Michigan Politics

1. MCRGO has a letter from Rep. Daniel Acciavatti on a bill to eliminate "gun-free" zones.

Office buildings, hospitals, convenience stores, Post Office buildings, day care centers, schools, universities and chain restaurants have all been targets of shootings with the intent on killing multiple victims. A striking paradox is associated with these incidents because they are much more likely to occur in areas that have been designated as gun free zones.

Schools became a popular target for shootings in the mid 1990’s, around the time that the Gun Free School Zones act of 1994 was enacted. In 1999, John Lott and William Landes published an extensive statistical study of multiple shootings incidents. They showed that mass shootings occur less often in areas where responsible citizens are allowed permits to carry concealed weapons. Have you ever heard of a mass shooting in a police station, a pistol range, or a gun show? Criminals always select a softer target for their acts of violence where they know citizens are unarmed, vulnerable, and where they know people cannot shoot back at them.

2. The Gazette has an editorial criticizing the MCRI. John Miller explains the truth about minority admissions.

What gives? A massive effort on the part of the university to admit students using racial preferences before MCRI took effect:

The University of Michigan Law School admitted six times as many underrepresented minority students before the ban on government affirmative action took place compared with after it took effect, according to admissions data released Thursday.

3. John Beacon, in charge of increasing Western's enrollment, has quit.

4. The bus routes that had been threatened with cuts have been saved.

The private contract with Indian Trails resulted from a multi-party bid and the company provided the best offer.

"Indian Trails gave us an excellent bid for the on-campus routes and Metro gave us good pricing for the pieces we left with them," Rinker said. "The only real negotiations involved hammering out who does what.

"The result is a contract that reduces costs by about 25 percent from last year's, despite increased route traffic, and saves nearly $900,000 over previously projected costs.

So a private business can provide the same service for less money than a government program. Maybe there's a lesson there.

5. The Kalamazoo County Taxpayers Association applauds the rejection of the proposed 9% tuition hike.