Petition drive to put the Fair Affordable Insurance Act on the November 2010 ballot is underway

The petition drive to put the Fair Affordable Insurance Act on the November 2010 ballot is officially underway, spearheaded by Sen. Hansen Clarke, D-Detroit.

Fair Affordable Insurance Rates (FAIR) has to collect 304,000 signatures in the next 180 days to place it on the November ballot, and they plan to collect 400,000 by the end of April.

The ballot question came about because the Michigan Senate refused to pass real auto insurance reform and in October rejected a 12-year effort in to do away with redlining.

Consumers in Michigan pay the 12th highest auto insurances rates in the nation, but the problem in Detroit is even more acute. Drivers in Detroit pay an average of more than $5,000 a year, yet the national average annual car insurance rate is only $949.

“We’re trying to lower expenses for people to free up money so they can spend it on their mortgage, credit card debt or their children,” Clarke said.

The law, if approved by voters, would cut auto, home and business insurance premiums by 20 percent, cut premiums by 20 percent for safe drivers, reimburse consumers when insures overcharge them, mandate insurers follow consumer protection laws, prohibit insurers from unfairly canceling coverage and protect consumers from predatory insurance practices. More importantly, it will base insurance premiums on your driving record, not on education level, credit score, zip code or even job title.

“We believe this is a good policy,” Clarke said. “This is the largest tax break you can give a business.”

The petition is two pages that fold out because of the complex legal language, but Clarke said it is airtight and the law has worked elsewhere.

“It has lowered premiums in California,” he said. “We have learned from past court cases, and the language is better.”

A June 2007 study concluded that Michigan auto insurance companies have been gouging consumer while hoarding record-breaking profits for years.

A study released in 2007 concluded that Michigan auto insurance companies have been piling up big profits and excessive surplus funds, reaching record levels in 2006. The report was authored by Jay Angoff, an independent and highly respected auditor who served as Missouri's insurance commissioner from 1993-98. He said AAA's – the largest provider in Michigan - profit more than doubled to $104.2 million in 2006 from $50.9 million in 2002. The report concludes that all three Michigan auto no-fault insurance companies are making excessive profits.

“This (proposal) is not anti-insurance,” Clarke said. “We want them to make a profit, but we want them to give back some of their windfall profit.”

State law says the petition language is good for 180 days, and there can be no more than 90 days between the first and last signature.

Rogers continues to deny the fact that global warming is a fact on behalf of Big Oil masters

After some nine years of Mike Rogers in Congress, the only thing we know for sure about the Brighton Republican is that he toes the GOP line until its no longer popular to dos so. His press release on the stolen emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia that critics have dubiously claimed undermine the scientific consensus on climate change is just one more example.

Rogers backed every single Bush position until the approval ratings of the worst president in U.S. history plunged like a rock, and Rogers abandoned him like a rat from a sinking ship. Now, he has sunk to the role of just criticizing and blocking every solution to the problems his party created.

His press release printed almost verbatim in the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus is parroting the rightwing lie that global warming is a hoax. “He joined fellow congressional Republicans who raised questions about leaked e-mails from the researchers.”

First, they were not “leaked e-mails” they were stolen. Global warming deniers are basically taking one word out of context among 13 years of personal emails to prove their point. They ignore all the data from other agencies, like NASA, to make their case.

For years, thousands of scientists working at climate research centers throughout the world have carefully and rigorously reached a consensus on the extent of climate change, the urgency of the problem, and the role of human activity in causing it. A few distorted e-mail exchanges do not change that consensus.

In fact, last month Gavin Schmidt, a climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, supported that claim: "There's nothing in the e-mails that shows that global warming is a hoax. ... There's no funding by nefarious groups. There's no politics in any of these things; nobody from the [United Nations] telling people what to do. There's nothing hidden, no manipulation. It's just scientists talking about science, and they're talking relatively openly as people in private e-mails generally are freer with their thoughts than they would be in a public forum. The few quotes that are being pulled out [are out] of context. People are using language used in science and interpreting it in a completely different way."

