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Federal court agreement allows corporations to pool money for political action committees
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 2:09pm
Under an agreement reached in federal court the Michigan Secretary of State will allow the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and other corporations and labor unions to pool funds for spending on political action committees as long as payments are not connected to campaigns for political office, the Grand Rapids Press reports.
In a May 21 opinion Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land said that the Chamber could spend any amount on independent expenditures for express advocacy, but could not collect money from other groups for the purpose of funding these ads.
“A corporation’s political speech,” she wrote, “must be funded exclusively by that corporation.”
In July the Chamber filed suit against the Secretary of State. The group said that Land’s interpretation of campaign finance law interfered with its right to free speech.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that the Chamber of Commerce and Secretary of State have entered a stipulation judgment and order for a permanent injunction in favor of the chamber.
Under the agreement, Land can restrict or prohibit corporations from making payments to political-action committees in connection with a campaign for government office.
The agreement came after [U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney] issued a 52-page ruling that said Land’s interpretation of the law infringed on the Chamber of Commerce’s right to free speech. Land had said in a declaratory ruling earlier this year that the Chamber could use its own money to back candidates, but could not set up a PAC to accept outside funding.
The chamber sought a declaratory ruling from Land after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a case known as Citizens United, said corporations, unions and other groups could buy unlimited political ads.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Essay: Good News on the Jobs Front - 9.3.10
Jack Lessenberry's Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 1:30pm
As Labor Day approaches, the good news is that Michigan is finally adding jobs. But Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry says we’ve got a very long way to go.
Something remarkable is happening in Michigan, something that hasn’t gotten much notice. We’re adding jobs again.
We aren’t adding enough of them. We aren’t adding them fast enough to make a huge difference yet. Right now, it is barely more tha a positive trickle. But some employers are hiring again.
Michigan has added jobs, in three of the last four months, after years when things were all flowing in the wrong direction. In July, we added 27,800 jobs, more than any other state in the nation. And most of them were in the manufacturing sector. Why is this happening?
For one thing, the car companies began to add workers, both white and blue collar, as sales began to increase, and it seems likely that the new Chrysler and the new GM will be around for awhile.
Unemployment here is still the worst of any major industrial state in the nation. Last month’s figure was 13.1 percent -- not counting those workers who have become so demoralized they‘ve given up and dropped out of the labor force.
If you aren’t actively looking for a job, you aren’t counted as unemployed. But while bad, our unemployment rate is down more than a point from a year ago. That’s good.
Yet we are living in a different world from a decade ago. The economy was booming then. The federal government was taking in more than it was spending, and we were not at war.
What a difference a decade makes. According to the demographers at Data Driven Detroit, Michigan has lost a net total of 844,700 jobs since Bill Clinton left the White House.
That’s more people than live in some small states. Even if we continued to add as many jobs as we did in July, month after month, it would still take more than two and a half years to replace those we’ve lost. And sadly, we are unlikely to sustain that pace.
Auto sales took a tumble last month, and Michigan is still also the hardest place in the nation to find a job. There are more than eight times as many people out there looking for work as there are jobs, according to one respected source.
But Michigan may end up having added jobs this year for the first time in a decade. That’s something the next governor, whomever he is, needs to keep going. Generally speaking, Republicans think cutting taxes is the remedy for all our economic woes. Democrats want to keep providing all the usual services without raising taxes.
Regardless of who is right, it’s clear that for Michigan, it is all about the economy.
And we ought to keep an open mind. Whatever your politics, Democratic nominee Virg Bernero does have an idea worthy of study. He wants to create a state bank that would make loans to small business that the big banks won’t help.
North Dakota has one of those, and it is said to work well. But that state also has fewer people than Macomb County.
Would a state bank work here? I don’t know. What I do know is that for now, our massive job hemorrhage seems to have stopped.
Now we need to find a way to start the patient growing again, which is really what this election campaign should be all about.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Bernero: Pull state money from banks that won’t help with foreclosures
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 10:29am
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero said on Thursday that he would pull all state funds from those banks that do not cooperate with the state’s programs to help residents avoid foreclosure. The Detroit News reports:
If Virg Bernero is elected governor, Michigan will pull its money out of Wall Street banks that won’t work with the state’s businesses and residents, the Democratic nominee announced today.
“We’re not going to invest in Wall Street if they’re not going to invest in us,” Bernero told about a dozen citizens at a Lansing coffee shop. “We’re going to take our money out of Wall Street and create the ‘Main Street Bank.’
