SCOTUS Save Us: Northern Michigan Republicans Whine Over the Big Mess the GOP Made of the States’ Voting Districts

Monday , 29, April 2019 Up North Progressive Candidates, Gerrymandering The Vote Leave a comment

 

The effectiveness of REDMAP is perhaps most clear in the state of Michigan … The 2012 election was a huge success for Democrats at the statewide level in Michigan: voters elected a Democratic U.S. Senator by more than 20 points and reelected President Obama by almost 10 points. But Republicans at the state level maintained majorities in both chambers of the legislature and voters elected a 9-5 Republican majority to represent them in Congress.

Much like a child screaming at their mother it’s unfair they have to clean their room before they go outside to play, the Michigan GOP vowed to appeal the April 25, 2019, decision of the three-judge panel of the US Circuit Court which ruled the mess Republicans made of Michigan’s voting districts in 2011 must be cleaned up by August 1, 2019, or the court will clean it up for them. Naturally, Republicans are screaming loudly it’s not fair they are now ordered to redraw districts so gerrymandered they’re unconstitutional, so they’re going to Dad, ie, the United States Supreme Court and have them appeal the federal court order.

Two Northern Michigan state districts not listed by the US Circuit Court are controlled by Republicans. They talked to Cadillac News on April 29, 2019, about the upcoming appeal. State Senator Carl VanderWall (R – Leave No Pregnant Woman Unpunished) represents twelve county behemoth District 35 while Daire Rendon (R – Politics is our Family Business) represents State House District 103.

Rendon insists gerrymandering is just too hard to do more than once every ten years after the census, and why fix the problem Republicans created via REDMAP in 2011 when the new Citizens Redistricting Commission will take over redistricting Michigan’s voting districts for the 2022 election anyway? VanderWall doesn’t care that he may be running for reelection in 2020 as part of the circuit court’s ruling. He’s far too busy pushing legislation that dumps more pain and grief on expectant mothers and whatever it is self-employed landscapers do in spring.

Both state politicians can’t wait for the case to go before the Supreme Court, where they’re banking on the new right-wing tilt to the court to ignore the law and rule it’s perfectly fine to gerrymander districts when it helps the Republican Party maintain control.

What happens if SCOTUS doesn’t overturn the ruling? Lines for some districts must be redrawn to correct the partisan, political gerrymandering that took place in 2011 to ensure no election in the state was remotely fair for future elections. This means that districts that weren’t cited in the case as being gerrymandered might still be affected, and that is what has VanderWall and Rendon worried. What if State Senate District 35 shrinks from 12 counties to something smaller? What if Daire Rendon has to move to a new house?

That’s right. Daire Rendon’s biggest concern with redrawing the districts for the 2020 election is that it might push her out of the district she represents because she lives close to the western edge of State House District 103. She’ll have to move!

Ethical bankruptcy like this is why no Republican deserves any person’s vote ever. Rendon and VanderWall could care less their support of gerrymandering Michigan’s districts muted votes in favor of keeping control and power so they could serve their partisan agenda rather than the interests of their constituents.

So remember, Michigan Republicans want to maintain this:

AND This:

Because cleaning up the mess they deliberately created will require them to take responsibility for the unconstitutional acts their party committed against the people of Michigan.

And Daire Rendon might be forced to move.

Rob Alway Editorializes Whitmer’s Visit to Northern Michigan with a Headline only Hearst and Pulitzer Could Love

Saturday , 13, April 2019 Up North Progressive Community, Governor Gretchen Whitmer Leave a comment

The way Editor-In-Chief of the Mason County Press Rob Alway tells it, you would think Governor Gretchen Whitmer was skulking in the shadows around the state on April 12, 2019, secretly meeting with supporters as if she has something to hide.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer was in Ludington today. Did you know that? Probably not. In fact, not many people knew it because she has been operating in stealth mode when she travels to visit us rural folk on the western side of the state.

First, it wasn’t a secret that she was in the area at all. The Governor attended the annual Governor’s Breakfast in Cadillac on Friday morning. Gretchen Whitmer was in Traverse City the day before speaking at Traverse City Central High School. There’s even news coverage for both public events. Emphasis on public.

But Rob Alway doesn’t mention either of those events in his scathing editorial of the Governor’s clandestine movement around the state. Only this private meeting with a small group of local people in Ludington, which Alway attempts to gin up as some sort of nefarious conclave with the heads of the five families.