Rogers is a very good friend of big oil, and, in fact, he voted against ending taxpayer-funded subsidies for Big Oil and creating a Strategic Energy and Renewables Reserve. Is it any surprise he is a global warming denier? The right-wing groups leading the charge in attacking the science are the same old Big Oil-backed naysayers and their allies in Congress -like Rogers- who have been attacking climate science and fighting clean energy for decades.

The U.S. Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency have identified climate change as a threat to our national security and have developed specific efforts to combat climate change.

The real indicator is the results of global warming. How to you ignore or lie that away?

According to a recent article by the Associated Press, “Since 1997 climate change has worsened and accelerated – beyond some of the grimmest of warnings made back then.”
The world's oceans have risen by about an inch and a half.

Droughts and wildfires have turned more severe worldwide, from the U.S. West to Australia to the Sahel desert of North Africa. Species now in trouble because of changing climate include, not just the lumbering polar bear which has become a symbol of global warming, but also fragile butterflies, colorful frogs and entire stands of North American pine forests. Temperatures over the past 12 years are 0.4 of a degree warmer than the dozen years leading up to 1997. Even the gloomiest climate models back in the 1990s didn't forecast results quite this bad so fast.

Scientists have uncovered a large expanse of "corrosive" water in the Canadian Arctic due to carbon pollution that is putting the marine food web at risk. "Unprecedented" rainfall in the United Kingdom has led to flooding of "biblical proportions" – a predicted consequence of global warming. "Unprecedented" heat, drought, and winds are causing "catastrophic" wildfires to sweep across eastern Australia – a predicted consequence of global warming.

The 2000s are on track to be nearly 0.2°C warmer than the 1990s. And that temperature jump is especially worrisome since the 1990s were only 0.14°C warmer than the 1980s. The world’s glaciers shrink for the 18th year. According to the University of Zurich ’s World Glacier Monitoring Service report in 2006 and 2007 the world’s glaciers lost 2 meters (2000 mm) of thickness on average. They note, “The new data continues the global trend in accelerated ice loss over the past few decades.” The rate of ice loss is twice as fast as a decade ago. Greenhouse gases, which are believed to be responsible for global warming, reached record highs in the Earth’s atmosphere in 2008, according to the U.N. weather agency.

The simple fact is Global Warming is real, and a few words taken out of context from thousands of stolen emails cannot change that fact. Even if you wanted to impeach the results from the CRU at the University of East Anglia, there are plenty of other respected scientists above reproach who hold the same position reached by independent and undisputed research and data. Here are a few:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change: Global warming of the climate system is unequivocal and most of the observed increase in global temperatures since the mid-20th century is due to human-induced greenhouse gas emissions.

National Academy of Sciences: Even if carbon dioxide emissions were halted today, the world would continue warming with “irreversible” effects — including rising temperatures and sea levels—that will last for a millennium.

American Association for the Advancement of Science: The scientific evidence is clear: global climate change caused by human activities is occurring now, and it is a growing threat to society.

U.S. Global Change Research Program: Global temperature has increased over the past 50 years. This observed increase is due primarily to human-induced emissions of heat-trapping gases.

American Physical Society: Emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities are changing the atmosphere in ways that affect the Earth’s climate. Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide as well as methane, nitrous oxide and other gases. They are emitted from fossil fuel combustion and a range of industrial and agricultural processes. The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth’s physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.

American Meteorological Society: Despite the uncertainties noted above, there is adequate evidence from observations and interpretations of climate simulations to conclude that the atmosphere, ocean, and land surface are warming; that humans have significantly contributed to this change; and that further climate change will continue to have important impacts on human societies, on economies, on ecosystems, and on wildlife through the 21st century and beyond.

American Geophysical Union: The Earth’s climate is now clearly out of balance and is warming. Many components of the climate system—including the temperatures of the atmosphere, land and ocean, the extent of sea ice and mountain glaciers, the sea level, the distribution of precipitation, and the length of seasons—are now changing at rates and in patterns that are not natural and are best explained by the increased atmospheric abundances of greenhouse gases and aerosols generated by human activity during the 20th century. . . . Evidence from most oceans and all continents except Antarctica shows warming attributable to human activities.