“This is the fight: Main Street vs. Wall Street — it’s not just a slogan. We’re going to get banks to work with people instead of taking their homes from them.”
Bernero is also proposing to open a state bank to lend money to businesses that can’t get credit in the usual markets. The mayor has long been active on the foreclosure issue. In April 2009 he intervened on behalf of a Lansing woman after a Michigan Messenger investigation revealed problems with her foreclosure and saved her home.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
White House preparing for a payroll tax holiday?
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 10:16am
At The Washington Post, Lori Montgomery has details on a possible White House stimulus plan comprised entirely of tax cuts:
Among the options are a temporary payroll tax holiday and a permanent extension of the research and development tax credit, say people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to describe private deliberations. Permanently extending the research credit would cost roughly $100 billion over the next decade, tax experts said. And depending on its form and duration, a payroll tax holiday could let businesses keep more than $300 billion they would otherwise owe the Treasury.
While significantly less than last year’s $814 billion stimulus package, both ideas would be far more dramatic than anything the White House had been expected to propose.
Economists argue that spending increases tend to be more effective than tax cuts in stimulating the economy. But, the Congressional Budget Office examined (PDF) the effectiveness of a variety of tax cuts this winter, and found payroll tax cuts to be a good option, compared with, say, extending tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Moreover, they have positive impacts on employment — and the sustained high rate of joblessness remains the biggest drag on the American economy and a pressing public-policy issue.
According to the CBO, a payroll tax cut is about 25 to 33 percent more stimulative than providing a refundable tax credit for lower- and middle-income households, for instance.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Enbridge promises to restore legal rights to people who return benefits
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 10:03am
In an interview this week on the CBC radio news program As it Happens, Enbridge spokeswoman Terri Larson said that Michigan residents who signed away legal rights in exchange for air purifiers or other help following the July oil spill in Calhoun County will regain their right to sue if they return benefits provided by the company.
“If they wish to take back the release form and pay us the money that we have already paid them then absolutely they would have that right,” Larson said.
She also said that the company is willing to review its policy requiring that people seeking help with medical treatment allow Enbridge access to their medical records.
This week Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) and Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate whether Enbridge had “coerced individuals under duress as a result of the recent pipeline oil spill in Marshall, Michigan, to sign releases of settlement and authorizations for release of medical records.”
The Congressmen also asked Enbridge and the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services to respond to resident concerns that Enbridge practices violate federal medical privacy laws.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Mich Dem Gov. candidate, Virg Bernero, takes on Wall Street AGAIN!
Daily Kos Michigan Feed - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 9:54am
Trailing HUGELY in the polls, Michigan Democratic gubernatorial hopeful and Lansing Mayor, Virg Bernero decided to shake things up a bit this week. He announced a plan saying that, as governor, he would pull state investments in Wall Street banks that don't invest in Michigan.
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero drew the battle lines more clearly Thursday in what he describes as a war between Main Street and Wall Street.
Fed up that Wall Street banks are putting the credit squeeze on Michigan's businesses, the Democratic gubernatorial hopeful said that, if elected, he would stop investing the state's money with these banks.
Go, Virg!
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
GM IPO scheduled for November 18
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 8:06am
General Motors will launch its Initial Public Offering of stock on November 18, the Detroit News reports. No one from the company is allowed to speak publicly about the IPO at the moment as the SEC goes through the approval process, but a stock market analysis firm leaked this information to the press.
General Motors Co. plans to announce its sale price for its highly anticipated initial public stock offering Nov. 17 and start trading shares Nov. 18, according to a Tampa-based research firm.
The Detroit-based automaker will begin its so-called “road show,” with top GM executives selling the virtues of the company’s stock to potential investors, starting Nov. 3 — the day after the midterm elections, said Scott Sweet, senior managing partner for IPO Boutique in Tampa.
It is not yet known whether the SEC has approved and finalized that date. The federal government intends to offer enough of its common stock during the IPO to take its share below 50 percent. The Canadian government and the UAW’s VEBA healthcare fund will likely also include some of their shares in the initial selloff. Then each entity will slowly sell their equity off as the value of the stock rebounds.
