Eagle Mine Saga Act Four: Plausible Denial From The Source

Monday , 10, August 2015 Up North Progressive Environment, Upper Peninsula 2 Comments

Dan Blondeau, the communications representative for Eagle Mine left two comments on the blog last week. Both of them are rather condescending and confrontational, but more importantly, they shed light on the issue with County Road 595. Both were left on the second installment of Eagle Mine Saga and were in response to a reader’s comment, and a question asked by Up North Progressive. The first one addressed the reader’s valid concern over Humboldt Mill tripling the amount of wastewater the MDEQ will allow them to discharge into the local watershed:

The plan to direct ship ore was prior to Eagle buying, cleaning up, and refurbishing the Humboldt Mill. This plan dates back to 2004 when we were in the stages of permitting and design. Today the ore is trucked to the mill, processed, and then railed to facilities and ports in Canada. By using the mill we’re able to extract more ore – which means more jobs, investment, and taxes for the community. If you honestly believe the roughly 200 employees (85% Yoopers) and 200 contractors are destroying our home you need to come and take a tour of each site and talk to the people that run them. Dan Blondeau – Eagle Mine

The plan to direct ship ore refers of course to the original deal Eagle Mine made with the state of Michigan to put the ore on rail cars and haul it away for processing. They made that deal to keep their trucks off the local roads and not put the people of Marquette County at risk. The invitation to tour the mine facilities however is compelling. I hope people take Dan Blondeau up on his offer and schedule a visit soon.

The second comment came after the Up North Progressive suggested if Eagle Mine wants to show people what they’re really doing, they could start by disclosing their involvement in the lawsuit over County Road 595. This was Blondeau’s response to that challenge:

Eagle is not demanding a new road – plain and simple. The company is not a part of the lawsuit and is not contributing financially. The company already invested roughly $50 million in upgrades to existing roads. Furthermore, logging and other mining companies have use the same route through Marquette for decades.
When you build a house do your plans change at all? Of course. The same goes for any building or structure, including a mine.When things change you go through the proper procedures to ensure the changes are carefully considered and appropriately made. – Dan Blondeau

Really.

So Eagle Mine has nothing to do with the lawsuit or building of County Road 595. They’re perfectly happy with the roads they’re currently using, and have never been concerned with the miles they travel every day to get to Humboldt Mill with their ore. So happy in fact, they’ve spent millions on maintaining the roads they use. If it’s true they don’t need County Road 595, then what is the Marquette County Road Commission suing the EPA for?

Who wants this road built so badly, they’re willing to set up a dummy 501(c)(4) and secretly raise funds to pay for a lawsuit? Maybe Dan Blondeau will be willing to answer those questions for us next.

Todd Courser Sucks At Writing Fan Fiction and Cindy Gamrat’s “In His Grip” Didn’t Mean What She Wanted Us To Think

Saturday , 8, August 2015 Up North Progressive LGBT Rights, Religious Fundamentalism, Same Sex Marriage, Tea Party, Tealiban 2 Comments

If you found the blog after googling Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat, welcome.

In Todd’s own words, “We are living in the last days.” How many people suspected he was talking about his political career? Anyone who screams as loudly as Gamrat and Courser about the sanctity of traditional marriage is doing so out of guilt, not out of conviction of faith. It’s a way to justify their own immoral behavior by pointing the finger at someone else and insisting they’re worse. Both of these people trashed their own marriages, but a same sex couple wanting to get married is wrong. Welcome to the logic of the tea bagger.

Remember when Courser complained about where he was told to sit in the state house chamber because he wasn’t sitting next to Gamrat? It had nothing to do with the house following the rules and all about being able to sit next to his girlfriend. Rules only matter when you’re not getting your own way, like same sex marriage being legalized in the United States.