American Quaternary Association: Few credible scientists now doubt that humans have influenced the documented rise in global temperatures since the Industrial Revolution.

The national science academies of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa: It is essential that world leaders agree on the emission reductions needed to combat negative consequences of anthropogenic climate change at the UNFCCC negotiations in Copenhagen in December 2009.

A group of 18 leading scientific organizations recently sent a letter to Senators affirming that climate change is happening.

Opponents of workplace smoking ban rolling out debunked studies again

With news that the workplace smoking ban, that includes bars and restaurants, may move in the Michigan Legislature this week, opponents of the ban are ramping up efforts to put out their false information to kill what 38 other state already have.

The operator’s of Detroit’s three casinos planted a story in the Detroit News on Friday that claims a ban will take away nearly a third of their revenues -- “and tax payments to Detroit and the state” unless they are exempted by the ban. They go on to claim that the “city and state could lose up to $93.1 million a year in taxes.” As proof they offer - well, absolutely nothing.

They claim that. “The effects of a smoking ban on casinos already have been felt across the Detroit River at Caesars Windsor, where business suffered because of a three-year-old ban on smoking, casino officials have said.” But in the only part of the article that even attempts to balance the article, it admits that, “The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. hasn't released direct figures showing the full impact of the ban.” So, they are basing their claim on nothing.

In an unbiased study released by the Indiana University Center for Health Policy in March called “The Economic Impact of Smoke-free Policies on Business and Health” concluded that a smoking ban shows no negative revenue impact on sales and gaming receipts.

Study after study has also shown that smoking bans do not have a negative effect on business in bars and restaurants, and the last one came from another unbiased source, the University of Michigan. In May, the University of Michigan Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy released a study that concluded the state's bars and restaurants would not be hurt by a proposed workplace smoking ban. The study said “in economic terms, most high-quality research finds that smoking bans have not had negative effects on the revenues of restaurants and bars.”

We also have the results from the 38 other states with a ban as well as the numerous other countries with a ban.

What we do know is that the air in Detroit casinos have indoor pollution levels that are at least eight times higher than outdoor air, and that community smoking bans have an immediate and dramatic effect on reducing heart attacks.

A press conference with business groups opposed to the workplace smoking ban is set for 9 a.m. Tuesday at the Rrossman Group in Lansing, and I can bet two of those groups will be the Michigan Restaurant Association (MRA) and the Michigan Licensed Beverage Association (MLBA) that has been using debunked studies to make the false claim that a smoking ban will hurt business and cost jobs.

Workplace smoking ban could move this week: only a year late

Gongwer News Service is reporting that a deal on the workplace smoking ban that includes bars and restaurants proposed by Sen. Sen. Ron Jelinek, R-Three Oaks, may lead to the bill finally be taken up by the Senate this week.

That’s good news, and good for Sen. Jelinek. However, based on the history of the effort than has overwhelming public support it raises some interesting questions. According to the story, Jelinek has drafted revisions to House Bill 4377 that would allow the Detroit casinos “to have half their gambling floors smoke-free and the other half smoking. There would be no smoking in casino restaurants and hotels.”

That makes no sense because the Senate Majority Leader still maintains he will only allow a vote on a clean bill that had no exceptions. That’s fine, but how about simply allowing a vote on a clean bill with no exceptions and get it into the conference committee? Jelinek’s compromise can be one worked out by the conference committee.

The smoking ban has been introduced every session for some 12 years, and it finally got some traction three years ago almost to the day when the House passed a bill in December 2006 with bipartisan support that banned smoking in all workplaces including bars and restaurants, but it provided exceptions for the Detroit casinos, tobacco retailers, bingo halls, horse racing tracks and so-called cigar bars. It passed by a vote of 56-46.

