Up North Progressive
Politics and commentary for Northern MichiganMeet The Candidates: State Senate District #33 Fred Sprague
Tuesday , 24, June 2014 Candidates Leave a comment
In November the people of the 33rd State Senate District of Michigan, which includes Clare, Isabella, Gratiot, Mecosta and Montcalm Counties will have the opportunity to elect Fred Sprague to represent them in Lansing. Fred doesn’t let raindrops stop him from spending time out campaigning and meeting his constituents. It’s important to get the message out the people of the 33rd district have a better choice for state senator.
Fred is a husband, father, and grandfather. He works in the education field as a licensed professional counselor. Fred Sprague’s background in education gives him the expertise to know that our current government in Lansing consistently makes the wrong choices for Northern Michigan’s schools, and that means fewer opportunities for our children to develop into successful adults. He understands that our economy will improve only when everyone has the opportunity to be successful.
On the issues Fred Sprague places a priority on education. He has a plan to improve education for Michigan that includes every classroom has access to up to date technology, effective professional development for teachers, make early childhood education more accessible for pre-schoolers, and ensure more high school graduates can afford to go to college. Having an educated workforce is part of another issue Sprague wants to work on when he’s elected to the Michigan State Senate. Economic development is crucial for more people to get back to work. Fred Sprague supports raising the minimum wage and helping small business. Finally, Sprague feels strongly that we must protect the water of the Great Lakes and our environment from industry that would damage it for profit.
To learn more about Fred Sprague and volunteer to help, you can visit his website for more information. Fred Sprague is the Senator the 33rd District needs in Lansing. Vote for Fred Sprague on November 4.
You Really Need To Read Freep’s Series On Charter Schools This Week
Monday , 23, June 2014 Section 16 Leave a comment
The Detroit Free Press will publish an exposé on Michigan charter schools in a series of stories that began on Sunday and runs through this week.
Charter schools are pushed into communities by politicians backed with big money. In Michigan, Betsy DeVos uses her vast wealth and influence to eliminate public education from the state and nation. She has plenty of help with the Mackinac Center who also push to dismantle public education by attacking the teachers unions.
The Detroit Free Press series needs to spark a national dialogue about education in this country. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has his fingers deep in the charter school pie thanks to his corporate backers. This week of articles about Michigan’s corrupt charter school for-profit industry is an important first step to that dialogue.
Meet The Candidates: State Senate District #34 Cathy Forbes
Sunday , 22, June 2014 Candidates Leave a comment
The 34th State Senate District in Michigan covers the counties of Mason, Muskegon, Newaygo and Oceana. The next state senator representing the people of this district is Democratic Party candidate Cathy Forbes. Cathy is ready to go to Lansing and make the changes the people living in the 34th district want. The issues she’s focusing on in her campaign are education and job growth.
Cathy Forbes understands first hand that when confronted with a tough job you have to meet it head on. She is the mother of two children and owns her own business. She served on the road commission in Oceana County and was re-elected to that position. Already she’s working hard on the campaign trail with volunteers to inform the people of the 34th district she is ready to go to work for them.
On the issues Cathy Forbes considers education to be her top priority. She’s concerned like many parents in Michigan about the deep cuts to our public education which has caused schools to make cuts to staff and services children need to be successful learners. She will work to make sure schools are funded and teachers have the support they need from their state government, making sure they are treated like professionals.
Another important priority for the 34th district is jobs. Forbes wants to stop the flow of our tax dollars going to large corporations with no guarantee they will use that money to hire more people. She supports the Michigan 2020 plan to provide a way for high school graduates to receive the education or training they need to be competitive in the job market.
To get involved with her campaign and learn more, you can visit her website. Once you do, it will be obvious who our next state senator from the 34th district needs to be. Vote for Cathy Forbes on November 4.
PTSD Seminar Offered At AMOH Town Hall Meeting In Traverse City
Saturday , 21, June 2014 Community Leave a commentOn Monday, June 23, 2014, A Matter of Honor will hold their quarterly town hall meeting at the State Theater in Traverse City, Michigan. Featured at this meeting will be a seminar on “Post Traumatic Stress: Managing an Epidemic”
Special guests at the meeting will include Amelia Hasenohrl , MA, LPC, Cht. She will be offering “Hypnosis and PTSD Management.” Also at the meeting on Monday will be Linda Fletcher, LTC/ANC (ret). She is currently the director of AMOH. Her discussion will be about “Moral Injury and PTSD – New Thoughts and How Traverse City Can Help.”
The Theater will open at 5:45 PM on Monday and the meeting will be from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The seminar is free. Donations of $5.00 will be appreciated.
A Matter of Honor is the only organization in the United States dedicated to service and education about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. “A Matter Of Honor (AMOH) is an organization formed for the purpose of educating the American public about PTSD as it relates to military service.”
