Michigan

Flint Residents Get Poisoned Water And Shutoff Notices

January 14, 2016 Dylan Hocks, www.usuncut.com Educate! Flint, Michigan, Water

By Dylan Hocks for U.S. Uncut - While Michigan’s Republican governor Rick Snyder and his administration may have poisoned the entire city of Flint’s water supply by electing to draw from the heavily polluted Flint River, thereby dosing residents all over the city with toxic lead at 900 times the EPA limit, none of that seems to matter at the moment as the city prepares to send out shutoff notices to some 1,800 residents for overdue payments. The shutoff notices will be the first sent out since they were halted by ajudge’s decision last August.

Crowd Protests Fatal Police Shooting In Dearborn

January 6, 2016 Mark Hicks and James David Dickson, www.detroitnews.com Resist! #BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter (BLM), killed by police, Michigan, Police violence

By Mark Hicks and James David Dickson for The Detroit News - Dearborn — Chanting “no justice, no peace” and hoisting signs with messages such as “Black Lives Matter,” more than 100 demonstrators strode through Dearborn on Monday night, protesting the death last month of a Detroit man who was shot by a Dearborn police officer. Bundled against the frigid air, they marched past traffic and raised their voices alongside drumbeats to protest the death of Kevin Matthews as well as police practices they believe have contributed to other such deaths.

Protesters Rally After Michigan Man Dies In Jail

October 12, 2015 Ryan Fulton, www.theguardian.com Resist! Michigan, Protest

By Ryan Felton for The Guardian - Friends and family of a Michigan man who died naked in a jail cell of drug withdrawal while serving a sentence for a traffic ticket staged a rally on Saturday, as the FBI continued to investigate the incident. Local authorities said deputies had done nothing wrong in the case. David Stojcevski, 32, was undergoing drug addiction treatment when Macomb County sheriff’s deputies arrested him in June 2014, for failing to pay a $772 ticket for careless driving. Unable to pay, he was locked up at the county jail for a 30-day sentence. According to a federal lawsuit filed by his brother, Vladimir, problems arose almost immediately. Stojcevski was placed in a jail cell, the suit says, even though a nurse observed that he showed “obvious physical signs of drug abuse” and recommended placing him a drug detox unit.

Support Rev. Pinkney, Send Letters To Court Of Appeals NOW!

August 28, 2015 Black Autonomy Network Community Organization, www.bhbanco.org Petitions and Online Actions Criminal Justice, Law, Michigan

By Black Autonomy Network Community Organization - On August 4th, a 3-judge panel of the Michigan Court of Appeals in District III (Grand Rapids) issued a 2-1 decision denying Rev. Edward Pinkney bond pending appeal. This outrageous decision by two of the judges keeps Rev. Pinkney locked behind bars for even longer than the 8 months he's already served. The entire appeals process could take many months more. The ACLU of Michigan wrote in a brief supporting bond pending appeal that the trial court conviction against Rev. Pinkney is “almost certain” to be reversed on appeal. That means he's “paying a debt to society” he doesn't owe. We know that the Berrien County trial court is a corrupt and racist institution.

Town In Michigan Pooled Money To Send HS Graduates To College

August 20, 2015 Walter Einenkel, www.dailykos.com Create! Debt, Education, Michigan

By Walter Einenkel in DailyKos - The Atlantic has an article about the town of Baldwin, Michigan, and their decision to help the young people in their community afford college. According to the article, 10 years ago less than half of the small graduating class even enrolled in college, and the number of kids from that class actually graduating from college was two. Today, nearly every student that graduated high school is heading off to college this fall. What changed was the introduction of the Baldwin Promise, a fund which in 2009 offered to pay up to $5,000 a year for any student from the Baldwin public schools to attend a public or private college in Michigan. Now $5,000 might sound like a pittance when compared to the $31,000 private college now costs annually.

Destroying This Nation: Magical Tour Of American Austerity Politics

June 10, 2015 Laura Gottesdiener, Eduardo García, www.commondreams.org Educate! Austerity, Michigan, Oil & Gas

By Laura Gottesdiener, Eduardo García in Common Dreams - Something is rotten in the state of Michigan. One city neglected to inform its residents that its water supply was laced with cancerous chemicals. Another dissolved its public school district and replaced it with a charter school system, only to witness the for-profit management company it hired flee the scene after determining it couldn’t turn a profit. Numerous cities and school districts in the state are now run by single, state-appointed technocrats, as permitted under an emergency financial manager law pushed through by Rick Snyder, Michigan’s austerity-promoting governor.

