The following items are clips from news articles that are being observed at this time.
What’s sought: Constitutional amendment
Backers: Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan
Opponents: Unknown
Status: Board of State Canvassers approved the petitions Thursday. Group must collect signatures.
What’s sought : Removing the state’s top elected official from office.
Backers: Michigan Rising, Democratic Party grassroots activists
Opponents: Snyder and Republicans
Status: Washtenaw County Board of Canvassers petitions approved for circulation April 9.
What’s sought: Constitutional amendment
Backers: Citizens for More Michigan Jobs, casino developers and investors, including former House Speaker Rick Johnson and former state Sen. Mitch Irwin
Opponents: Project MI Vote, coalition MGM Grand and Greektown casinos in Detroit and tribal casinos in Mount Pleasant and Marshall
Status: Board of Canvassers approved petition format April 3 for circulation.
What’s sought: Proposed constitutional amendment
Backers: Protect Our Jobs, labor unions, Democrats
Opponents: Business groups, Republican lawmakers seeking a "right-to-work" law
Status: Need 322,609 valid signatures. Proponents vow to meet July 9 deadline.
What’s sought: Constitutional amendment
Backers: Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care, labor unions
Opponents: Business groups
Status: Approved for circulation March 19.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of Occupy Detroit Knol group favorite links are here.
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- U.S. Supreme Court has recently decided that when tuition tax credit funds are used to support religious education, taxpayers have no standing to challenge that distribution as a distribution of their tax dollars, due to the indirect nature of the subsidy.
- Charter schools are limited public access in the sense that:
- They can define the number of enrollment slots they wish to make available
- They can admit students only on an annual basis and do not have to take students mid-year
- They can set academic, behavior and cultural standards that promote exclusion of students via attrition.
- taxpayers and/or citizen/voters understand that depending on how the courts see it, and depending on whether charter laws are sufficiently detailed in their requirements, privately governed and privately managed charter schools may not be required to fully disclose financial documents pertaining to the expenditure of public funds, or to permit access to their meetings.
- Note that these legal debates over whether charter schools are state actors or private entities only come about because, when an issue is raised regarding open records or meetings, or employee or student rights, it is the lawyers for the charter school that invoke the claim that they are private entities
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- charter school was not a state actor with respect to employment issues. These attorneys insisted that the same logic applied to student issues as well.
- Researchers have consistently found that black male students are disproportionately subjected to school discipline, such as suspensions and expulsions. In public schools, the Due Process Clause protects them from arbitrary suspensions and expulsions.
- If charter schools are not public actors, then constitutional law would not apply. I have argued that courts might apply contract law, as is generally the case for private schools
- constitutional law did not apply to private high schools. Interestingly, the court found that high school students would receive less protection than private university students.
I raise these points because parents may be unwittingly giving up their constitutional protections to attend charter schools. One has to wonder whether parents would enroll their children if they were aware of this possibility.
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Proposal to amend Michigan Constitution Article 4, section 41 to authorize eight new casinos in the state. Creating jobs, with taxation of revenues to go directly into K-12 schools, police, fire, and road repair for the locations of these casinos.
Fred Leeb, former Pontiac Emergency Manager is included in the group sponsoring this petition. He is the one that sold the publically owned Silverdome to an investor for pennies on the dollar and is now going to profit from building a casino business on it.- - By Stephen Boyle
- Pontiac's former state-appointed financial manager Fred Leeb is part of a coalition seeking a constitutional amendment to expand casino gambling in eight locations across Michigan, including the Silverdome in Pontiac, the public relations firm representing the coalition says
- proposal also contains two pages of densely-worded content, which are the legal descriptions of the eight parcels proposed for casino gambling.
- Citizens for More Michigan Jobs will have until July 9 to gather 322,000 valid signatures to put the question before voters on the Nov. 6 general election ballot.
- Leeb was Pontiac's state-appointed emergency manager from March 2009 until June 2010. The Silverdome was sold to Andreas Apostolopoulos in November 2009 for $583,000
- Backers of an expansion of casino gambling say it will generate $275 million in annual tax revenues for public schools, police and fire services, and road improvements throughout the state, as well as additional money for the communities where the new casinos would be located.
- The coalition estimates some 16,000 new jobs, including 5,300 in the construction of the facilities, 6,000 direct casinos jobs and 4,750 in indirect casinos jobs in the local host communities.
- Currently, there are 22 casinos operated by Indian tribes in Michigan, considered sovereign nations. Another three are privately operated in Detroit as the result of a ballot proposal approved by voters in 1996.
- - By Stephen Boyle
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Jack Martin appointed Detroit CFO under Financial Stability Agreement - appointed in January as Highland Park Public Schools Emergency Manager in January. Gov Snyder has appointed Joyce Parker as new Highland Park Public Schools Emergency Manager plus she will remain Emergency Manager for City of Ecorse.