Don’t be shocked when neither one resigns from their position, and the herd, which Courser so elegantly calls his constituents, come to their defense and insist they have to stay in office. The people who voted for Courser and Gamrat believe they have to overlook any shortcomings because these two serve a higher purpose. They believe there is no sin greater than being a liberal, and conservatives, even those that fall from God’s grace, are better than an immoral progressive who thinks people should be allowed to make their own choices about who they marry or what medical procedure they elect for themselves.

Courser’s fake email reflects this belief that the worst conservative Christian patriot is still better than a liberal. He believed faking a story about having sex with men was much worse than the truth that he was having an affair with Gamrat because it was so ridiculous no one would believe it, and it would discredit any critics who tried to tell the truth. Thank goodness for audio.

Voting has consequences. If you vote for any person with an R next to their name, you’re part of the problem. No one should be surprised these people lack the moral conviction they beat everyone else over the head with. Todd Courser and Cindy Gamrat need to be Michigan’s poster children for what the tea party really represents. The Up North Progressive will be surprised if either one resigns.

Eagle Mine Saga Act Three: 40 More Reasons The People of Michigan Have To Give Lundin Mining Everything They Want

Monday , 3, August 2015 Up North Progressive Environment, Upper Peninsula 3 Comments

Let’s recap Eagle Mine’s activities in Marquette County so far.

First, the Marquette County Road Commission, being funded by a 501(c)(4) “social welfare” group called Stand U.P., sued the Environmental Protection Agency on July 8 over their temper tantrum with County Road 595. This road, running through Wildcat Canyon, would impact 26 acres of wetlands and require bridges or culverts over 22 streams. The entire length of the proposed road is 21 miles. Townships impacted by the new road are Champion, Ely, Humboldt and Michigamme. Pay attention to that last township, it’s important.

After a heated, controversial public hearing over granting a new permit to dump wastewater from Humboldt Mill into local watersheds and allowing Eagle Mine to build a second outfall, on July 2 the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality took into consideration modifying the new permit to allow a third outfall, which would triple the amount of wastewater being released into the local watershed and greatly impacting the middle branch of the Escanaba River. No public hearing was scheduled for this change and only an email address to write comments by August 3, 2015, was provided to the local community.

Eagle Mine wants a new road, and the ability to triple their wastewater output. What more could they possibly want? More land, of course; 40 acres more or less to be exact.

In a Michigan Department of Natural Resources press release dated July 29, 2015, Eagle Mine wants to lease 40 acres of land in Michigamme township for mineral exploration. The particular 40 acres they want is located at NE1/4 NE1/4, Section 8, T50N,R29W.

Eagle Mine already requested Section 13 of the same township last fall. The region is located in the Yellow Dog River Wilderness. Last November, June RydHolm wrote a letter to the Michigan DNR asking them to please deny Eagle Mine’s lease for Section 13, citing the negative impact it would have on wildlife in the area. Now, the mine wants to dig up more land in Michigamme Township.

The Michigan DNR will be accepting written comments about this new mineral lease until August 26, 2015. At this time, there is no schedule for a public hearing. You can submit your comments in writing by email DNR-Minerals@Michigan.gov or by mailing a letter to Office of Minerals Management, DNR, P.O. Box 30452, Lansing, MI, 48909-7952.

Eagle Mine wants a road. Eagle Mine wants to pollute more water. Eagle Mine wants to destroy more pristine wilderness. Mining operations are devestating to the environment. There is no recovery and the damage is permanent. The EPA is trying to at least slow the mine down, but The U.P.’s congressman is more concerned about the “moose-proof” fence. What does Dan Benishek have to say about the EPA? That’s for next time.

Eagle Mine Saga Act Two: Tripling Wastewater Outfalls Necessary To Mine’s Industrial Health

Sunday , 2, August 2015 Up North Progressive Environment, Upper Peninsula 5 Comments

A recent press release from Save The Wild UP, dated July 23, 2015, states that in January, the Humboldt processing facility for Eagle Mine put in a request for a new permit with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to continue putting wastewater into local watersheds around the plant. The permit also asked to nearly double the output by installing a second outfall. This permit was granted despite public outcry from locals, environmental groups, and Native American tribes living in the area.

