November 3, 2018

Grand Valley State University president calls fraternity, sorority alcohol ban proactive

GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Grand Valley State University President Thomas Haas said the alcohol ban on all fraternity and sorority events imposed Wednesday, Oct. 31 is an educational opportunity.

"If there are behaviors, like with alcohol, that are precipitating negative consequences for our students and their safety, I am going to step in,'' Haas told MLive/The Grand Rapids Press Friday, Nov. 2.

"We try to anticipate problems and be proactive that's our culture here. "Student voices are going to be very important in the task force being created as they have been for my 12.5 years here.''

Haas and the Board of Trustees discussed the ban during the board's Academic and Student Affairs Committee Friday, Nov. 2, prior to the full board meeting at the Eberhard Center on GVSU's Pew Campus in Grand Rapids.

Read more: https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/11/grand_valley_president_calls_f.html

November 3, 2018

State won't pay Flint to replace water lines until settlement 'violations' resolved

FLINT, MI - The state will not reimburse the city of Flint for its service line replacements until what the state claims are violations of a $97 million dollar settlement are resolved.

According to a letter from the state Attorney General's office dated Thursday, Nov. 1, the city is violating the settlement by its current excavation method and its failure to look for lead and galvanized water pipes.

Flint city officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

In 2017, a $97 million fund was set up by the state in a settlement to reimburse the city after social groups demanded enough funding to replace the estimated 18,000 hazardous lead and galvanized steel pipes in Flint.

Read more: https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2018/11/state_wont_pay_flint_to_replac.html

November 3, 2018

Memorial held after remains of 300 people found in closed funeral home

On a rainy morning in Detroit, five gray caskets filled with hundreds of cremated remains sat in a small cemetery chapel, where mourners said goodbye to their loved ones for a second time in an unusual mass memorial service.

"Roosevelt Adkins Jr., Sally C. Agee, unidentified loved one," Rev. Louis Pruis of Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church said as clergy from various religions took turns reading off some 300 names of the dead.

The remains were all recently discovered abandoned inside a funeral home that closed in April. The urns contained ashes of people whose relatives were deceived by Cantrell Funeral Home into believing they'd been properly interred.

The funeral home was forced to close after the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs inspected its location at 10400 Mack in Detroit and found deplorable conditions, including improperly embalmed and decomposing bodies.

Read more: https://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2018/11/cremated_remains.html

November 3, 2018

Vandalized Beto O'Rourke mural restored in East Austin

An East Austin mural depicting U.S. Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke as a superhero has been restored after “El Paso gentrifier” and “imperialist pig” was spray-painted over it last weekend.

Dozens showed up Tuesday to help repaint the mural, which sits in an alleyway between Cesar Chavez and East Second streets, during a cleanup event. The mural went up on the first day of early voting on Oct. 22, but was spray-painted with graffiti days later that included “supports Israel,” and “no hero.” A sign was put up next to the graffiti reading “Vote now love trumps hate.” All the messages were replaced Tuesday night with fresh paint and artist Chris Rogers said he was happy to see the community come together to fix his work, according to a post on his Instagram.

When the mural was defaced, Rogers said on Instagram that the theme of the work was “out of darkness comes the light.” Community members painted over graffiti and revamped the image with a new slogan. “WE RISE” is now displayed next to the image of O’Rourke. According to a news release about the event. O’Rourke left Rogers a voicemail thanking him for bringing the community together.

“What this thing has showed me or allowed me to see is that this is way bigger than me and way bigger than the art and that the most important thing here is community,” Rogers said at the cleanup event.“Because at the end of the day, whoever is going to get elected, we got each other and how we responded to this happening, man, that is like one of the biggest things and the best things I could have been a part of.”

Read more: https://www.statesman.com/news/20181101/vandalized-beto-orourke-mural-restored-in-east-austin

November 3, 2018

Michigan's $70 billion retirement fund will now have a board to manage investments

LANSING — Michigan's $70 billion retirement fund system is getting a new manager.

Or, rather, managers.

Last month, Gov. Rick Snyder created a State of Michigan Investment Board that will take over investments of the public retirement system that bankrolls pensions and retirement payments for about 570,000 retired and current state and public school employees.

The new structure means Michigan will join the ranks of nearly every other state that has a board oversee pension investment funds and add a new layer of transparency to the process, experts said.

Previously, State Treasurer Nick Khouri was the sole fiduciary of the investment. He had control, with help of an advisory committee, of overseeing and investing money for the retirement systems.

Read more: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2018/10/30/board-oversee-investment-michigan-state-public-school-retirees/1733407002/

November 3, 2018

WMU-Cooley Law School dismisses lawsuit against American Bar Association

LANSING - Western Michigan University Cooley Law School on Wednesday dismissed its lawsuit against the American Bar Association.

