Week in Review
City Council, Monday, February 19
See the packet here.
Public Comment
Jack McClain is still caught up in string lights: “I see the lights are still on over Howell. . . I’m wondering if you’re a councilman, or a member of the Planning Commission, or maybe a member of TIFA, if you can just thumb your nose at the rules and regulations of the city. . . I can’t believe they’re still on [the buildings]!”
Hillsdale County Commissioner Update
County Commissioner Doug Ingles updated Council after virtually attending the “Michigan Materials Management Conference.” The state, he said, wants our “materials” to be “sustainably managed.” In order to achieve sufficient levels of “materials management compliance,” the administrators have determined that the County Commissioners must create a “materials management plan” by July 6, 2024. In failing to do so, the state will write the plan on the County’s behalf.
Ingles: “I doubt there is anyone in this room that would want the state to write that plan. It is certainly not going to be a rural-friendly plan. Plans that come from the state are Flint-, Grand Rapids-, or Detroit-based. . . I am the County Commissioner who is looking into what we need to do, and I’m finding out that it’s a lot. . . It’s quite overwhelming.”
Morrisey: “I was very interested in your account of the business with the state and the plan you have to develop. That is a typical bureaucratic ploy. They want to take control of that, and they’re giving you a short timeline, and a complex document. So that’s all calculated. I wish you the very best of luck.”
Right of Way Permit Fee Schedule
The city plans to raise the fees by nearly four times for the use of public streets, sidewalks, or parking lots for events.
Vear: “The way the Public Service Committee came up with these numbers, its basically in line with other municipalities. . . Our fee schedule hasn’t been addressed for 20 years. . . Right now it’s a bit of a sticker shock, but I think this Council needs to approve this so our staff can be reimbursed for what it’s actually costing the city.”
Stockford: “I’m discouraged by the almost-quadrupling of the fee. . . I know it goes through all these hands, but all these people are employees of the city, and paying taxes pays these peoples’ salaries, and if they have to do extra [work], well, it’s just part of the job. . . It’s just very important to me that we don’t make things cost-prohibitive for people to have events because it’s the life-blood of what makes this community special.”
Morrisey: “The problem is that you had government-by-inertia for so long. It’s just like the roads; if you don’t do anything for 30, 40 years, you’ll just keep kicking the can down the road.”
Paladino: “Some citizens use services outside of the ordinary services. . . We want to account for the cost of extraordinary services so that the total burden of taxation is lower for the majority of law-abiding citizens.”
All voted in favor.
A Softer, Kinder Court System
Five teenagers from Battle Creek robbed a Camden marijuana store on January 31, leading to a high-speed chase in which they were eventually detained. One of the five was a minor. The other four were temporarily jailed in the Hillsdale County jail. Their names: Dontay Dequan Banks, 19, Treshaun Omeirr Boykins, 23, Milton Tyier Hudson, 18, and Jeremiah Javon Smith, 18. Their lawbreaking triggered the newly-installed and Benzing-approved Community Corrections Program (CCP), which is designed to solve jail overcrowding by releasing criminals from jail and sending them to therapy.
Hillsdale County District Judge Meg Stiverson, an elected official and former family court administrator, said that the CCP has deemed the criminals to be “low-risk” because this was their first collective crime. Presumably, she will take this alleged “low-risk” status into consideration when assigning a sentence. The criminals currently await trial.
First Judicial Circuit Judge Sara Lisznyai, another elected official, has also taken an empathetic approach to violent criminals. In September of 2022, Detroit resident Jeremiah Da Michael Broady, 19 at the time, tried to purchase narcotics from drug dealers in the parking lot of the Hillsdale Community Library. Broady opened fire on the dealers when negotiations turned south, though he failed to kill his targets.
Lisznyai presided over the case and determined that jail time was unnecessary because Broady had committed all of his previous crimes when he was a minor. The judge even departed from the sentencing guidelines, which recommended 5-23 months in prison.
“Please don’t let this be a mistake,” she said of her ruling. . .
Upcoming Events
County Commissioners, Tuesday, February 27
Presidential Primary Election, Tuesday, February 27
External Links
“Sourdough bread in particular is warm, soft, nutritious, and fills the home with a sweet aroma. I love being able to spread that goodness beyond my four walls.” Via the Daily News, Ahna Decker has opened Taste and See Bakery.