From The Detroit News: http://www.detnews.com/article/20100902/AUTO01/9020466/1148/Analyst–GM-will-launch-stock-sale-Nov.-18#ixzz0yR459Y5g
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Michigan’s long-term unemployment rate skyrockets
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 7:54am
An annual Labor Day report from the Michigan League for Human Services confirms that Michigan’s long-term unemployment rate has gone through the roof over the last few years. In addition to the regular unemployment rate, which has led the nation for most of the last 4 years, the long-term rate is an even bigger problem:
Less discussed in the media, but of equal or greater consequence, is Michigan’s high long-term unemployment
rate. Long-term unemployment is defined as over 26 consecutive weeks, or over half a year. The share of Michigan’s workers who were long-term unemployed was 6.5 percent in 2000, when the economy was good, but 41 percent in 2009. Given that there were on average 665,020 unemployed workers each month in 2009, that amounts to approximately
272,658 workers each month who were long-term unemployed. Michigan has led the country in long-term unemployment for the past three years.
One of the problems with the long-term unemployed is that they eventually give up on finding work, taking them out of the workforce and hiding their numbers.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Snyder nearly outspent the field in primary
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 7:51am
Ann Arbor businessman Rick Snyder outspent nearly all of his competitors, including the Democrats, in the primary by giving more than $6 million to his own campaign. AP reports:
Snyder gave his campaign $6.1 million, raised $2 million from other donors and spent $7.6 million.
Republican Attorney General Mike Cox spent $3.3 million, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard spent $2.2 million, U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra spent more than $1.7 million and state Sen. Tom George spent nearly $402,000.
Democratic rival Virg Bernero raised $1 million, including nearly $95,000 he loaned his campaign. He spent just under $1 million and had $85,000 on hand. Snyder reported about $505,000 on hand.
Expect much of the spending during the general election to be by third party groups rather than the campaigns.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
FDA charges dairy with selling contaminated cows
Michigan Messenger Blog - Fri, 09/03/2010 - 7:48am
The U.S. Food and Drug administration is charging Scenic View Diary of Hamilton, Michigan with selling dairy cows that contain unsafe levels of illegally administered antibiotics.
In a Aug. 31 complaint filed in Grand Rapids federal court the U.S. Dept. of Justice charges that despite numerous warnings over the last eight years the dairy has continued to sell antibiotic-contaminated cows for human consumption.
According to FDA illegal tissue residues of neomycin, penicillin and sulfadimethoxine were found during eight inspections.
The sale of antibiotic contaminated animals as human food can lead to the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria and can harm people with drug allergies. For safety reasons FDA requires that animals be withdrawn from antibiotic treatment for a period before they are offered for sale.
In the complaint FDA said that the drugs were given without a valid veterinary prescription authorizing such use.
David Haverdink, chief operations officer at Scenic View, told the Holland Sentinel that the contaminated cows were not consumed because the animals were destroyed after slaughter house blood tests revealed antibiotic residues.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Essay: In the Numbers - 9.2.10
Jack Lessenberry's Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 1:30pm
We won’t start to get official census figures till December. But Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry reports that a new outfit called Data Driven Detroit is already trying to give us the facts about ourselves, and tell us what they mean.
Kurt Metzger, whose friends sometimes call him the Great Demographer, has a mission in life. He wants to discover the facts about life in Detroit and Michigan, and share them.That’s neither as simple, nor as non-controversial, as you might think. Over the thirty-five years he has been in Detroit, Metzger, a Cincinnati native, has too often heard comments like this from politicians and bureaucrats: “Data can only be used against you.”
“People tend to live and work in their own little silos,” he told me over lunch yesterday. “They keep the information they collect close to the vest, and don’t like to share it.”
That hasn’t done much for anyone. Metzger, a man in his early sixties, is still an idealist at heart. After years with the Census Bureau, Wayne State and the United Way, he’s now heading a new non-profit center called Data Driven Detroit, (www.datadrivendetroit.org) which was initially funded by the Kresge and Skillman Foundations.
Their mission is simple in theory, yet sometimes terribly complex: “To provide accessible high-quality information and analysis to drive informed decision making to strengthen communities in Southeast Michigan,” eventually, perhaps the entire state.
There’s an whisper of an old 1960’s idea here; give communities the information they need, and they’ll be better able to “fight the powers that be.” Unfortunately, these days we are too often more interested in fighting inconvenient truths.
The U.S. Census bureau counted us all, officially, on April 1st. But we won’t get detailed population data for Michigan, including its cities, until next April. In the meantime, I asked Metzger, what’s his best estimate of Detroit’s real population?
Metzger shook his head. “Something less than eight hundred thousand, Perhaps between 750,000 and 775,000. The census may not even find that many. There will be an undercount.
There always is. It is hard to count people who have no fixed home. The undercount this year also may be made worse by groups who’ve urged people to illegally refuse to cooperate with the census.
