Lansing State Journal. May 3, 2018
Young girls need to hear the message of equality
The EmpowHER program at MSU and the Pretty Brown Girl Club in Lansing reflect the national movement of women helping women succeed.
Not only women helping women, but starting early and helping impressionable, young girls see their futures full of possibilities.
This is exactly what is needed to elevate the quest for equality.
EmpowHER is an annual leadership retreat hosted by Michigan State University women’s basketball Coach Suzy Merchant that brings hundreds of girls in grades 4-9 to campus for empowerment activities - such as best practices on social media, healthy relationship coaching and self-defense.
It was begun in 2016 to honor the memory of a girl who committed suicide at age 17. It’s designed to help inspire young girls as they begin to understand the power and influence they can have in their lives, and the opportunities they can pursue.
The Pretty Brown Girl Club is the solution Karen Sturdivant found while searching for a way to bring cultural lessons into the classroom at Lansing’s Averill Elementary School.
The organization, founded in Detroit, includes discussions of what makes girls beautiful and helps foster healthy decisions. The girls also have role models who look like them, providing a glimpse into what their futures could be. There are clubs at over 100 schools nationwide.
Every girl who takes part in one of these programs becomes better equipped to be part of a brighter, more equal future.
The Women’s March of 2017 was pivotal in the women’s movement. So too were the coordinated responses to sexual harassment (#MeToo) and unfair workplace practices (#TimesUp).
These events built a growing momentum for change, as evidenced by more women running for Congress than ever before. In Greater Lansing alone there are 22 women on the ballot for state legislative seats.
Read more: EmpowHER Leadership Retreat takes over MSU’s Breslin Center
Read more: How an after-school program helps girls of color
Read more: 53 candidates, among them 22 women, in Lansing-area races
While the current generation of women leaders find their ways into new opportunities, programs like EmpowHER, the Pretty Brown Girl Club and countless others invest in the next generation.
Perhaps one day equality will be realized and these programs will be moot. Until then, listen up young women and girls: You are equal. You are good enough. You will do great things.
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Times Herald (Port Huron). May 3, 2018
Cleaner air is good for all of us
Probably only in small ways, the lives of all of us are going to get a little more difficult over the next several years. The sacrifices, though, will be small compared to the lives we save and the breaths we make easier.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which the Trump administration has not destroyed yet, has decided that much of southern Michigan needs to do more to curb ground-level ozone. That includes St. Clair County. The ruling means that we too often breathe air that contains too much ozone and too much smog.
Ground-level ozone forms when man-made air pollutants, such as those emitted by industrial processes and motor vehicles, combine with heat and humidity. The resulting smog is bad for all of us, but it is especially hazardous for sensitive groups, including young people, the elderly and people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer.
St. Clair County not only has high levels of ground-level ozone, it also has above-average numbers of people suffering those diseases. It is important that all of do what we can to protect our neighbors with those conditions and to perhaps prevent future cases.
Our air quality problems are not entirely of our own making. Some of our air pollution blows here from the more densely industrialized and populated counties to our south and west. They are also part of the nonattainment area and will have to live with their own prescriptions. The state of Michigan has a three-year deadline for coming up with a plan to fix the problem.
But we do our share of dirtying the air in St. Clair County. We have industries - notably DTE Energy’s coal-fired power plants - that contribute substantial quantities of ozone-forming pollutants to our air. As DTE replaces those plants with a cleaner gas-fired power plant and renewable wind and solar generation over the next several years, that part should begin to take care of itself.
Likewise, as auto manufacturers produced increasingly more fuel-efficient and clean-running cars and trucks - and as we replace our older vehicles - that is another pollution source that should help remedy itself and help us all breathe easier.
But those things probably will not be enough. It is too early to guess what will be in the state’s compliance plan. But it will likely include things that some of us won’t like.
New and existing industries will likely be required to install expensive pollution controls, which will likely affect investment, profits and jobs. Motorists may face new inspection and monitoring requirements and may have to pay for new fuel formulations.
There will be costs and inconveniences. But we’ll be able to relax with just a deep breath.
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Traverse City Record-Eagle. May 4, 2018
Let commercial solar shine in the region
Several northwest Lower Michigan townships appear to be clearing the regulatory path for small-scale commercial solar power generation.