On July 2, 2015, the MDEQ issued a press release on their website they are modifying the January permit by allowing a third outfall to discharge wastewater from the plant. The third outfall according to Save The Wild U.P would:

divert a portion of the mill’s wastewater to a new location. It will be dumped into a poor-quality cattail wetland adjacent to the Humboldt Pit, a site already polluted by historic mine tailings discharge. From there, the wastewater will flow north, passing underneath US-41 through a culvert before entering the Humboldt Wetland Mitigation Bank property, en route to the Escanaba river.

Looking at the photo above provided by Save The Wild U.P. above shows where the new wastewater discharge points will be, and the flow for all of them leads right to the middle branch of the Escanaba River. Save The Wild U.P. and residents in the area are very concerned what this increased wastewater discharge will do to the surrounding wetlands. There may even be evidence that Eagle Mine is breaking the law. The rules about mitigation banks, how they must be maintained and what they are to be used for is clearly defined:

Under Michigan law, R 281.954, Rule 4, “(1) A mitigation bank is a site where wetlands are restored, created, or, in exceptional circumstances, preserved expressly for the purpose of providing compensatory mitigation in advance of the unavoidable loss of wetlands authorized by the act. A mitigation bank shall be maintained in perpetuity. (2) The objective of mitigation banking is to provide for the replacement of chemical, physical, and biological wetland functions (….) Single function, low quality wetlands, such as wastewater ponds, will not qualify as mitigation sites.”

This law is taken almost word for word from the EPA definition of a mitigation bank. Building and maintaining them is very specific, as well as how they’re used in preserving wetlands. What does this mitigation bank have to do with Eagle Mine’s Humboldt processing plant? Save The Wild U.P. provides another clue to what is going on. The mitigation bank is owned by A. Lindberg and Sons, the company also building the new outflow for Eagle Mine’s Humboldt facility. Coincidence, or conflict of interest?

But there’s more to this.

MDEQ, in issuing the current NPDES permit, granted Eagle Mine an exemption to the Clean Water Act’s critical antidegradation policy, based on the mine’s claim that water quality degradation in the Escanaba River watershed is necessary to accommodate “economic and social benefits” in the area — a claim debated by many local residents, environmentalists, and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, which views degradation of the watershed as a threat to treaty-protected resources.

This amendment to the permit came on fast, and no public meeting took place for affected communities to provide input. Michigan DEQ currently accepts written comments only by email at snows2@michigan.gov addressed to Sam Snow. Anyone wanting to write to MDEQ about this also has very little time, as the deadline to leave comments is Monday, August 3.

One has to ask, what’s the rush, Eagle Mine? The new permit is only months old and already they require a change? There is even more to this story, and that will come in Act Three.

Eagle Mine Saga Act One: Marquette County Road Commission Holds Their Breath Until They Turn Blue

Saturday , 1, August 2015 Up North Progressive Environment, Upper Peninsula Leave a comment

Plenty has been going on in Marquette County lately with Eagle Mine and the Marquette County Road Commission – and none of it is good. On July 8, the Marquette County Road Commission filed suit with the Environmental Protection Agency over their banning construction of County Road 595. The Road Commission just won’t take no for an answer, and since they’re the road commission, they think they know better than the Environmental Protection Agency how to build a road through acres of federally protected wetlands.

Eagle Mine LLC wants the road built because they’re currently driving trucks filled with ore through residential areas. Their original contract with the state stipulated they would use railways to ship their ore to the Humboldt facility for processing. That stipulation seems to not matter now, because they’re manipulating the people of Marquette County into thinking it’s the big bad federal government putting them in harm’s way with these ore-laden trucks rumbling through the streets when it’s actually the mining company. They want people to believe there is no option getting the ore to Humboldt unless they build a road the EPA has told them they can’t build, forgetting the original deal with the railroad.

