From the Detroit News:
Lawmakers reopened the debate over smoke-free workplaces Wednesday, launching hearings on an issue that has gridlocked the Legislature for years.
Owners of smaller bars and restaurants say a proposed statewide ban on workplace smoking could cost 7,500 hospitality jobs and drive them out of business.
Proponents say the ban is necessary to protect workers and customers from second-hand smoke, which they say claims 3,000 Michigan lives every year.
From the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun:
The official flag of Isabella County acknowledges the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe as a significant part of the community.
Yet, the lack of recognition of Isabella Reservation boundaries by the county are “at the heart of the issue” for the Tribal government’s lack of official sponsorship or representation at the upcoming sesquicentennial celebrations.
“It is the heart of the whole issue,” Tribal Chief Fred Cantu Jr. said. “We really are standing to those treaties.
From the Saginaw News:
MOUNT PLEASANT — A panel discussion on media stereotypes about American Indians will begin at 3:30 p.m. Monday in Central Michigan University’s Moore Hall Kiva. Admission is free and open to the public.
The panel includes Joe Sowmick, public relations director for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe; Frank Cloutier, a spokesman for the tribe; and Patricia Ecker, a reporter for The Morning Sun newspaper.
From the Flint Journal:
For four decades, they sat in wooden, glass-top cases on a shelf waiting to be found.
Forty-four years later, the ancestral remains of a Native American child and adult unknowingly stored at Mott Community College have finally been laid to rest.
From the Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun:
A Mt. Pleasant man traveled to Italy for a summit of global food growers and returned with a passion to support local food growers.
Martin Curry, 38, a freelance writer and photographer, attended the Terra Madre (Earth Mother) in Turin, Italy in October.
The conference was a session of the International Food Growers of the World, where the issue of “seed slavery” was brought to light by indigenous food growing communities who are battling corporate monopolies on seed ownership.
“It was an opportunity to learn about the politics of food production,” Curry said. “It was quite an experience.
“A majority of the food, with very few exceptions, that ends up on our tables traveled more than a thousand miles to get there. And with the issues that we’ve been having with energy and with truckers because diesel fuel has gone too high. It’s a basic question of distribution,” he said.
Here is the opinion.
An excerpt:
These principles persuade the Court that, as a matter of law, the time-based equitable defenses Defendants wish to advance are inapplicable to the issues here presented and may not otherwise be advanced against the United States’s enforcement of its treaties. Consequently, Defendants may not rely on the time-based equitable defenses of laches, estoppel, acquiescence, or impossibility. In addition, testimony and proofs offered in support of these affirmative defenses are irrelevant. Thus, the United States’s and the Saginaw Chippewa’s motions should be granted.
From Indianz:
Michigan tribes are hoping more of their members turn up to the polls on November 4.
The Saginaw Chippewa Tribe is part of the Native Vote initiative of the National Congress of American Indians. The tribe has been helping its members get registered and informing them of their rights — including the right to vote with a tribal identification card. “I look at this as a federal identification, like a passport when you go across to Canada,” spokesperson Joe Sowmick told The Mt. Pleasant Morning Sun. “This is considered a valid ID that is recognized by the state and the federal government.
Su Lantz, a member of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, is the NCAI Native voter coordinator for the state. “In Indian country, we’ve done a lot to get the vote out,” she told the paper.
From TV:
ARENAC COUNTY (WJRT) — (10/15/08)–Wednesday brought more trouble on Wall Street as the Dow closed down more than 700 points.
Economic disappointments like this not only have investors worried, but also have people all over the nation cutting expenses.
That includes entertainment. Casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City are reporting big drops in revenue. But how are Mid-Michigan’s casino’s doing?
The Saganing Eagles Landing Casino near Standish was packed today and that has pretty much been the pattern ever since it opened on New Year’s Day.
Indianz reports that the sentencing hearing for Jack Abramoff is tomorrow. Here are the two pleadings submitted to the court involving sentencing. The government’s memo details Abramoff’s fraudulent dealings with Indian tribes.
Here is the agenda:
10:00-11:00 Registration and Vendor booths on Green building resources
11:00-12:00 Saginaw Chippewa Housing- Guest Speaker, to be announced
12:00-1:00 Lunch (must RSVP below) provided by the Saginaw Chippewa Housing Department
1:00-1:15 Introduction:
1:15-2:15 Peter Sinclair-An Inconvenient Truth
2:15-2:45 Lee Sprague-Michigan Sierra Club, “Coal Rush”
2:45-3:00 Break
3:00-4:00 Steve Smiley-Heron Wind Manufacturing, Renewable Energy as a Tribal Economic Development Strategy.
4:00-5:30 Question and Answer Session
William Brooks, Attorney, and open session to discuss legal and regulatory issues involved with the proposed Coal Fired Plants in Mid-Michigan.
6:00 pm Dinner provided (must RSVP below) Sponsored by Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Council
You can download the registration form here.
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