MICHIGAN COLLEGE GRADS AVERAGE MORE DEBT THAN THEIR PEERS

Story first appeared in The Detroit Free Press

Michigan ranks 44th among states for the average amount of debt owed by college kids who got four-year degrees in 2011 -- $26,951. New Mexico had the lowest amount of debt, $16,276; recent college graduates in New Hampshire had the highest, $32,385. Average annual student debt for Michigan college graduates has grown 5.3% since 2004, according to Michigan's Performance Tracker for Public Universities . The statistics were released by Business Leaders for Michigan earlier this month, which noted higher debt levels carried by students equate to less money for local economies in Michigan.

MICHIGAN'S NEW TOURIST ATTRACTION? LIKE THEM OR NOT, WIND TURBINES

Story first appeared in The Detroit Freepress.

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Whether they are beautiful or a blight on the landscape is beside the point.

Michigan's wind farms are here, en masse. And travelers can't miss them.

With nearly 900 commercial wind turbines dotting Michigan, especially in the Thumb where the wind is strongest and most consistent, a scenic drive can turn into a jaw-dropping experience. The Thumb alone has 618 wind turbines already operating or scheduled to go into service by next year.

"I was driving down the road when the sun was coming up one morning, and the sun hit the turbines and it was beautiful," says Scott Carr of Elkton, whose tiny community has been transformed in the last five years by 32 wind turbines. "Some people don't like them, but they don't bother me."

Wind turbines began sprouting in the state in response to a 2008 Michigan law that requires at least 10% of the state's energy be provided by renewable energy sources, such as wind, by 2015. The first phase of a high-capacity, 140-mile electric transmission line called the Thumb Loop was just completed in the region. It is capable of carrying electricity linked from at least 2,800 wind turbines.

Many things have been said and written about wind turbines. All over the world, they have changed tourist landscapes, adding strong man-made vertical elements to nature's soft horizontal vistas. Some travelers see wind turbines as engineering marvels and symbols of energy independence. Some see them as evil industrial fans ruining treasured landscapes.

Some see beauty in a sunset that makes the towers shine, or charm in a scene of a small house dwarfed by a turning blade. Other see turbines as too big and harsh -- which they are, compared to a cow, a sugar beet or a farmhouse. Some are so tall that Michigan residents can even see turbines erected across the water in Canada.

At first, they dotted the landscape here or there. Then, they spread. Last summer, an operator in the Ludington and Scottville area did a lively business driving busloads of tourists out to see the turbines. That success has others asking: How does Michigan make the most of their breathtaking stature and the awe that they stir inside of us?

Towering over farms

Along Bay City-Forestville Road near the border of Huron and Sanilac counties, swaths of turbines churn away as dairy cows graze and sugar beets grow.

Get out. Notice their size -- as tall as 410 feet. Hear their hum. See their slow-moving blades, each half a football field long. Marvel at how many turbines you can see at once -- 20? 30? 40? Maybe more.

If someone could figure out how to create a tour that let people actually walk inside or stand next to a massive turbine, they would have a tourist bonanza, says Carr, who has six turbines near his house.

"If you could walk inside of one, that would help tourism. There are stairs inside, and you can walk right to the top," he says.

Carr doesn't know it, but there already is a tour in Michigan where you can get close.

In the Thumb, Huron, Tuscola and northern Sanilac counties together have 14 wind farms operating or under construction, almost all erected in the last two years, Michigan Public Service Commission figures show.

On the west side of Michigan, the Lake Winds Energy Park in Ludington went into operation in late 2012 near U.S.-31. Its 56 turbines are a prominent sight.

"You can't really miss them when you go through town," says Sarah Kronlein, administrative coordinator at the Ludington & Scottville Area Chamber of Commerce. "A lot of people are curious about how they are made and how they work."

So a tour was created. It starts at the chamber office, where visitors watch a 20-minute video about wind energy and turbine facts. Then participants take a one-hour bus tour of Lake Winds. Retired Ludington social studies teacher Gene Jorissen operates the tour on his 14-passenger bus.

The bus stops 1,000 feet from a turbine, and passengers get out. "People want to know, how noisy are they? So we sit and listen. We talk about various concerns people have about them," he says.

Then, the bus stops at his cousin's house. The cousin has one of the turbines on his property. The cousin lets Jorissen bring his tourists right up to the turbine and stand under its massive 476-foot height to get a feel of just how big it is.

"You can walk around it. But you can't climb it. You can touch it. But you can't go inside," Jorissen says.

This summer, buses were full and there often were waiting lists, says Jorissen, who is continuing tours through Saturday.

Tours "have become a big hit," adds Dan Bishop, Consumers Energy spokesman. "Eco-tourism, right here in Michigan."