Hush Fund or Pay-To-Play: Will We Ever Know The Truth About The Nerd Fund
Friday , 20, June 2014 Nerd Problems Leave a comment
In a Mother Jones article published today, the writer speculated whether the scandal surrounding Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin could splash over to other Midwestern Republican governors elected in 2010. Snyder’s NERD fund is mentioned with the suggestion that the secret donor fund was actually a “pay to play” scheme for corporations to get kickbacks from Snyder in return for making donations. What was the real purpose of the NERD fund, which no longer exists even though a few employees who once benefited from it are now on the state payroll?
The NERD fund never disclosed donors. CVS Pharmacy’s parent company Caremark’s donation did become public but insists it had nothing to do with the $60 million pharmacy contract received from Kevyn Orr, who also was compensated through the fund with a lavish condominium in a Detroit Hotel. Kevyn Orr, state taxpayers discovered, was vetted by a man named Richard Baird, who had an office next door to Rick Snyder’s and a .gov email address, but wasn’t until after the NERD fund’s demise put on the state payroll. His salary also came from the NERD fund.
The original purpose of the NERD fund was to supplement the salaries of people Snyder wanted to hire at market rates as an incentive to work for him in Lansing. People accustomed to receiving a certain salary don’t care much for taking a pay cut. What do you do if you’re a governor who wants to hire specific people, but paying them the salary they’re used to receiving from public funds would make the taxpayers of the state of Michigan completely flip out? Set up a private anonymous donor fund and offer those people public sector jobs at private sector pay. That way you can at least have the veneer of ‘shared sacrifice’ that you promised when you became governor.
Richard Baird did the Governor’s dirty work behind the scenes so Snyder wouldn’t have to do it in public. Kevyn Orr became EM of Detroit for a paltry six figure sum, but saving Detroit as far as Orr is concerned is charity work. Orr had a luxury condo paid for from the NERD fund. He was hardly ever in it because he was in Baltimore most of the time while his kids were on summer vacation from school.
And when Snyder raised the salaries as high as 90% for two senior state treasury directors in November of 2013, was this done because the month before the governor had dissolved the NERD fund and that was how much extra those two treasury directors were getting paid from it? All we have unfortunately is speculation. The fund is gone and Snyder says he will never divulge the names of the donors, because even he never knew who they were. It would be interesting to discover if Snyder knew who the beneficiaries were.
New Michigan Democratic Party Ad: Tough Choices?
Thursday , 19, June 2014 Nerd Problems Leave a commentStop Complaining About No Money To Fix Michigan Roads
Wednesday , 18, June 2014 Community 3 CommentsMichigan does have money to fix roads. A very important road is being fixed right now in the counties of Lake and Osceola. This road not only provides a means of traveling but also supports important tourism and outdoors sporting. Look! Remember these?
Yes, orange barrels! You can’t have road construction without orange barrels. And look here:
A sign stating that road work is happening in the immediate vicinity. Can’t argue with that. There were even those ROAD CLOSED barricades standing nearby:
Okay, TRAIL CLOSED. This is Lake County, a trail is just as important as a road.
So why is MDOT working on this very important road … trail construction project? Because snowmobiles.
The Pere-Marquette State Trail runs from Clare to Baldwin along US 10. It passes through Evart, Reed City, Chase, and ends in Baldwin. The trail runs through part of the Manistee National Forest and has many pretty sights. The only problem was part of the trail was literally a grass lane. And everyone knows snowmobiles don’t work on grass.
Be happy Michigan, while you cry for your suspension months from now when the snow flies again our snowmobilers will have a fresh, newly paved trail to ride on. And look, near Reed City they’re even constructing a new parking lot so those snowmobilers will have someplace to park their trucks and trailers.
Enough whining, there is road trail construction happening in Michigan.
Muskegon Heights Schools Will Be Run By Muskegon Area ISD For 2014 – 2015 School Year
Tuesday , 17, June 2014 Section 16 Leave a comment
Muskegon Heights Schools voted to hire a superintendent and go to the Muskegon Area Intermediate School District for management of their district for the next three years. The Muskegon Heights Charter School Board will draft the paperwork and vote to approve the changes to the school district on June 25th. Muskegon Heights Schools are still under the control of a Snyder-appointed emergency manager who has final authority on the changes proposed by the school board.
In 2012 the Muskegon Heights public school system was put under emergency management. The school district separated from the ISD and for-profit management companies were invited to bid on running the schools. Mosaica Education Incorporated won the bid and during the 2013 – 2014 school year not only were unable to pay their teachers for two pay periods in a row, but needed a $1.4 million emergency loan from the state to finish the school year. Mosaica now owes the state $2 million, but after filing for bankruptcy indicated in a public statement they are finished with Muskegon Heights Schools completely.
This is another blatant example of why Michigan’s public schools need to remain public. Charter Schools and the for-profit management companies taking our tax dollars to manage the schools have an established track record of rewarding themselves with high salaries for their ‘management’, but the school’s ability to educate children is always compromised when money that should be invested into the school is instead part of an LLC’s bottom line. Another chapter of Snyder’s failed attempt to privatize Michigan’s schools and run them on a budget closes. On November 4 we will put this epic saga of failure back on the shelf for good.