Manifesto: Update From MICATS

March 24, 2015 MICATS, www.earthfirstjournal.org Organize! Michigan, Oil & Gas, Tar Sands

But our mission and resolve to stop tar sands has only strengthened with Line 6B in the ground. While we began as the Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands, we understand the intricate and inextricable connection between the tar sands industry and other issues of injustice. The same authorities and governments profiting from the tar sands industry are those striking social programs, leading to increased criminalization of the poor and non-white and propagating the genocide of ecosystems and lifestyles. The same tactics used to ensure the maintenance of a culture built from slavery and genocide are the tactics used to protect industrial giants such as Enbridge. So while we are the Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands, you could also call us the Michigan Coalition Against Terrible Stuff!

Protestors Lock Selves To Pipeline Trucks

August 26, 2014 Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands, www.michigancats.org Resist! Civil Disobedience, Michigan, Protest, Tar Sands

At about 7:30am this morning, two men locked their necks with bicycle U-locks to a pipeline construction truck, immobilizing it, as it was exiting a Precision pipeline storage yard at 3565 East Lakeville Road. This action has resulted in a back-up of trucks that have been blocked from exiting the pipe yard. At the time of this writing, there is a police presence around the two persons locked to the truck as well as dozens of other supporting protestors. Precision Pipeline, who runs the pipeline storage facility, is hired by Enbridge to expand Line 6B. In 2010, Line 6B ruptured in Marshall, MI spilling over 1 million gallons of toxic tar sands and diluents into Talmadge Creek, impacting 40 miles of the Kalamazoo River. Four years later, Enbridge states that the Kalamazoo River is the cleanest it has ever been while dragging its feet in clean-up efforts. Simultaneously, Enbridge states that the river will never be completely clean, and has meanwhile been expeditiously expanding the 6B pipeline system to carry a higher capacity of tar sands oil. Acting to disrupt Precision Pipeline, 20-year-old Duncan Tarr and 21-year-old Dylan Ochala-Gorka, both Michigan residents and organizers with a group called the Michigan Coalition Against Tar Sands (MICATS), demand a halt to Enbridge’s expansion of line 6B as well as restitution for those still suffering from effects of the 2010 tar sands disaster.

Fighting The Corporate Dictatorship In Michigan

June 4, 2014 People's Tribune, www.peoplestribune.org Resist! Corporatism, Democracy, Michigan, Protest

Dear Readers, Benton Harbor, MI has become ground zero in the struggle against the corporate dictatorship sweeping across our country. Rev. Edward Pinkney has been fighting the take over of Benton Harbor by the Whirlpool Corporation for years. The community’s latest battle is the recall of Mayor James Hightower, a puppet for the Whirlpool Corporation. Rev. Pinkney is under house arrest and faces 25 years imprisonment on false “vote fraud” charges. Fellow resident James Cornelius also faces lessor vote fraud charges. What appears on these pages are statements from some of the movement leaders across America in support of those under attack in Benton Harbor. Take this message out! Donate to the defense at BANCO, 1946 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI 49022 or visit bhbanco.org

MI Action Camp Holds Anti-Fossil Fuel Flash Mob

May 27, 2014 Maryann Lesert, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Enbridge, Environment, Michigan, Oil

On Monday, May 19, participants in the Backbone Campaign’s first Midwest action camp spread out a river of tie-dyed blue sheets stained with sticky black fingers of oil on the capitol lawn. They donned masks depicting Enbridge executives and state representatives who have invited all sorts of unconventional oil and gas development into the state, as others led a “Pet Coke” mascot around on a leash and singers sang a song they called “Restore Pure Michigan,” replacing lyrics to the tune of Lorde’s “Royals” with a more pertinent chorus: “No more dirty oil!” The lawn action and the flash mob in the Lansing capitol rotunda demonstrated what the Backbone Campaign has come to be known for: artful activism. The goal, as Backbone’s executive director Bill Moyer explained, was to expose the absurdity of the Michigan legislature welcoming all manner of unconventional fossil fuel extraction methods while the state’s tourism office carries out its “Pure Michigan” campaign. The juxtaposition of bold sunsets and pristine beaches with sand mines in the dunes, frack wells in the state forests, petroleum (pet) coke piles in Detroit, and the 2010 Kalamazoo River tar sands oil spill that still hasn’t been cleaned up, presented a smorgasbord of absurdity that was originally tossed about camp as “Pure Michigan my ass!” The week long action camp brought 75 participants to the grounds of Circle Pines Center, a 75-year-old cooperative based on peace, environmental education and social justice that is surrounded by state land where mineral rights, ironically, were auctioned off for oil and gas development in 2012 by the state’s Department of Natural Resources.

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