So what did Whitmer talk about at this private gathering? The same issues she’s talked about at the public events. Infrastructure in Michigan for far too long has been ignored by Republicans in control in Lansing and now we’ve reached a critical point where something must be done about it. All of the talk of Michigan being a comeback state by Snyder in 2011 was just that, talk. We’ve known before Snyder took office in 2011 that one of the big drawbacks for businesses setting up shop in Michigan is the deplorable condition of the roads. The Republicans did absolutely nothing about the roads while raising taxes and fees on the people of the state. Sure, they told us these fee hikes were for the roads, but then in standard Republican fashion, they moved the money to where they wanted to spend it. As you can see today, none of it was spent on repairing our infrastructure

Rob Alway’s Mason County Press has been the platform to drag the Mayor of Scottville through the mud over a personal feud and outing a trans individual by revealing enough personal information about them, then suggesting the person was trans because they were sexually abused.

Rob Alway is doing more with his “editorial” than just attempting to provoke people into anger that the Governor was in Ludington for a private meeting with locals. Speaking publicly at events spread out over days wasn’t enough. He’s outright lying to the people of Mason County with his whole cloth approach to criticizing the Democratic Governor about her speaking engagements.

Besides, how did Rob Alway know the Governor was in town if it was a big secret?

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel Issues Opinion On Lame Duck Enbridge Line 5 “Tunnel” Law

Thursday , 28, March 2019 Up North Progressive Enbridge Line 5, Environment 1 Comment

Today in Lansing Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel gave her official legal opinion on the constitutionality of PA 359, the law that creates a Straits Corridor Authority with the job of servicing Enbridge’s desire to continue pumping oil through an aging pipeline for the next 100 years. The purpose of the act was to create a ruse for Enbridge to gain access to public land for their exclusive corporate use of building an underground tunnel for the oil pipeline that threatens the health of the Straits of Mackinac and the Great Lakes.

Attorney General Nessel’s opinion argued that the title of the law doesn’t match what’s actually in the text of the law, and that makes it unconstitutional.

No law shall embrace more than one object, which shall be expressed in its title.  No bill shall be altered or amended on its passage through either house so as to change its original purpose as determined by its total content and not alone by its title

Other problems with how the law came to be during the lame duck session of 2018 included the outrageously short public comment period. Some parts of the bill only allowed one day of public comment, because they weren’t included until shortly before the bill became law.

Now that the Attorney General has completed the first of five opinions requested by Governor Whitmer it’s time to begin the process of doing what the majority of Michiganders want from the new administration: Close down Enbridge Line 5 and protect the Great Lakes from a potentially catastrophic disaster.

The State of Michigan Will Have a Tornado Drill on March 27, 2019

Tuesday , 26, March 2019 Up North Progressive Community, Environment Leave a comment

On Wednesday, March 27, 2019, the entire state of Michigan will participate in a tornado drill to raise awareness about safety during severe weather. Gretchen Whitmer proclaimed the week of March 24th to 30th as Michigan’s Severe Weather Awareness Week to better prepare the state for severe weather emergencies.

At one o’clock in the afternoon on March 27, emergency sirens will sound in a state-wide test. These sirens are usually under the control of local communities with their own emergency plans for their use.

MSP/EMHSD commander Captain Emmitt McGowan remarked on the upcoming drill:

“Outdoor warning sirens are designed to alert residents who are outdoors about an approaching threat. To be better prepared to hear an alert indoors, you should look to your NOAA Weather Radio and local alerts for hazard information.”

With the sounding of local warning sirens, residents will also see or hear alerts on television and radio stations. The intent of the drill and alerts is to encourage Michigan residents to practice for a severe weather emergency.

To find out if your community will participate in the drill, contact your local emergency management agency. For learn more about weather safety and what to do in case of a tornado, you can follow the MSP/EMHSD on Twitter at @MichEMHS or go to the Michigan State Police Website

State Senator Curt VanderWall and the Incredible Horrible No Good Bill to Inflict More Pain and Suffering on Expectant Mothers: He’s Not Alone

Friday , 22, March 2019 Up North Progressive Abortion, Michigan Women, Religious Fundamentalism 1 Comment

Let’s get one thing sorted right way: Pregnant women carry a FETUS. A fetus is a fertilized egg that has reached 8 weeks of development. There are lots of other terms that describe the stages of pregnancy such as zygote, embryo, fetus, neonate, and so on. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN UNBORN CHILD. It’s bizarre and tragic this false term for a fetus has become part of our language, especially in the media, to the point even progressives use it not realizing they’re perpetuating the false narrative of anti-choice groups.

