Reading the linked story from Channel 8 TV in Grand Rapids is an experience. It boils a very complicated issue -- including the issue of hype and spin by legislators who know better -- into a bedtime story that should reassure all us kiddies that the people who know are doing the best they can to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species. But the reality is that the Michigan legislators behind this 'plan' are actually postponing the day of reckoning, and not introducing a bill half as tough as the one that current Republican State Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema introduced four years ago.
Here's the Channel 8 story:
http://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=3076381
Here's the far stronger Sikkema bill of 2000, which didn't seek a permission slip from the 7 other Great Lakes states to protect the Lakes. Of course it was watered down beyond recognition. But now that Sikkema and the governor elected in 2002 (unlike Engler) agree on this issue, they could whisk the same bill through...
Go this site and look up Senate Bill 955 of 2000:
http://archive.legislature.mi.gov/
Posted by Dave at March 16, 2005 01:28 AM