The Lansing-based law school filed a lawsuit against the accrediting agency in November of 2017 after the ABA published a letter saying one of its committees found Cooley was in violation of Standard 501(b), which says a law school "shall only admit applicants who appear capable of satisfactorily completing its program of legal education and being admitted to the bar."

Cooley argued in court records that the ABA didn’t have authority to publish preliminary findings and that doing so would harm the law school’s reputation.

In March, the ABA’s Accreditation Committee of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar determined that Cooley had taken steps to demonstrate compliance with Standard 501(b).

Read more: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2018/11/01/wmu-cooley-lawsuit-american-bar-association/1846772002/

Michael Cohen's alma mater!

November 3, 2018

Blue duck can stay, thousands of other items in man's yard must go, judge rules

ST JOHNS – A blue plastic duck.

That’s all that Clinton County District Court Judge Michael Clarizio says can be left of an outdoor art installation made from thousands of found objects at the home of a Bath Township artist.

Even as he praised the work of artist Robert Park, Clarizio gave him 45 days to remove the items along a pathway on his wooded lot. The duck was the only object that didn’t fit the definition of junk under a township’s ordinance, which prohibits outdoor storage of “cast-off" and other items.

“I have to follow what the law says, not what my heart says,” Clarizio said. The judge called Park a “talented artist” and said he found Park’s art installation “interesting.”

Park plans to appeal, and his attorney, William Metros, said they would press Bath Township officials to back off.

Read more: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/opinion/columnists/judy-putnam/2018/11/01/bath-township-officials-win-court-case-take-down-art-installation/1806961002/

I wonder if some Republicans complained because they don't like blue?

November 3, 2018

Michigan tribes say Line 5 pipeline tunnel plan ignores treaty rights

Michigan officials have spent the past year pursuing a plan to tunnel an oil pipeline beneath the Straits of Mackinac while ignoring the 182-year-old treaty rights of Native Americans, multiple tribal leaders say.

While the Snyder administration formally met with tribes three times over the past year under a State-Tribal Accord, tribal leaders say these consultations were little more than an “airing of grievances” for them.

The last meeting between tribes and Gov. Rick Snyder was Sept. 27, less than a week before the state announced an agreement with Enbridge to pursue a $500 million tunnel for the company’s Line 5 pipeline. In other meetings, officials have been unwilling to share information from Enbridge or modify any agreements, tribes say.

“They more or less told us to pound sand,” said Bryan Newland, chairman of the Bay Mills Indian Community in the Upper Peninsula. “Our objective is not to show up and shake our fist at the state. It’s to propose solutions.”

Read moe: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-environment-watch/michigan-tribes-say-line-5-pipeline-tunnel-plan-ignores-treaty-rights

November 3, 2018

Biden, Michigan Dems whip up crowd at Lansing Community College vote rally

THURSDAY, Nov. 1 — If the Democrats’ Get Out the Vote rally at Lansing Community College today {Thursday} was any indication, Michigan Republicans should be very nervous about the outcome of Tuesday’s General Election.

An enthusiastic, diverse crowd estimated by LCC at 2,300 filled the school gymnasium, some waiting over an hour before the program began, then listening and cheering for more than 90 minutes. Most people stood the entire time as the heat rose until the air conditioning kicked in late in the rally. Two people collapsed.

The star attraction was former Vice President Joseph Biden, who spoke for a half hour despite laryngitis that caught up with him on the latest of scores of campaign stops across the country.

Biden recalled how he and President Barack Obama vowed they would not criticize Donald Trump publicly when he took over the White House.

Read more: https://lansingcitypulse.com/article-16650-Biden-Michigan-Dems-whip-up-crowd-at-LCC-vote-rally.html

November 2, 2018

The strange story about ousted county clerk Karen Spranger now involves fecal worms

If you were not following the deranged details surrounding Macomb County Clerk Karen Spranger's (R) firing, perhaps the words "fecal worms" will catch you up to speed.

Seven months ago, a judge ruled to remove Spanger from office following a federal whistleblower lawsuit filed by two of her aids after it was revealed that she had lied about her Macomb County residency while filing election paperwork. Now, the plot continues to thicken.

In the deposition transcripts, only now obtained by The Detroit Free Press, Spranger put forth a plan to create more office toilets for staff during building renovations by using fecal-eating worms in place of plumbing. Chief Deputy County Executive Mark Deldin told prosecuting attorney Jennifer Lord during the March hearing that Spranger unveiled the grand plans to "add bathrooms with no cost."

"She was going to give me a business card, which I did not take, of someone that she knew that could come in and talk to me about providing toilets in rooms where she wanted them, and just a hole in the ground, and you place fecal eating worms inside of this hole," Lord said. "No plumbing, and that's how you get more bathrooms."

But there's more: https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2018/11/01/the-strange-story-about-ousted-county-clerk-karen-spranger-now-involves-fecal-worms