Moving on …

When the Up North Progressive first started writing this article it was supposed to be about State Senator Curtis VanderWall (R – Must punish women for having sex!), and his bill to criminalize women who have to make the horrible decision to end their late-term pregnancy. Inanely named “Pain-capable Unborn Child Protection Act,” the bill assumes a pregnant woman might wake up some morning after carrying a fetus for 24 or more weeks and suddenly change her mind about being pregnant. This assertion is based on some sadistic fantasy right wing men have that a woman can on a whim get an abortion up to an even after giving birth.

Except they can’t because abortion on demand is illegal after 24 weeks – the time when the fetus begins developing the ability to feel pain. At this point, only a doctor can decide if the pregnancy can be terminated, not the pregnant mother. The doctor will only suggest this if there is some birth defect the fetus will not survive after birth or the mother’s life is in danger. These two situations are so rare that less than 1 percent of late-term abortions ever happen in this country. That doesn’t stop sadistic bastards like Curt VanderWall however from inflicting more agony and suffering on an already despondent mother by insisting she gives birth only to watch her baby die an agonizing death or face time in prison. VanderWall at least doesn’t go so far as to demand the mother sacrifice her life on the altar of disgustingly stupid laws politicians propose to get their name in the media because they want to run for higher office in the near future.

And it’s no coincidence VanderWall’s bill came shortly after one of many of Trump’s asinine tweets on the subject of “after-birth” abortion – a thing that is medically impossible.

And you’re thinking, “it can’t possibly get any worse,” until it does.

And it gets even worse.

Until it gets to the point where anti-choice Republicans are in a mad dash to see who can out-stupid each other the most.

And then only two days ago on March 20, 2019, we reached peak stupid with former Trumpian UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley.

Sure, pick on Finland of all countries and show the world how stupid you are, Nikki.

Up North Progressive already shared how exponentially superior Finland is at being pro-life when it comes to children. Just for fun, google ‘Finland baby box.’ Finland’s supportive child policies and health care system are so superior to the United States they have the lowest child poverty rate in the world. Finland always ranks in the top five nations worldwide for infant mortality rate at around 1.8 percent while the United States struggles to keep below 6 percent. With all of the restrictions on legal abortion, defunding Planned Parenthood, closing clinics, and politically grasping jerks like Curt VanderWall, you would think the United States could at least do as well as Finland, a country where abortion is legal and government-funded.

Anti-choice opportunist politicians like Ludington’s Curt VanderWall think to force women to give birth to a nonviable fetus and making her suffer the loss and pain of a child she had so much love and hope for means freedom. Threatening women and doctors with prison by criminalizing sound medical practice doesn’t seem much like freedom at all.

Who is Megan Green and Why Does the St. Louis Police Hate Her: Welcome to Women’s History Month

Monday , 4, March 2019 Up North Progressive Elections Leave a comment

On March 5, 2019, in St. Louis, Missouri, a Democratic primary election will decide who runs for Board of Aldermen President in the General Election. Why is Up North Progressive, a blog dedicated to covering progressive issues in Northern Michigan writing about this? Because when a city police association takes to social media declaring one of the candidates a communist cop-hater, people around the world are going to notice.

Especially when the world notices you failed high school history. Uhm, maybe someone in St. Louis could explain to whoever posted this on facebook Communists WON the Battle of Stalingrad against a Nazi invasion during World War II.

 

Why does the St. Louis Police Officers Association hate Megan Ellyia Green so much? She was elected to the Board of Aldermen in 2014 in a special election, won re-election ever since and now is running for President of the Board of Aldermen in St. Louis. Green uses her office to support progressive issues such as $15 minimum wage, pro-choice reproductive freedom for women, the Ferguson Commission and civilian oversight of the police department – looks like we found the problem.

Megan Green also supports the Black Lives Matter movement. Nearby community Ferguson, Missouri, is ground zero for the organization that works to overcome unnecessary police brutality that leads to the murder of black people without consequences for too many police officers committing these heinous crimes. Green participated in a BLM march in 2017 where tear gas was used on demonstrators. Green sued the St. Louis Police Department and they’ve hated her ever since.

Hate her so much, the Stalingrad facebook post wasn’t the only one that came out on March 3, 2019 against Megan Green’s campaign.