One has to wonder what sort of Emergency Manger musical chairs is Gov Snyder playing here?- - By Stephen Boyle
- The chief financial officer position was created last month under a consent agreement between the city and state. Bing also must appoint a program management director. Both positions, and a financial advisory board, are intended to help the city regain some fiscal stability.
- Martin was appointed emergency manager of Highland Park Public Schools in January, but said he will begin spending time working at Detroit city hall starting Monday. His annual salary as CFO will be $220,000.
Gov. Rick Snyder appointed Joyce Parker on Thursday to succeed Martin as the Highland Park schools' emergency manager, effective May 21. Parker also will continue her current role as emergency manager for the City of Ecorse, though on a part-time basis. - Joyce Parker has an outstanding track record. (However how will that hold up under two appointments?)
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The owners of the Ambassador Bridge are waging a campaign to require voter approval of the proposed New International Trade Crossing, a top priority of Gov. Rick Snyder and Canadian officials.
- - By Stephen Boyle
- The owners of the Ambassador Bridge are waging a campaign to require voter approval of the proposed New International Trade Crossing, a top priority of Gov. Rick Snyder and Canadian officials.
- The four-member Board of Canvassers unanimously approved the lettering and technical formats of the petitions, but did not comment on the language. No officials from The Public Should Decide committee pushing the proposed constitutional amendment testified before the board.
- The bridge ballot initiative is the latest development in Ambassador Bridge owner Manuel "Matty" Moroun's multi-million dollar campaign against a publicly-owned bridge that would compete with his toll bridge.
- Snyder has been unable to get lawmakers to authorize construction of a new bridge in the face of Moroun's campaign advertising and history of political donations.
- Moroun's campaign advertising and history of political donations.
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Current petitions seeking voter signatures. 32,609 signatures needed fro constitutional amendments, 258,088 for new laws, and 161,305 for referendums to repeal laws enacted by the Legislature.
- Ambassador Bridge company officials say the proposal would apply only to bridges built and operated by the state, potentially exempting owner Manuel "Matty" Moroun's company.
"We are glad that the citizens of Michigan, who would be responsible for paying for a $2 billion bridge, will have the opportunity to decide," Mickey Blashfield, a member of The People Should Decide and an Ambassador Bridge Co. employee, said in a statement.
Petitions Circulating
Ban fracking
Purpose: Outlaw horizontal hydraulic fracturing of shale, or "fracking," for oil and natural gas exploration.What’s sought: Constitutional amendment
Backers: Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan
Opponents: Unknown
Status: Board of State Canvassers approved the petitions Thursday. Group must collect signatures.
Governor recall
Purpose: Recall Republican Gov. Rick Snyder.What’s sought : Removing the state’s top elected official from office.
Backers: Michigan Rising, Democratic Party grassroots activists
Opponents: Snyder and Republicans
Status: Washtenaw County Board of Canvassers petitions approved for circulation April 9.
Casino expansion
Purpose: Allow eight new casinos in Birch Run Township, Clinton Township, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Pontiac, Romulus, DeWitt Township, north of Lansing, and Clam Lake Township, near Cadillac.What’s sought: Constitutional amendment
Backers: Citizens for More Michigan Jobs, casino developers and investors, including former House Speaker Rick Johnson and former state Sen. Mitch Irwin
Opponents: Project MI Vote, coalition MGM Grand and Greektown casinos in Detroit and tribal casinos in Mount Pleasant and Marshall
Status: Board of Canvassers approved petition format April 3 for circulation.
Union rights
Purpose: Create a right to collective bargaining.What’s sought: Proposed constitutional amendment
Backers: Protect Our Jobs, labor unions, Democrats
Opponents: Business groups, Republican lawmakers seeking a "right-to-work" law
Status: Need 322,609 valid signatures. Proponents vow to meet July 9 deadline.
Home health care
Purpose: Require training for home health care providers, establish a governing council and allow for limited collective bargaining rights of in-home workers.What’s sought: Constitutional amendment
Backers: Citizens for Affordable Quality Home Care, labor unions
Opponents: Business groups
Status: Approved for circulation March 19.
How it’s done
The number of valid signatures needed for a citizens initiative petition varies and is based on the total number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. For this cycle, 322,609 signatures are needed for constitutional amendments, 258,088 for new laws and 161,305 for referendums to repeal laws enacted by the Legislature. Groups seeking to place constitutional amendments on the November ballot have until July 9 to turn in the required number of signatures to the Secretary of State.Posted from Diigo. The rest of Occupy Detroit Knol group favorite links are here.
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