Lake Winds is not beloved by all. Consumers is being sued by 17 residents who claim the turbines are damaging their health.

DTE Energy, the other big player in the wind turbine business in Michigan, gives wind farm tours to lawmakers and VIPs, "but nothing that is open to the public," says spokesman Scott Simon.

That's also true in Gratiot County. It has 167 turbines at two massive wind farms, including the tallest ones in the state, 498 feet. Drivers can spot them from U.S.-127 between Lansing and Mt. Pleasant.

"People call and ask, can you take me up in one?" says Don Schurr, president of Greater Gratiot Development. Sadly, he can't. He gives tours to school groups sometimes, but from a distance. Sometimes, he says, residents who live near turbines are randomly visited by wind-curious people ringing their doorbells.

"It's getting to the point," Schurr says, "where we may need a tour on a routine basis."

Wind Turbine Day

In the village of Elkton, population 808, the state's first commercial wind farm, Harvest, went up five years ago. What a novelty it was then -- 32 wind turbines, each 353 feet tall -- taller than than the Statue of Liberty.

Enthusiastic town supporters began holding Wind Turbine Day each summer. Wind Turbine Day offered driving tours, bicycle tours, booths about alternative energy and more.

At first, they got a lot of interest in the new, strange turbines. But the event lasted only three summers -- 2009, 2010 and 2011. This fall, Elkton's Autumnfest still offered wind turbine tours guided by local teenagers. Just 30 people attended.

These days, residents aren't quite as enthusiastic about the turbines they welcomed five years ago.

"Some people are annoyed and totally hate them and say the noise makes it so they can't sleep," says Carr, who helped plan Wind Turbine Day while it lasted. On the other hand, maybe Wind Turbine Day was just ahead of its time. As the number of turbines grow, tourists driving up Caseville or Elkton Road or almost any other road in the Thumb become wind turbine tourists just by passing the region's most visible crop. As even more turbines go up, "I can't say for sure but I think it might help tourism," Carr said.

But see for yourself. Drive into the Michigan countryside. Drive up close. Stop the car. Get out. Listen. Argue amongst yourselves -- are they beautiful, dreadful or something in between?

Wind turbines are our new tourist attraction. We may as well make peace with them.

Where to see Michigan's wind turbines Wind farms don't have entrances or exits: They spread over private farmland across thousands of acres. The best a traveler can do is to know the crossroads. Wind farms also do not have signs, although they do have pleasant names like Pheasant Hill or Big Turtle or Crosswinds, and many have websites.

The Michigan Traveler drove around the state and recommends these spots if you want to see them. Remember, turbines are so tall that those that seem close actually may be a few miles away.

THUMB

• Bay City-Forestville Road. Huron/Sanilac County line. You'll see swaths of them from two miles inland of Lake Huron all the way to west of Minden City, where three wind farms: Minden, Michigan Wind 1 and Michigan Wind 2, converge with a total of 116 turbines.

• Caseville and Elkton Roads near Elkton. The site of the first commercial wind farm in Michigan, now dense with turbines between Elkton and Pigeon. Wind Farm Day is no more, but wind farm tours are offered during the village's annual Autumnfest on Labor Day weekend.

•  Southeast of Bay City. Tuscola County has 75 wind turbines at the Tuscola Bay Wind farm, and is a hotbed of future activity with 121 more going up as Cross Winds and Tuscola Wind II are built. One good spot to see them is between M-138 and Darbee Road in Fairgrove Township.

CENTRAL AND WEST MICHIGAN

• Gratiot County: Driving on U.S.-127 between Lansing and Mt. Pleasant, you can't miss them. Get off at Ithaca and take Washington Road east. Cut north on Wisner Road to M-46 near Breckenridge. The county has 167 wind turbines at the Gratiot and Beebe wind farms, including some 498 feet tall from the ground to the tip of the blade at Beebe, the tallest in the state. When the blades turn, they create a circle with a diameter longer than a football field.

• Between Ludington and Pentwater. Near Hawley Road east of U.S.-31. Fifty-six wind turbines churn slowly at the Lake Winds wind farm, covering 36 square miles, each turbine standing 476 feet tall from the base to the tip of the blade.

UPPER PENINSULA

• Garden Township: The Garden 1 wind farm near the shores of scenic Big Bay de Noc has 14 turbines that reach 414 feet high. It is easily seen from the air on flights between Detroit and Marquette.

•  Paradise: The tiny Upper Peninsula tourist town on Lake Superior is directly across from Canada's third-largest wind enterprise, the Prince Wind Farm, near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Stand on the scenic shores of Paradise, and your view includes 126 turbines on the Canadian side of Whitefish Bay.