They think the census itself is an invasion of their privacy. Metzger couldn’t disagree more. If we are ever going to improve things in Michigan, we have to have accurate data.
Data Driven Detroit’s goal is to uncover and bring together the information people need to make policy decisions. That will be critical next year. The state legislature and other units of government are going to have to draw new boundaries.
Additionally, Detroit is moving to a system where most council members will be elected by district. Metzger’s shop would be more than happy to help any government draw boundaries that not only have the right number of people, but which make sense from the standpoint of keeping communities together.
Metzger’s outfit is rigorously non-partisan, except in this sense: “We request that those who work here have a love for the city of Detroit, and want to help bring the city back,” he said.
He’s been here since 1975,and some things still baffle him: “How do we let the city go? How did our leaders allow the city to fall apart the way it did? How did we get away from seeing Detroit as so essential to the success of this region?”
Those are, indeed, the essential questions. Unfortunately, there are some answers which even the best data can’t provide.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Dingell foe: "Vote for me, I'm totally inexperienced."
Daily Kos Michigan Feed - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 1:15pm
Cross-posted at Eclectablog.com.
Rob Steele, a wealthy cardiologist, is running against the "Dean of the House", Congressman John Dingell. His campaign is your typical ultra-right conservative blah-blah: cutspendingcuttaxesdemocratsareresponsibleforthedeficit...etc., etc.
But, I have to say, Rob Steele takes the whole "vote for me, not the 'career' politician" thing to a new level. Last night on Sean Hannity's Great American Panel, he accused John Dingell of having been in Congress since he was 12 and asked people to vote for him because he "went to [his] first county convention two weeks ago."
God forbid Michigan put its leadership in the hands of wealthy disgruntled citizens with no experience in public policy, running a huge government or of ... well ... leading.
Video with transcript after the jump.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Grand Traverse Band joins lawsuit to block Asian carp
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 10:56am
The Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians have filed a motion to join Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Ohio in a federal case that charges the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is not doing enough to keep the invasive carp from migrating into the Great Lakes.
Uppermichiganssource.com reports that the tribe wants to join the lawsuit because of the central role that fishing has played in the spiritual and cultural framework of Native American life.
In their motion to join the suit the tribe wrote:
Not only are the Great Lakes fish culturally important to the Tribes, these communities depend upon fisheries resources for their livelihoods. Moreover, by virtue of the supremacy clause (Article VI, clause 2) of the Constitution, Indian Tribes have a property right in treaty-reserved fishery resources that is paramount to the other economic interests cited by Defendants in defense of the relief requested by Plaintiffs.
According to the Michigan attorney general’s office the lawsuit calls for the Corps to use all available means to block Asian carp migration into Lake Michigan, including.
Use block nets, other physical barriers and fish poison at locations to block or kill Asian carp that have already swam through the O’Brien lock, dangerously close to Lake Michigan;
Install and maintain block nets and other physical barriers in the Little Calumet River, where no barrier of any kind currently exists;
Temporarily close the O’Brien and Chicago Locks;
Install and maintain screens on sluice gates at the O’Brien Lock, the Chicago River Controlling Works and the Wilmette Pumping Station to reduce the risk of fish passage when gates are open; and
Accelerate efforts to complete a feasibility study of a permanent hydrological separation of the Great Lakes Basin from the Mississippi River within the next 18 months, with reports at six and 12 months.
Judge Robert M. Dow Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois is expected to begin hearing testimony in the case next week.
Invasive Asian carp are thought to pose a threat to Great Lakes fisheries. Recently a live bighead carp was caught in Lake Calumet, beyond the barriers intended to keep the fish from Lake Michigan.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Weekly jobless claims remain high
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 10:55am
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said that initial weekly jobless claims declined slightly to 472,000. Initial claims need to fall into the 300,000s for the unemployment rate to decline, economists say. That means many economists expect the unemployment rate for August, due to be released tomorrow, will increase beyond the current rate of 9.5 percent. The BLS also revised last week’s claims up from 473,000 to 478,000.
Initial claims have remained sustained around 450,000 or 470,000 since January, the strongest evidence of the stall-out in the recovery. The four-week claims average, which smooths out weekly volatility, is at 485,500 — a bit lower after climbing for weeks.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Govt. wants psych evaluation of Hutaree defendant
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 10:54am
Saying that he may suffer from paranoid delusions and be mentally incompetent to stand trial, federal prosecutors in the Hutaree Christian militia case are asking the judge to order a psychiatric evaluation of defendant Jacob Ward, one of the four Hutaree members released on bail pending trial. The Detroit Free Press reports:
In a motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit, federal prosecutors said there is doubt as to whether Ward, one of four militia members free on bond, is competent to stand trial on federal charges that members of the Lenawee County-based group conspired to overthrow the U.S. government and attack local, state and federal law officers.
