff. Did Mr. Beyer suddenly depart after completely mishandling a school shooting threat at CSPA on October 2, 2019, which also happened to be Count Day? Parents were so alarmed by the cavalier attitude of the administration, less than 50 percent of CSA students attended school on October 2nd. In Michigan, if a school’s census drops below 70 percent then they can not count the day as a day of instruction. Michigan’s public schools and for-profit charter schools are required to hold classes a set number of days every year. Once the school goes over six missed days of instruction, then the school must adjust its schedule to make up those missing days. Students missing school at CSA aren’t that big of a concern, however, as parents pull their kids out of school for weeks or even months at a time and CSA never bothers to report those children as truant.
But was the threat of shooting up CSPA on Count Day scratched into the bathroom stalls of the middle/high school building and the lack of taking the correct steps to assure parents their children would be safe the only reason Mr. Beyer resigned without warning? What about the announcement the very next day in the local news that CSA’s administrative board gave Chuck Stockwell the nod to sign a lease for the office building across the street? There seems to be some confusion on what exactly CSA claimed were their plans for a new school building.
The office building the news reports CSA has a lease in hand for is currently full of tenants who were yet to be notified they needed to move out. One of those tenants in the largest suite of offices is Dr. Mo. Dr. Mo El-Fouy is the local pediatrician and the name everyone knows in Livingston County when parents need a good doctor who specializes in treating children. While CSA greeted visitors at the front door of their schools with signs on tripods showing the new plans for the office building across the street in August of 2019, Dr. Mo, the dentist office, and the urgent care clinic all went about their normal day treating patients and complaining about CSPA’s inadequate parking that made parents dropping off and picking up children take up parking in their lot that they needed for their patients. When Dr. Mo first learned of the plans to make the office building into a school, it was Michael Corrigan himself who assured Dr. Mo nothing was signed and there was no reason for him to move his practice. On October 8, 2019, Corrigan still hadn’t informed Dr. Mo or the other tenants they needed to clear out by November 1, 2019.
In case you’re wondering, this is not the first time Mike Corrigan and Chuck Stockwell have entered into a partnership. All of the buildings pictured if you mash the link are either currently used by charter schools managed by CS Partners or were in the past. Charter school real estate is big business and more important to people who run charter schools than actually educating children. Mike Corrigan and Chuck Stockwell have skipped arm in arm down this lucrative path before.
Remember last spring at the Beluga Ball when after some dinner, entertainment, and drinks Chuck Stockwell shared the good news a new middle school would be ready for CSA students by 2020, and they were breaking ground in the spring on Brighton Interior Drive? Parents donated generously, especially after they saw plans presented at the ball and posted online of a brand new state of the art modern school building including outdoor facilities for the students. The internet was scrubbed of those plans quickly with the August announcement that the new middle school would actually be located across the street.
Petitions to get Mr. Beyer back won’t solve the CSA problem. The problem is your children attend a for-profit school where state tuition dollars to educate students are a secondary priority to Chuck‘s building fund. It is the misfortune of those parents they really have no idea what happens to their money once CS Partners takes its cut for management of the schools and to pay teachers. Parents are even tapped at CSA to help pay the teachers through donations!
CSA parents need to get together, confront the leadership of CSA and ask some hard questions. Why wasn’t the threat of a school shooting on Count Day took more seriously? Why was the proof of the threat painted over with the intent of concealing it? Why did Chuck Stockwell beg for handouts last spring to build a new school on Brighton Interior Drive only to change gears and lease the office space across the street instead of surrounded by parking, access roads, and a great big factory? Why does Chuck need parents to donate money for a new school if he’s not building a new school? Did he ever intend to build a new school? Did Chuck even make an effort to buy property on Brighton Interior Drive, or was that just dangled at parents like a carrot to get them to open their wallets? And finally, why did Michael Corrigan insist Dr. Mo had nothing to worry about he would never have to move his practice out of that office building CSA told everyone was soon going to be their new school?
CSA parents need to demand answers.