METRO DETROIT

• Grosse Pointe Shores and Farms: Depending on how clear it is, residents of the Pointes -- and boaters -- can easily see 27 410-foot high Vestas wind turbines along the far shore of Lake St. Clair in Lakeshore, Ontario. Particularly visible at night with their red lights, the Pointe aux Roches Wind Farm went up three years ago. It's just one of many wind farms multiplying on the Canadian side of the lake, including the East Lake St. Clair Wind Farm and the Erieau Wind Project. Some wind power enthusiasts in Canada want turbines placed miles out into the lakes -- so the view from the Pointes may get even closer.

146,000 MICHIGANDERS - AT LEAST - FACE LOSS OF CHEAPER POLICIES UNDER NEW HEALTH CARE REFORM RULES

Story first appeared in the Detroit Free Press.

At least 146,000 Michiganders — and possibly thousands more — with health coverage purchased directly from insurers now are learning their polices will end Dec. 31 because they don’t meet the minimum requirements of the federal health care act.

Under the law, each policy must cover essential benefits in 10 categories. Instead of beefing up these policies, insurers are opting to drop them, advising consumers to consider other policies that are now available either from the insurers directly or though the Michigan Health Insurance Marketplace, also known as the state exchange.

The policies that are ending were often less expensive on the individual market because they provided limited benefits and were sold to healthier consumers.


And that was fine with consumers such as Josh Mulder.

Mulder had landed a plan several years ago that cost his Wixom family offour just $291 a month. That policy will end Dec. 31, according to a letter from his insurer.

The policy didn’t cover things such as maternity care or prescription drugs, but, Mulder said, his family is generally healthy and he was willing to take the risk.

“I had a great rate,” he said.

Rates that meet the required benefits under health reform average $762.06 a month on the Michigan Health Insurance Marketplace for his family of four, according to a cost estimator by the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has notified about 140,000 policyholders on the individual market that their plans will end Dec. 31. Health Alliance Plan and its subsidiaries are dropping 6,000 plans.

Both are major players on the state exchange, where 13 insurers, including a HAP subsidiary and another Blues insurer, Blue Care Network, are offering 142 plans.

That Blue Cross and HAP are ending current policies on the individual market isn’t surprising, said Robert Krughoff, founder and president of the Washington-based nonprofit Consumer Checkbook.

The increased costs to provide essential benefits was just one part of the cost equation. Under the health care reform law, insurers also can’t deny anyone insurance, even if they’re very sick. Neither can insurers cut cap coverage at a lifetime limit.

“These plans had to be reconfigured,” Krughoff said.

Customers will pay more, but they also will get more coverage now, noted Gail Jensen Summers, an economics professor at Wayne State University, who specializes in health insurance policy and costs.

The insurers may expect their customers to seek them out on the marketplace, where federal tax credits for some consumers can help shrink the costs of the monthly premiums, according to Checkbook’s Krughoff.

In the first 10 days of business, the exchange logged 14.6 million unique visits, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Anyone whose income is up to 400% of the federal poverty limit — up to $45,960 for an individual and $94,200 for a family of four — is eligible for tax credits.

Health insurance reform supporters have said this puts insurance within reach for an estimated 1.4 million Michiganders who are underinsured or uninsured.

Blue Cross, in fact, is competing aggressively on state marketplaces across the U.S., Krughoff said.

Another insurer on the Michigan exchange, Kentucky-based Humana, indicated that it, too, will end some policies, but it declined to offer specifics. Letters to members are being finalized, according to the insurer.

Grand Rapids-based Priority Health is taking a different tack. It’s allowing its current and new members to lock in 2013 rates that extend through 2014 before they end those plans on Dec. 31, 2014. The plans won’t include all the essential benefits required under the law, but the insurer will be able to extend them for one more year, said spokeswoman Amy Miller.

That extension is possible for some plans. Still, with the exception of catastrophic plans targeted for those younger than 30, all plans on the individual market must carry essential benefits Jan. 1, 2015, said Caleb Buhs, spokesman for the Michigan insurance department.

Consumers can still find plans on the exchange and off the exchange that do cover all the essential benefits. It might cost the insurer more to offer the extension at the same premium rates, but it gives members “more time to consider their options going into 2015,” she said.

Gary Plasko of Walled Lake is looking at options like those.

An insurance broker, he knew big changes were coming under health care reform. He wasn’t surprised when he was notified last week that his policy — one that costs the 63-year-old nonsmoker $381 a month and covered about 70% of his medical costs with no deductible — was ending. And he had warned customers to expect similar notices.

Still, he was disappointed with what he found.

Like the Mulders, Plasko won’t get tax credits to help him pay for the new policies.