State Senator Tom Casperson (R-Hates Nature) fully supports the lawsuit. As the owner of a trucking business hauling for logging companies in the U.P., naturally he supports destroying wetlands for a road that financially benefits him personally.

“The EPA, in its objection to the construction of County Road 595, has once again overstepped its bounds and demonstrated its politically motivated agenda. The agency, without reason or merit, has hamstrung the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality from issuing a wetlands permit for County Road 595 simply because it did not fit the agency’s agenda.

“Make no mistake: It is completely within the authority of the road commission to plan and construct safe and efficient roads and bridges for motorists within the county. Despite the facts that County Road 595 meets a need, would be funded without taxpayer dollars, and constructed in an environmentally responsible manner that the DEQ agrees with, the EPA arbitrarily brought the project to a halt.

“Instead of doing its job and approving the project, the EPA has instead opted for political theater. By blocking County Road 595’s construction, the EPA is doing nothing to improve the access of emergency, commercial, industrial, and recreational vehicles to a key area of northwest Marquette County. From elected officials at the state and local levels, to job providers and labor organizations, to conservationists, public safety officials and the general public, nearly everyone agrees County Road 595 would improve the way of life of county residents.

“I support this lawsuit not only for the reasons I’ve cited, but also because we need to shine a light on the dark actions of the EPA. It colludes with politically motivated environmental groups to make decisions without following proper procedures or holding public hearings. It is an operation run amok, not a government agency of, by, and for the people. I trust that the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan will see these things for what they are and rule in favor of the people of Marquette County.”

RUN AMOK

Yes, this is the new “political theater” of the Republican Party. Doing what the people want really means doing what is economically favorable to the interests of a few. When a federal government agency doesn’t give them what they want, that means it’s politically motivated and not at all in the interest of what is best for the environment in the Upper Peninsula.

There’s something else interesting in Casperson’s statement: Who’s paying for the road? The funding to build it won’t be coming from the tax payers according to the road commission. One clue for where the funding is coming from might be the 501(c)(4) organization that raised the money for the Marquette County Road Commission to sue the EPA.

Stand U.P. is a “social welfare” organization responsible for raising funds to sue the EPA. They’re the Marquette County Road Commission pretending to not be the Marquette County Road Commission so they can raise the substantial amount of money needed to file suit with the federal government. The donors to the group of course are private, meaning the road commission doesn’t want the public knowing how much, and who is paying for it. The public face of Stand U.P. consists of former Marquette Mayor Stu Bradley. His most recent accomplishments politically consists of keeping a running tally of how many times he rubs elbows with The Nerd. Deb Pellow is a former county commissioner. Tony Retaskie is a former candidate for the 109th state house district and sits on the board of directors for the Upper Peninsula Construction Council.

Construction Council, Tom Casperson representing the lumber industry in the U.P. and other big business in the region all have a stake in building this road. They claim County Road 595 will help the environment while creating good paying jobs and keep people safer. That of course depends on what else Eagle Mine currently has in development in the area. More about that coming in Act Two of the Eagle Mine Saga.

Born Yesterday: MBI-Capital is Not Merchant’s Bank of Indiana

Thursday , 30, July 2015 Up North Progressive Community Leave a comment

Up North Progressive made a mistake.

Out of concern for the people who live in the same town as bnz4350@aol.com, the Up North Progressive got in contact with the IT department of Merchant’s Bank of Indiana and let them know someone used their server to leave very nasty comments about hunting wolves and progressives on the blog. Very shortly, there was a response:

“The initial problem has been resolved,” That sounds vague, and ominous.

The next part however is important, because as stated before, Up North Progressive made a mistake.

It is important to note that mbi-capital.com is not the same company as merchantsbankofindiana.com.  While I appreciate you concern, I would ask that you to edit your article linking the two.

If you have any additional concerns, please let me know.

Matt Hostetler
Merchants Bank of Indiana
Vice President – Information Technology

Pay attention to that bolded name, it’s important.