“I wanted people to be able to kind of get a sandwich how they like.” Derek Spiteri, owner of Handmade, was interviewed by MLive.
“I’m not opening this to try to make any money off of it. The plan is to start with an affordable airplane, then any potential profits that we may generate will be rolled back into that airplane for instrumentation upgrades.” Travis Stebelton plans to “open a flight school at the Hillsdale Municipal Airport in early May.”
“You don’t have to have the qualifications to distribute marijuana, you just have to be trained. So when the market got flooded with people opening these new marijuana dispensaries, we lost a lot of employees to that.” Dena Walters, owner of the Local Eatery, tells the Collegian that local businesses are losing employees to marijuana dispensaries.
“The methdemic — I call it. It’s coming, and it’s here.” Dr. Rob McMorrow, addiction medicine specialist at MidMichigan Community Health Service in Houghton Lake.
“By law, charter schools are public schools and have no religious affiliation. Our classical curriculum, which focuses on the liberal arts and sciences, is not religious or political.” Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 Education at Hillsdale College, penned a letter-to-the-editor of the Centre Daily Times.
“Having talked to a lot of folks over the last four years and being in contact with a significant number of parents within just the State College school district, I think there has been a real interest and need for alternatives. And Hillsdale, this charter school would be an alternative.” Parents in State College, PA are looking into establishing a school that would use Hillsdale curriculum.
“After months of back-and-forth deliberations between the Siuslaw School District and the Siuslaw Valley Charter School (SVCS), SVCS announced it will rescind its ‘Letter of Intent’ with Hillsdale College and will no longer move forward as a Hillsdale member school.” KPIC-4.
“No remnants of our former consultant are embedded in the curriculum. I would like to thank the district and all the parents who supported getting this straightened out, and I look forward to our teachers taking the reins and doing a great job for our kids.” Democrats in Bucks County, Pennsylvania really didn’t like Vermilion.
“With both Karamo and Hoekstra claiming to be the lawful chair, anyone on the wrong side of the dispute is in potential criminal jeopardy under a section of federal law that makes it a crime, under certain circumstances, for someone to fraudulently misrepresent that they are acting on behalf of a political party.” Detroit Free Press.
“Expanded refugee resettlement pathways empower more Michiganders to support our state’s growing refugee population and build a more welcoming and inclusive Michigan for all.” Governor Whitmer’s “Office of Global Michigan” is asking Michiganders to volunteer to house “refugees.”
“I fear that the label ‘Christian,’ rather than moderating Hillsdale’s extreme culture war politics, gives its efforts a kind of divine sanction and amplification. And many families like those sitting in my office are sure to expect the same from colleges like mine.” Jay Green, Professor of History at Covenant College, argues that Hillsdale College “honors” Christianity only insofar as it does not come into conflict with the American Founding.1
“The thing that unites them as Christian nationalists, is that they believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don’t come from any earthly authority; they don’t come from Congress, they don’t come from the Supreme Court—they come from God.” Politico’s Heidi Przybyla appeared on MSNBC to promote her recent article on evangelical support for Donald Trump.
“The central question presented in these consolidated appeals, which involve the death of embryos keptin a cryogenic nursery, is whether the Act contains an unwritten exception to that rule for extrauterine children -- that is, unborn children who are located outside of a biological uterus at the time they are killed. Under existing black-letter law, the answer to that question is no: the Wrongful Death of a Minor Act applies to all unborn children, regardless of their location.” Supreme Court of Alabama.
“The legacy of the federal government and its refusal to properly enforce trade laws is nothing but empty mills and unemployed workers. That was true in the ’80s and ’90s, and that is true today.” Salena Zito interviews residents after the closure of Cleveland-Cliffs Steel in Weirton, WV.
“Far from making education subservient to earthly aims, a more American classical education will help us orient our incarnational lives as citizens to our faith.” Nathan Hill attempts to revivify the War Over Classical.
“The West is divorced from its own history in a way that may be unique in history, and that, far from being a great strength, this is in truth a stunning weakness.” Raw Egg Nationalist.
“However, there is still some material in Heidegger’s later work which is salvageable.” Professor Jesse Russell of Georgia Southwestern State University attempts to save for conservative use some remnant of Heideggerian thought, but it is not quite clear what precisely he would save.