Some 18 months later in May 2008, the Senate approved a substitute of that bill with a bipartisan vote of 25-12 that had no exceptions. In September the House took up the substitute, and although it had the majority of votes, 50-49, it did not have a majority and failed. It needed a majority of those 110 members elected and serving - 56 votes - to pass, but Detroit area lawmakers balked, under the mistaken belief that a smoking ban will cost Detroit casinos business to Native American casinos like Soaring Eagle in Mount Pleasant and cost jobs.

The Senate, of course, refused to take it up, and in December 2008 as time was running out on all bills not yet approved, a bipartisan confrence committee was formed to find a compromise between the two versions. All bills not passed before Dec. 31 die, and they must be reintroduced in the new two year legislative session that begins in January.

The six-person bipartisan committee met for three days to find a compromise, but two of the three members assigned were staunch opponents and refused to negotiate in good faith. In fact, one admitted later on the Senate floor that he sabotaged the bill, and the other was rewarded for killing it by the bill’s biggest opponent.

Despite these handicaps, a number of compromises were proposed, and for all we know Jelinek’s proposal may have been one of those proposals. Despite coming up with a workable compromise, the bill was sabotaged and died.

Fast forward to the current session, and in May of this year, the House passed the same bill with exceptions with bipartisan support by a vote of 73-31, as opposed to a vote of 56-46 in 2006.

The solution is simple: the Senate should pass a clean bill like they did in 2008 because the make up of the Senate is still the same as last session, with one exception. Let the House vote on a clean bill wilt no exceptions, and based on the number of freshman lawmakers from last session and the larger margin of victory, I’m pretty sure it will pass. Even if it doesn’t, it will get the bill in a conference committee with an entire year to come up with an agreement instead of just three days.

And, if the Senate assigns all three members who will negotiate in good faith, we will join 38 other states with a workplace smoking ban.

The bottom line is the Senate needs to take some action; any action.

A love of the law and public service leads Whitmer to run for AG

LANSING – State Sen. Gretchen Whitmer, D-East Lansing, has stood up for consumers and the vulnerable in the Senate, and now she wants to use the power of the law to stand up for those taken advantage of as she stumps for the nomination for Michigan Attorney General.

She is making the rounds of the grassroots party organization because the nomination is made at the Democratic Party convention, and she spoke at the quarterly meeting of the 8th Congressional Democratic District Committee earlier this week. The AG office has been in Democratic hands from 1961 until 2002, and over the years it has built up perhaps the best consumer protection record in the country. But that changed with the election of Republican Mike Cox.

Whitmer - who considers former AG Frank Kelley who held the post for 37 years a mentor and friend- wants to change that.

“After seven years of Mike Cox, we need to take it back and we need change,” she said. “The Attorney General is the people’s lawyer, and that’s how I see it.”

Cox has gutted consumer protection, and he has also quietly eliminated the hate crimes division.

The state’s economy has taken a beating as the auto industry almost went into bankruptcy, and Whitmer said she wants to take on the greedy special interest that try to profit off the economic crisis.

“People need to feel inspired and hopeful, and as we go into 2010, we need to focus on the future,” she said. “The challenges our state has faced have been big, and that’s an understatement; we need leaders that are independent and not controlled by special interests.”

Whitmer has been in the Legislature for the past 10 years, and she is a leading advocate for empowering consumers. She most recently fought to enact legislation cracking down on massive predatory mortgage lending scams, and is now working to outlaw those who want to exploit victims of foreclosure through fraudulent “rescue” services.

She has also fought to ensure citizens; are safe, and for that effort she was recognized in 2003 as the “Legislator of the Year” by the Michigan Sheriff’s Association.

She has introduced legislation that would end immunity for drug companies if their drugs kill or maim the people who take them, and it would repel the current ban enacted in 1996 designed to shield huge pharmaceutical companies from any responsibility. Michigan is the only state in the nation with that kind of drug shield law.

“We don’t have the right to sue like people in the 49 states,” Whitmer said. “We have Bill Schulte (One of the GOP candidates for AG) to thank for that.”

Whitmer earned her law degree from Michigan State University, and she worked in private practice until she joined Dickinson Wright, one of Michigan’s oldest and most respected law firms, as a corporate litigator. She specialized in regulatory and administrative law, arguing in both Circuit Court and before the Michigan Public Service Commission.