Usually the Up North Progressive is pretty accurate locating the source of a comment when it’s necessary to find that information out. The IP address 12.47.252.252 is AT&T, and the IP lookup listed mbi-capital.com as the corporate entity using this address. Type mbi-capital.com into a browser bar and it will take you to Merchant’s Bank of Indiana. Type it into a Whois search tool and it displays this.

And although it says mbi-capital.com belongs to the website Merchant’s Bank of Indiana, the registered name for mbi-capital.com is actually PR Mortgage.

And here is the admin information for PR Mortgage:

You may have noticed the email address listed there for the admin email for PR Mortgage. Look familiar?

So, let’s recap.

This is the home page for Merchant’s Bank of Indiana:

And this, is the home page for PR Mortgage:

You can clearly see from the style sheets used these websites are two separate, unrelated companies.

That share the same tech admin.

And are both in Indiana.

But, the Up North Progressive will admit when they’re wrong. Even when the company that says they’re not the source of the comments that appeared on this blog still somehow were able to resolve the “initial problem.”

Born yesterday.

Love Letters From an Indiana Nazi Gun Nut Named Michaelangelo: “When Does The Open Season On Hunting Progressives Start?”

Saturday , 25, July 2015 Up North Progressive Tea Party, Tealiban, Wolf Hunt 7 Comments

Up North Progressive receives comments from both supporters and critics. It’s part of civil discourse, talking about things not everyone agrees on and finding some common ground. It’s one of those principles the United States was founded on, but doesn’t get mentioned very much in Civics classes anymore. Unfortunately.

One of the tenets of civil discourse includes never attack the person you disagree with because if you must resort to personal attacks there is no substance to your argument and you’ve lost the debate. The two comments left on Up North Progressive yesterday were authored by a champion loser.

bnz4350@aol.com belongs to a 65 year old man living in Indiana who signs his name “Michaelangelo” all over the web. The comments were posted from mbi-capital.com, which happens to be the email server for Merchant’s Bank of Indiana. Not a good sign if business is that slow at a bank on a Friday there’s time to post comments on the internet.

What exactly did a 65 year old man from Indiana have to say about Michigan banning the hunting of wolves?

So because he has a degree in biology, he knows wild animals are better off killed until they’re dead because ain’t no Sierra Club Hitler lawyer telling him what to do and progressives will be the death of us all. What is it with the tea party’s obsession with Hitler and wanting to shoot everything they don’t like? Do they really believe killing everything they hate will make the world free? The Irony, it burns.

About three minutes later, bnz4350@aol.com decided he wasn’t quite finished talking about everything that deserves to be killed, because from the same bank mail server in Indiana he added this:

Remember, he has a degree in biology, so he’s an expert on what needs to die, and he would really like there to be an open hunting season on progressives.

What does bnz4350@aol.com do when he’s not threatening to kill bloggers on the interwebs? Not only does “Michaelangelo” send email from a bank, he also likes to post on web forums.

Like this one here, called World War II Zone.

And also this one, Gunboard’s Forums

And he also posted questions on this one full of Nazi images called MG42

Over at WW2Weapons Forum, he asks about putting together a WWII Nazi machine gun, and he needs the top cover.

He has a profile on Indiana Gun Owners, but appears to never have posted there. Not enough talk about Nazi machine guns probably.

But he does post on R Lee Ermey’s (Remember the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket? He’s gone full tea party too) website forums, mostly asking about parts to build an MG34 German machine gun used during World War II, and leave interesting posts like this:

I am not ex-military. I do believe that this President is no friend of any man who loves this country. I have had family on Guadalcanal, Iwo, the hedgerows of Normandy, the Hurtgen and the Bulge. They would hate Obama.

I would have preferred that his first inauguration had been terminally interrupted by 100,000 armed citizens. It didn’t happen and Obama the socialist has happened. There isn’t much difference between that man and Hitler. Obama has not started rounding up his political enemies for camps and eventual murder.

As one psychiatrist said about Obama, “I don’t know that he could pass a drug test let alone a psychological exam.”