All of the above posts are still live on the SLPOA Facebook page. Snowflake is a pejorative term used by right-wing Trump supporters to describe ‘liberals’ because liberals are so delicate and fragile says the organization posting bad photoshops and calling an elected official bad names because she’s mean to us.

This isn’t the first time Megan Green has been called names in public for her work to protect the taxpayers of St. Louis. That she now seeks to be president of the Board of Aldermen demonstrates she’s anything but a snowflake.

Megan Green’s campaign does not accept any corporate PAC campaign donations. Tomorrow, March 5, 2019, is the Democratic Party Primary in St. Louis, Missouri. Women’s History Month is a celebration of women willing to face adversity to fight for what is right. Megan Green is a woman who has faced derision, sexism, and hate speech yet chooses to keep fighting for what is right for the people of St. Louis.

Attorney General Dana Nessel Defends Upper Peninsula Electricity Customers from $10 Million Rate Hike

Thursday , 28, February 2019 Up North Progressive Community, Upper Peninsula Leave a comment

On February 21, 2019, the office of Attorney General Dana Nessel filed testimony with the Michigan Public Service Commission (MSPC) in Lansing opposing the Upper Peninsula Power Company’s (UPPCO) request for a $10 million raise in electricity rates for the service they provide their customers in the Western Upper Peninsula. Nessel’s filing requested the rate to not go above $3.5 million. UPPCO filed their request to increase rates for their 54,000 customers in 2018. The MSPC will make their determination in August of 2019.

The customers UPPCO provides service for live in Alger, Baraga, Delta, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw, Marquette, Menominee, Ontonagon, and Schoolcraft Counties. They currently pay anywhere from 23 cents to 25 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is 67% higher than the rates paid by anyone else in the state of Michigan. The only other place in the United States that pays more for electricity is Hawaii.

Dana Nessel’s office recommends in the testimony provided to the MSPC that changes be made to their deferred tax liability, return annual revenue credit to $4.3 million instead of the lower amount of $2.6 million, adjusting and removing errors to estimates, and most importantly, reject UPPCO’s increase of customer service charges and moderate the charges for small businesses.

The hydroelectric power facility in Escanaba listed in UPPCO’s proposal only has one customer, Verso Corporation. The Escanaba facility is currently listed as a“non-utility asset” meaning it’s not part of the infrastructure used to provide electricity to the rest of their customers. UPPCO estimated that it would cost them $1.3 million to operate that one plant for Verso, but they would only generate $1.1 million in revenue. UPPCO’s plan to make up the difference was changing the status of the hydroelectric plant as a regulated utility and pass on the cost of providing electricity to Verso Corporation to the customers already paying a quarter per kilowatt hour. Why? Because shareholders and company executives don’t like it when one of their assets that only shareholders and company executives enjoy the benefits of stand to lose those benefits, as stated in Attorney General Dana Nessel’s testimony:

The Company has been operating this facility for several years as a non-utility investment with all benefits of operating the facility accruing solely to the Company and its shareholders. The facility is not connected to the Company power distribution system and the Company’s utility customers would gain no benefit from including this facility as a fully regulated utility asset. For utility customers, there would be no financial or operating benefits, but only the potential for significant financial risks and higher electric rates. It appears that the Company foresees difficulties in profitably operating the facility and is attempting to burden its utility customers with potentially significantly higher costs.

Is that the only problem? UPPCO also planned on raising service fees by 67 percent for residential customers and 194 percent (!!!) for small business customers. Reduced revenue credits, pension and retirement funding that only benefited the highest paid executives, delaying deferred taxes refunds, and more expenses that would have caused electricity in UPPCO’s service area to likely become difficult to afford for many customers.

UPPCO’s parent company, UPPHCO, had their bond rating lowered in September of 2018 from an investment grade to a non-investment grade. This means financing is even more difficult for UPPCO, and raising customer rates is one way to increase revenue.

The Attorney General’s office provided solutions to UPPCO’s financial difficulties that wouldn’t require raising rates on the most expensive electricity in the continental United States. UPPCO’s short-term solution would only cause more hardship for its customers. Attorney General Dana Nessel stepped in to protect UPPCO customers from paying astronomically higher rates for electricity.

