MEA to Support Recall Efforts
The state’s largest teachers union says it will help efforts to recall some Republican state lawmakers. “The Michigan Education Association’s main complaints are cuts to school funding and new tenure rules… Members of the MEA say they’re also angry at efforts to force them to pay more for their benefits... The MEA has 157,000 members and a large political action fund,” Rick Pluta reports. Doug Pratt, spokesman for the MEA, says the union has made a strategic decision not to name the lawmakers who will be targets of their recall efforts.
Ford Sued
A technology company has sued Ford Motor Company over patent infringements related to some of Ford’s hottest new products, including Sync, Tracy Samilton reports. From Samilton:
The lawsuit says Eagle Harbor Holdings met with Ford starting in 2000 to discuss using Eagle Harbor’s voice command software and other patented technology. Eagle Harbor's General Counsel, Jeff Harmes, says Ford’s hands-free phone system, Sync, uses some of that technology. But he says Ford broke off talks with Eagle Harbor in 2008… A spokeswoman says Ford hasn’t had the chance to review the lawsuit yet and it would be premature to comment.
August Release for Kilpatrick?
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is expected to be released from prison in early August to give authorities time to arrange transfer of his parole to Texas, the Associated Press reports. From the AP:
The Michigan parole board voted last month to release Kilpatrick from state prison and he was expected to be freed no earlier than July 24. The Michigan Department of Corrections tells The Detroit News for a Wednesday story that details needed to be worked out… He's facing federal charges. Kilpatrick quit office in 2008 when he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. He was sent to prison in May 2010 by a judge who said the ex-mayor failed to turn over certain assets toward his $1 million restitution.