That’s encouraging news for companies that seek to earn profits from power generation. It also is encouraging news for area residents, who would benefit from the power grid stability that would result.
Putting all your eggs in one basket generally is not a good idea. Smart investors distribute their money in various places so if one choice is bad, they don’t lose everything. It’s called diversification.
Diversifying the electric power grid - by generating energy from multiple sources in multiple locations - makes just as much sense as putting life savings in a variety of investments rather than just one. The more power sources we have online, the more stable the electric grid will become. If one particular source - a coal plant, a natural gas plant, a wind farm, a nuclear plant - has a problem, the other sources should be capable of filling the gap.
The distributed strategy makes even more sense in this era of threats - real or imagined - from both within and without our borders. Giant centralized power plants could be targeted by anyone who wants to harm American society. Small, distributed sources of electricity are much less vulnerable to human threats. They’re also a sturdy defense against any natural disaster that could knock out a single massive power plant.
But adding solar farms to our countryside needs to be done with care. Our pastoral northwest Lower Michigan views are precious and must be preserved. Local rules should require that residential and rural landscapes be treated with respect. A proposal in Green Lake Township would establish a 50-foot buffer between solar arrays and residential property lines, and would require screening in some cases. Those are sensible conditions.
Local townships including Acme, Elmwood, Fife Lake, Green Lake and Long Lake are talking about changing their rules to allow small-scale commercial solar power farms.
“I think these townships should be all over it,” said Heritage Sustainable Energy CEO Marty Lagina. “You’re talking about clean, green renewable energy that adds to the tax base and doesn’t add anything to the infrastructure costs.”
Lagina wants to build a 1-megawatt solar array in Green Lake Township. His company operates an existing array in Elmwood Township, at the base of the iconic wind turbine generator along M-72.
Electricity needs to originate somewhere. Fulfilling a portion of our needs from small solar arrays tucked away here and there among the hills and valleys of northern Michigan is a good idea. Such installations would stabilize the power grid and would, as Lagina suggests, supplement the local tax base. And if they’re built in the right places, they don’t need to detract from the scenery.
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Grand Haven Tribune. May 3, 2018
Good water is good news
One of our state’s assets is its vast water supply, from the Great Lakes to many inland lakes and streams. But Michigan’s water supply has been grabbing attention for all the wrong reasons these past few years.
The Flint water crisis has been a national story that has affected thousands of residents on our state’s east side. And problems with water quality continue well beyond Flint, with concerns statewide about the presence of PFAS - a chemical linked in studies to several forms of cancer and other health issues - in Michigan groundwater.
A report released last month by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) indicated that Michigan leads the nation in the number of known PFAS contamination sites, with 28 such sites in at least 15 communities. According to the EWG report, some private wells in Michigan have tested as high as 800 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s advisory level of 70 parts per trillion.
And even communities as close as Holland have had their scare with potential unsafe drinking water, although Holland officials later said that the water is in fact safe to drink.
With all of the doom and gloom surrounding the state of our state’s water, we were delighted to hear some good news about drinking water.
Grand Haven city officials recently announced that the Northwest Ottawa Water Treatment Plant received the regional award for best-tasting drinking water at the American Water Works Association Michigan Section’s Kalamazoo Spring Regional Meeting earlier this year - an honor won by the city for the first time in 2015 and again last year.
The news that Grand Haven was recognized as having some of the state’s best-tasting drinking water is such a nice change of pace from the negative news surrounding water quality in our state. It shows how blessed we are to live in a community that has a well-maintained water system, as well as a great source of water to draw from, with people who are willing to pay to make the necessary fixes and upgrades to facilities and equipment.
This one-two punch of great water and a well-maintained infrastructure benefits everyone - from families across Northwest Ottawa County to local industry such as our local craft beer producers. And as we root on our local water system in the statewide competition later this year in hopes that we can tout having Michigan’s best drinking water, we hope this positive news about our local water supply continues well into the future.
We strongly encourage our local leaders to continue taking steps to maintain and improve infrastructure that allows us all to have access to quality water, both now and into the future so our children’s children aren’t left hanging out to dry.
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