Jack’s Dad

Older man, obsessed with guns and wants to kill everyone who doesn’t see things exactly the way he does. “Michaelangelo” of Fishers, Indiana, hopefully won’t become the next headline on American news.

GOP Candidate For 103rd State Rep Wins Some Press With Criminal Sexual Conduct and Insurance Fraud Charges

Thursday , 23, July 2015 Up North Progressive Candidates, Elections Leave a comment

State Rep Bruce Rendon finishes his time in Lansing at the end of 2016 due to term limit rules. That means the 103rd district will have a new state representative in 2017. As of this week, The Republican candidate for the office is charged with Medicaid fraud, Medicare fraud, insurance fraud, and criminal sexual misconduct with a minor under the age of 16.

Vijay Kumar of West Branch is a physical therapist with five clinics in Northern Michigan. His now deleted campaign page on Facebook contains glowing recommendations from locals; including endorsements from local officials like Bob Bennett, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Roscommon County, and Ronald Vaughn, Chief of Rose City Area Fire Department. There’s even a picture of him with Ronna Romney McDaniels, the new Michigan GOP Chair.

You may be thinking Kumar’s career as a Republican politician running for the 103rd state “Districk” is over. Hardly. Republicans love electing criminals to public office because it doesn’t matter how much of a low life they are, they serve a higher purpose enforcing “conservative values” in government. GOP candidates can do all the horrible things they want, it’s us liberals who are immoral.

2016 is going to be so much fun.

Up North Progressive The Onion’d A For-Profit Charter School: The Continuing Story of Dr. Steve Ingersoll

Tuesday , 21, July 2015 Up North Progressive Dr. Ingersoll, Section 16 2 Comments

We’ve all laughed about Fox News being duped by The Onion, America’s finest news source, and publishing the parody websites’ stories as if they were actual news. It’s happened to a few other legitimate news sources often enough people now read a headline and ask, “Is this real, or The Onion?”

Today, it happened to Up North Progressive. An interesting incoming referral link appeared on the stats page of the blog’s dashboard. The link belongs to a for-profit charter school in California known as Delta Charter School. The referral link specifically goes to the page about the elementary school.

See that first link in the first paragraph, the one about Steve Ingersoll and IVL? It’s a link to this story on Up North Progressive; part of a series of articles published here about the optometrist turned educator to community developer and ‘philanthropist’ to convicted felon. Certainly nothing written about Ingersoll on this blog could be construed as an endorsement for his shoddy curriculum or pseudoscience vision therapy, but it seems to be good enough for the people at Delta Charter School. Probably your first clue you may want to reconsider enrolling your child at Delta Charter School is the fact people running the school link to a blog dedicated to exposing Steve Ingersoll as the criminal fraud he is.

Perhaps a better link Delta Charter School could use is this one containing evidence offered by teachers who used to work for Ingersoll that IVL is a big pile of garbage that does nothing to improve student learning. Another Up North Progressive story the charter school would better serve the public with is where a parent gives an account of how their children’s academic progress suffered after one year at a Steve Ingersoll IVL charter school.

More importantly, it would be remiss to not read Miss Fortune’s excellent coverage of the Steve Ingersoll federal felony fraud trial to learn about his upcoming sentencing hearing in September.

Unlike The Onion, everything written here about Steve Ingersoll is true. His vision therapy is quackery and nonsense, he’s a convicted felon, and he embezzled millions from the for-profit charter school in Traverse City he founded while the hand-picked school board made up of his friends, business associates and extended family looked the other way and let him get away with it.

And finally, to the parents reading this while considering enrolling their child into Delta Charter School: Please don’t. If you want your children to receive a good education without ripping off your fellow taxpayers, send them to a real public school; where evidence-based curriculum is taught by professional teachers in a genuine learning environment. IVL is snake oil with the only purpose of shoveling money into the bank account of a snake oil salesman who will soon be in prison.

Perhaps the people at Delta Charter School linked to this blog because they know the truth and want to warn parents to stay away?