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 Kolb
Wants Mercury Out of Wastewater
MIRS, April 4, 2005
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Rep. Chris Kolb
(D-Ann Arbor) is pushing a trio of environmental bills that are
highlighted by an effort to ban folks from dumping unwanted
mercury down the drain or the toilet, even if the ultimate
destination is a septic system.
Under HB 4583 a person would need a permit from the Department
of Environmental Quality (DEQ) before they would be allowed to
put the mercury into the wastewater stream. Apparently, once
mercury gets into the wastewater stream, it's difficult to
remove. Conventional treatment is inefficient in removing
mercury from the water, Kolb said.
Data from the U.S. Center for Disease Control suggests that one
in eight women in the U.S. have blood mercury levels that pose a
risk to a developing fetus. Pregnant women are already warned
not to eat certain seafood due to high mercury, which Kolb said
is proof positive that something needs to be done.
High School Strip Search Not Cool
MIRS, April
4, 2005
Whitmore Lake High School officials and responding police
officers violated the U.S. Constitution when they strip-searched
20 students in the midst of trying to find a student's stolen
prom money, but since the guidelines on student searches was
unclear at the time, the U.S. Court of Appeals today cut them a
break and made them immune from future legal action.
In the case of David BEARD v. Whitmore, a student in the
second-hour gym class at Whitmore Lake reported that her prom
money had been stolen. The acting principal at the time
recruited some teachers to search the students to find the
ripped-off money.
Twenty boys were stripped naked in front of male teachers and
five girls were asked to pull up their shirts and pull down
their pants in front of female teachers.
While none of the students were touched the court agreed that
the searches violated the Fourth Amendment, the court said that
the law at the time did not "clearly establish" that the
searches were unconstitutional and so the police and the school
officials were granted immunity from prosecution.
"The cases dealing with school strip searches from courts in
other circuits are not 'clearly foreshadowed by applicable
director authority,' and therefore do not clearly establish that
the searches in this case were unreasonable,'" the court ruled.
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