She has always had a love fort he law and public service because of her parents. Her father is an attorney and her mother was an assistant Attorney General for many years.

Whitmer said it was a case she worked on at Dickinson Wright that made her realize she was doing the wrong thing with her law degree, and it led her to give up the large paycheck she was earning for public service. She said an elderly couple was fighting a $40 overcharge they received on a utility bill; only she was working for the utility company.

“I realized as I was writing a brief; I went to law school to help people out, not to squash them,” she said.

Whitmer has been traveling around the state seeking grassroots support. In fact, she will be at the Livingston County Democratic Party’s holiday party this Saturday Dec. 5 at 4 p.m.

Her campaign is gaining steam, and she expects a new web site to go up soon and to open a campaign office. She has also hired Mark Burton as her campaign manger. He was the successful campaign director for the Michigan Stem Cell Ballot Question Committee last year, and he has worked on many other successful campaigns.

To volunteer for the campaign call (517) 372-5454 or email info@GretchenWhitmer.com.

Gate-crashing socialites find an invitation they don’t like

Apparently, publicly seeking socialites Tareq and Michaele Salahi actually have an invitation to an event, but they are turning it down.

You will recall that they crashed the White House’s first state dinner on Nov. 24 where they managed to meet and have their photos taken with President Obama. What should have been a one day story and led to a commitment to have tighter security has been blown completely out of proportion.

Now, they have been invited to testify at a hearing to be held by the Homeland Security Committee on the incident, but they have declined this invitation. Who they do they think they are, Karl Rove?

I’m not sure what is more ridiculous; that they are even wasting time holding a hearing or that the couple declined to testify. I understand the need for security because of the irrational hatred of the president whipped up by the racist tea baggers, but the attention paid to this is just ridiculous. The Secret Service has their hands full investigating all the threats on the President’s life, so they simply need some help.

They went through metal detectors, and no one was ever in any danger. According to news reports, the White House said it would ensure that staff are physically stationed alongside Secret Service agents to screen guests at official events in the future.

That should end the story, but I don’t see that happening.

Bah, Humbug: Nominate the 2009 Scrooge of the Year

It’s that time of year again, and national Jobs with Justice is seeking nominations for its 2009 “Scrooge of the Year” award.
JwJ is looking to highlight the greediest, most cold-hearted company or person of the year. This is the 10th year of the contest, but it’s back with a slight name change. In the past it was called the “Grinch of Year,” but the concept is the same: to nominate the person or company that has done the most harm to working families.

JwJ is collecting nominations until Dec. 7, and the voting will then begin for the top enemies of working men and women. Past winners include Wal-Mart, George W. Bush, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, Smithfield Chairman Joseph Luter III and Wall Street.

Jobs with Justice is a national organization with the vision of lifting up workers’ rights and struggles as part of a larger campaign for economic and social justice and worker‘s rights.

Home of the Marlboro Man goes smokefree today: Michigan, not so much

LANSING -- Today is not only the first day of December, but it also marks the day that the smoking ban in the largest tobacco growing state in the nation goes into effect.

In Virginia, the home of the Marlboro Man and the largest cigarette factory in the world, you can no longer light up in a bar. The ban, approved in March, excludes private clubs and restaurants with separate rooms with independent ventilation systems, as well as open-air outside areas.

It makes the Michigan Legislature’s inaction even more disgraceful and disappointing, and we are one of only 13 backward states that does not have a workplace smoking ban.

Since the House approved House Bill 4377 last May with bipartisan support, there has been zero action on the bill, despite overwhelming support both in the Legislature and from the general public.

The Campaign for Smokefree Air launched the “Act Now or Forever Hold Your Breath” grassroots campaign aimed at refocusing lawmakers’ attention back to protecting Michigan residents from the deadly impact of secondhand smoke in October, and it may be showing some results. The rumor in Lansing is that the bill may be taken up soon.

Contact your Legislator and urge them to both take up the bill and vote for it when legislative leaders actually allow an up or down vote.