Ban Volcanos?

One of Carl Levin’s possible 2008 opponents for the US Senate, Bart Baron, had this to say about auto emissions and their impact on the environment:

Let’s get off the back of the auto, oil and petro-chemical industries. I would like to point out that one major volcanic eruption spews more particulate, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide and carbon dioxide then all the auto emissions, ever. Major volcanic eruptions occur frequently.

I got this little tidbit right from his website.  It is also on ontheissues.com.  He may be on to something, especially since volcanos are also a threat to national security with all the lava and death and such.   If you want some more entertainment, I would suggest checking out www.bartbaron.com, his official website for Senate; I call tell you that I’ll be sad when this guy loses the August Republican Primary to Jack Hoogendyk – Baron would be much more fun to run against!

The Great Lakes Compact

Great Lakes Basin area

There has been a lot of talk about the Great Lakes Compact in recent days, and I have seen a lot of traffic because.  But people seem to be having trouble finding what it actually says and what it would do.  So, in my nerdiness, I searched through Michigan Legislative records and discovered the bill which was passed in Michigan the other week enacting the compact.  You have find it here.  If for some reason the link doesn’t work for you, it is Michigan State House Bill 4343 (2007) as enrolled in June 26, 2008.  The legislative search tool is www.legislature.mi.gov.  I would suggest actually looking at the legislative analysis since it is the most comprehensive and easier to understand.

I hope this helps those of you who are still looking!

UPDATE: I happened to stumble across the actual agreement just now.  You can find it here.

Michigan Ballot Proposals

For those of you who may not have been paying attention, there have been two ballot propsals which have submitted signatures to be placed on the November ballot.  There originally was a third, but it fell far short of the required signatures.  Below are basic outlines of each proposal and locations to discover more information.

MICHIGAN GOVERNMENT REFORM PROPOSAL   487,000 signatures

This is a massive proposal to overhaul Michigan State government by altering over 13% of our state constitution in a single proposal.  Amoung the highlights are:

• Shrinking the state house from 110 to 82 seats and the state senate from 38 to 28 seats
• Establishing a non-partisan redistricting commission, with very detailed rules and regulations
• Eliminating two Supreme Court Justices and 7 Appellate Judges
• Adding 10 lower court justices
• Cut elected officials pay by 38% (they have themselves a 38% pay raise in 2002)
• Allow NO REASON absentee voting
• A lot of other stuff as well

I’ll spare you my many, many thoughts on this for now, but if you want more information (which I am sure you do!), you can visit their website and read the actual proposal and learn more about what is going on.

CURE MICHIGAN – STEM CELL RESEARCH      570,000 signatures

This one is much more simple.  It opens lifts the ban on Stem Cell Research in Michigan and allows for research to progress.  It is indeed a very emotional issue, but one worth having a debate on.  I don’t exactly know a lot about the topic itself, but you can find more information on both stem cell research and the ballot proposal at http://www.curemichigan.com.

The Lansing State Journal has a good article on both of the above proposals.  You can find it here.

As always, thanks for reading.