Fun Wintertime Things to Do in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula: Snowmobiling … Antler Hunting … Wolf Counting

Friday , 22, February 2019 Up North Progressive DNR, Wolf Hunt Leave a comment

If you missed the latest of two free fishing weekends Michigan offers this year but still want to participate in more DNR-related activities, you can always count the number of wolves living below the bridge.

Since 2014 when the DNR positively identified wolf scat in Emmet County, the number of wolves possibly living in the lower peninsula has remained unknown. Wolves have no barrier to moving into the upper peninsula, but wolves need ice cover on the Great Lakes to make it south. That happened in 2014 when the Great Lakes were 90 percent covered in ice. Currently, there’s only 56 percent total ice cover, but at the Straits of Mackinac, it’s around 90 to 100 percent.

The survey began on February 19, 2019, but there’s still time. The last day to report any evidence of wolves in the lower peninsula is March 15, 2019. The DNR is giving priority to reports north of M 55 and they ask that if you do find evidence of a possible wolf in the area to report it as soon as possible. DNR Biologist Jennifer Kleitch also asks observers to do the following when gathering evidence:

Those who find what they believe are wolf tracks should preserve the physical sign and take a photo of the tracks with a ruler in the frame to indicate size. We’d also be very interested in any recent pictures of a wolf in the Northern Lower Peninsula.

You can call the DNR Atlanta Field Office at 989-785-4251, ext. 5233 or use the Eyes In The Field form at Michigan.gov/dnr.

Teacher Says Every Time a Politician Mutters ‘Literacy Crisis” a Corporate Education Lobbyist Gets Their Wings

Tuesday , 19, February 2019 Up North Progressive Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Section 16 Leave a comment

One of the happiest days of 2019 was watching Governor Gretchen Whitmer on February 12 give her first State of the State address in Michigan’s capital in Lansing. After eight very long, difficult years of the Nerd and Republican policy gutting the wealth of Michigan, there’s the possibility Michigan will get back on track and be a state of prosperity for all Michiganians. Listening to Governor Whitmer speak, nodding in agreement with almost everything she said, there was one point of head shaking and heavy sighs.

The second crisis is harder to see, but we all know it exists: it’s the crisis in education and skills. And, like infrastructure, it impacts every one of us — our employers, our workers, and all of our children. Today, third graders in Michigan rank in the bottom ten in the country in reading. The bottom ten. Since 2014, among states measured every year, Michigan has experienced the worst decline in childhood literacy. And the decline has been consistent across every racial and economic group in our state.

ARGH! NOOOOOOO! Who did this? Who included the ALEC-manufactured literacy crisis in the governor’s speech? Why do so many intelligent people fall for this manufactured crisis?

Third grade literacy requirements are the brainchild of corporate-backed friend to Republican state legislators everywhere, the American Legislative Exchange Council. Just in case you forgot what ALEC is all about, they are a group of corporations spending millions of dollars to keep Republican state legislators in office in all 50 states. In “exchange” those Republican legislators introduce “model” bills for consideration, and if the checks are big enough, passage into state law. The bill that became PA 306 in Michigan was House Bill 4822 of 2016, a bill that paraphrases Chapter 7 of ALEC’s “A Plus Literacy Act.” so closely, it’s as if Michigan Republicans barely bothered to try and cover up the fact that HB 4822 was an ALEC model bill at all.

So with barely any time to collect enough data (because that is the main function of public school teachers now, collecting data and documenting their job leaving very little time for them to actually do their job), Michigan has been declared a failure according to Michigan Achieves, a project of the organization Education Trust – Midwest. Who are these people?

It’s Bill and Melinda Gates, of course! Education Trust is an organization heavily funded by the Gates Foundation. Every spring, newspapers across Michigan publish press releases of doom and gloom with full-color reports provided about how Michigan schools suck so much, they really need to pass more ALEC model bills to improve academic achievement. The report is always very light on any actual data on Michigan academic growth, but results are always the same: Michigan is doing a terrible job and must do better by passing ALEC model legislation to give teachers more data-collecting hoops to jump through. The 2018 report that everyone took to be gospel last spring proves absolutely nothing about the status of Michigan’s public schools.

What is the Bill Gates-ALEC connection? Nothing publicly since 2012 when the Gates Foundation donated $375,000 to ALEC for the purpose of making “a single grant, narrowly and specifically focused on providing information to ALEC-affiliated state legislators on teacher effectiveness and school finance.”