“This belief is based upon statements made by the defendant regarding perceived problems with the Huron, Ohio, Police Department and his claimed relationship with a foreign national allegedly in the custody of the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as the observations of government employees regarding the defendant’s mental state and concerns raised by family members regarding his mental state,” prosecutors stated in court documents.
Defense attorneys agreed with the request and an evaluation has been scheduled.
In related news, attorneys for another defendant in the case, Thomas Piatek, have filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court asking that Piatek be released on bail pending trial. He is one of the five Hutaree members who were not granted bail by the court of appeals.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Just how old are the country’s oil and gas pipelines?
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 9:59am
That’s the question that Carl Weimer — executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit group that advocates for fuel transportation safety — sought to answer in going through records at the agency responsible for pipeline safety, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
Weimer came up with some interesting results. More than 70 percent of natural gas and hazardous liquid (including oil) pipelines were built before 1979. Only 9 percent of natural gas pipelines and 8 percent of hazardous liquid pipelines were built after 2000.
Aging infrastructure is the latest concern about the country’s millions of miles of pipelines. For more, see my series on pipeline safety.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
The irony of health care subsidies
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 8:11am
Troy Reimink of the Grand Rapids Press notes a bit of irony, the fact that the state of Michigan is receiving subsidies to pay for the health care of early retirees — money authorized by the health care reform bill that Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is suing to have struck down in federal court.
Secondary irony: The subsidies are also being received by Koch Industries, owned by conservative funders Charles and David Koch, who have bankrolled attempts to overturn or repeal the health care reform law.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
State now offering insurance to high-risk individuals
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 8:06am
After receiving $140 million in federal funds for the program, the state of Michigan is now accepting applications for health insurance from high-risk applicants with pre-existing conditions. But it won’t be cheap:
Premiums range from $180 a month for a 20 year old to more than $650 a month for a 60 year old.
Still, certainly cheaper than paying their health care costs out of pocket. This program is intended to help high-risk individuals until the larger high-risk insurance pools are rolled out in 2014.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
Chrysler bucks trend, shows sales boost in August
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 7:53am
The September domestic auto sales numbers are in and they’re pretty dismal for two of the three American automakers. Ford and General Motors both saw significant decreases over September 2009, when the cash for clunkers program was pushing sales to their highest levels of the year.
Ford’s sales declined 14 percent, while General Motors declined 25 percent. Chrysler, however, bucked the trend and showed a 7 percent increase in sales. Industry-wide, sales were down 21 percent, which means yearly domestic sales are now just 8 percent higher than 2009, which was the lowest since 1982.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs
EPA warns against drinking water near natural gas wells
Michigan Messenger Blog - Thu, 09/02/2010 - 7:42am
The Environmental Protection Agency has warned residents of Pavillion, Wyoming not to drink their tap water because of contamination being blamed partly on the use of hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, to mine for natural gas nearby. ProPublica reports:
The federal government is warning residents in a small Wyoming town with extensive natural gas development not to drink their water, and to use fans and ventilation when showering or washing clothes in order to avoid the risk of an explosion.
The announcement accompanied results from a second round of testing and analysis in the town of Pavillion by Superfund investigators for the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers found benzene, metals, naphthalene, phenols and methane in wells and in groundwater. They also confirmed the presence of other compounds that they had tentatively identified last summer and that may be linked to drilling activities.
“Last week it became clear to us that the information that we had gathered” “was going to potentially result in a hazard — result in a recommendation to some of you that you not continue to drink your water,” Martin Hestmark, deputy assistant regional administrator for ecosystems protection and remediation with the EPA in Denver, told a crowd of about 100 gathered at a community center in Pavillion Tuesday night. “We understand the gravity of that.”
Not all of the pollutants found in the water supplies are associated with hydrofracking, some are agricultural in nature. An earlier report from ProPublica notes that the natural gas wells in the area use hydrofracking, the same process planned for thousands of acres of public and private land in Michigan.
The process of hydrofracking requires using large amounts of water and chemicals — up to five million gallons for a single well — to fracture shale deposits and release the natural gas they contain. More than 600,000 acres of public and private land in Michigan is slated to be used for this same process.
Categories: Local and Michigan Blogs