Education Trust is the whistleblower arm of the Bill Gates agenda to run public education in the way he thinks public education should be run: Scare legislators into adopting ALEC model legislation, then force public schools to punish teachers through the Center for Educational Leadership arm of the Bill Gates agenda.

Does Governor Whitmer agree with Bill Gates that more corporate-funded legislation and policy are needed to whip Michigan’s failing teachers into shape?

This is not happening because Michigan kids are less talented. It’s not happening because our kids are less motivated. It’s not happening because our educators are less dedicated. It is happening because generations of leadership have failed them. In the past 25 years, Michigan has seen the lowest growth in the K-12 education spending of any state in the nation. During that time, our per-pupil funding revenue has actually fallen by 15 percent. And in the last decade, as our literacy crisis has grown, our predecessors have repeatedly raided K-12 education funding to fill gaps elsewhere in the state budget.

Yes, Governor Whitmer, this part of your speech about public education is almost accurate.

There is no literacy crisis in Michigan. There is however a public education crisis in Michigan. Corporate meddling with our public schools has cost the Michigan taxpayers billions and the only achievement so far is making Michigan’s public schools worse. Michigan’s public schools were once the standard for the nation. We now allegedly rank dead last and the responsibility lies not with Michigan educators, but with deep pockets who have the ears of corporate-friendly politicians in Lansing.

Governor Whitmer, if you really want to see real, effective change in Michigan’s public schools, then put the authority back into the hands of the people who can really fix it. Not Bill Gates, Not the DeVos Crime Family, and not ALEC. Michigan’s education professionals are the people you need to entrust with bringing Michigan public schools back from decades of corporate ruination. Listen to teachers, and let them be your guides.

And in a matter of weeks when Education Trust issues another press release of totally dire woe about Michigan’s public schools, please remember the corporate-funded source of that news before including their agenda in your speech.

National Forest Service Bans Alcohol Consumption on Portions of Three Rivers in Huron-Manistee National Forests – DELAYED February 12, 2019

Tuesday , 12, February 2019 Up North Progressive Environment Leave a comment

On February 1, 2019, National Forests Supervisor Leslie Auriemmo signed order 09-04-19-01 making it illegal to have alcohol on portions of three rivers in the Huron-Manistee National Forests from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The order, according to Auriemmo was enacted to address safety and pollution issues on those sections of the three rivers. That order today has been delayed.

The closure order is intended to address persistent public safety issues and protect natural resources on rivers of outstanding recreational value. Our goal is to create a safer, more sustainable, and more enjoyable experience for the thousands of visitors who recreate on our National Wild and Scenic Rivers each year. Our National Wild and Scenic Rivers provide ample fresh water, critical fish and wildlife habitat, and family-friendly recreational opportunities. The Huron-Manistee National Forests are obligated to ensure that present and future generations can safely enjoy those benefits.

The following portions of these three rivers to be alcohol-free were:

  • AuSable River between Mio Dam Pond and 4001 Canoe Landing
  • Manistee River between Tippy Dam and the Huron-Manistee National Forests’ Administrative Boundary
  • Pine River between Elm Flats and Low Bridge.

Violators of the ban faced a $5,000 fine and up to 6 months in jail if convicted. These beautiful Northern Michigan rivers are fun places to put in a boat, canoe, or kayak and float for the day. There are floating parties where groups of boats will enjoy the water together, and parties mean people want to drink while they have fun. Unfortunately, the fun has lead to problems with pollution, damage, and littering. People finish their beer and toss the can or bottle out of the boat. They finish a cigarette and toss the butt into the water. Drinking beer means you have to relieve yourself, and where people chose to do that also caused problems for the rivers. Public sections of each of the three rivers need to be protected, and this is how initially the National Forest Service decided to protect those rivers.

Private land and campgrounds were not included in the alcohol ban, but the new rule still had people complaining. Business owners renting canoes, boats, and kayaks claimed the alcohol ban will hurt their business. There’s even a petition to have the ban overturned.

Instead, the forest service decided to delay that ban and work with the community to come up with alternatives to totally banning all alcohol on public sections of the three rivers.

To learn more about the delayed ban and why the National Forest Service wants to protect these rivers, you can contact the National Forest Service by phone at 231-755-2421 or by email at nathan.peeters@usda.gov Perhaps if people come up with a solution that will protect the rivers but still allow people to have fun this summer as they enjoy Michigan rivers, the ban won’t be necessary. It will take everyone working together to keep the rivers open so people can float AND have their beverage of choice.