He said he found a Blue Cross policy for less than $550, but it covers about 60% of his medical costs. Plus, he now faces a $6,350 deductible.

The law? For him, he said, “it’s the un-Affordable Care Act.”

CLEANUP OF MICHIGAN MEDICAID EXPANSION LAW MAY TRIGGER ANOTHER SQUABBLE

Story first appeared in The Detroit News.

Lansing— Lawmakers must pass corrective legislation that could spark another squabble over Medicaid expansion, the Senate’s appropriations chairman says.

“I would hope that people want it to go reasonably smoothly ... (but) some might say we’re not done fighting,” said Sen. Roger Kahn, R-Saginaw.

Follow-up legislation is needed because the Senate backers didn’t win immediate effect for the Medicaid act Snyder signed into law Sept. 16. It will make more than 400,000 additional state residents, earning 100 to 133 percent of the federal poverty guideline, eligible for government-funded health care.

The legislation can’t take effect until about three months into 2014, so state lawmakers have to come up with $70 million to cover Medicaid mental health services during that period. Had the expansion taken effect immediately, the coverage cost would have transferred to the federal government Jan. 1.

The Senate Fiscal Agency says cleanup legislation also is needed to revise downward by $500 million the amount of federal Medicaid funds received and spent this fiscal year. The bill specifies $1.7 billion, but the three-month delay will reduce the amount to around $1.1 billion or $1.2 billion, according to fiscal agency analysts.

The $70 million outlay and the technical adjustment through what’s termed a “negative supplemental appropriation” of $500 million could be wrapped into a single bill.

Lawmakers probably would take up the legislative proposal in about five weeks, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, R-Monroe, told the press last week. He said Kahn would craft the proposal.

“There’s a fair amount of accounting work to be done,” Kahn said. “I would imagine before it gets ramped up, there will need to be a discussion between Richardville, (House Speaker Jase) Bolger and (Gov. Rick) Snyder.”

A spokeswoman for Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton, whose staunch opposition nearly prevented passage of the Medicaid expansion, said he wasn’t available for comment Friday.

Spokesman Ari Adler said it had been Bolger’s understanding nothing much more than the $70 million appropriation was needed as a follow-up. The $500 million is “just gone ... (and) we don’t need to take any action on it,” he added.

“Either way, this should not be seen as some sort of proxy on Medicaid reforms,” Adler said. “The policy debate was already held, the votes were cast and the outcome is done.”

The high cost of corruption: How Kwame Kilpatrick's crimes deepened Detroit's crisis

Story originally appeared on Freep.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was a spender, a schemer and a liar.

And taxpayers paid for it, by the millions.

Over seven years, Kilpatrick's public corruption schemes, lavish lifestyle and ethical missteps cost taxpayers at least $20 million, a tab the financially strapped city was in no position to pick up but did anyway -- usually without knowing.

On Thursday, Kilpatrick will be sentenced for 24 corruption convictions. As he heads to federal prison for what could be decades, one important question lingers: How much did his extortion, kickback and bribery rackets contribute to the city's financial crisis and its filing in July for the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation's history?

"Kilpatrick is not the main culprit of the city's historic bankruptcy, which is the result of larger social and economic forces at work for decades," federal prosecutors said in court documents. "But his corrupt administration exacerbated the crisis."

In purely monetary figures, the cost of Kilpatrick's ring of corruption is staggering:

• There's the $8.4-million settlement the city coughed up in the 2007 police whistle-blower trial.
• Another $9.6 million in illegal profits was pocketed over the years through crooked water and sewer contracts, the government says.
• A $500,000 state grant that was meant for kids and seniors instead went to Kilpatrick's contractor friend, Bobby Ferguson, and Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick. Taxpayers also paid $42,000 to lease two Lincoln Navigators for the former first lady.
• Kilpatrick misused his city-issued credit card, charging more than $210,000 in his first three years in office for perks like a family trip to Las Vegas, spa visits, a hotel room for the babysitter and an $850 steak dinner. The mayor's petty cash fund also was abused to the tune of $144,000, which covered things like Lions football tickets, a Rolling Stones concert, health club membership and $43,000 worth of meals.
• Tax dollars aside, there's also the $84 million in losses to troubled city pension funds. Six individuals, including Kilpatrick appointee and former fraternity brother Jeffrey Beasley, face criminal charges in that case. Kilpatrick wasn't indicted, but he is named as a coconspirator.
• The cost to taxpayers for prosecuting him and providing him with a public defender won't be known until his appeals are exhausted.

But much more difficult to quantify is the nonmonetary cost of corruption: the betrayal of the public's trust. The honest contractors who were elbowed out of deals, even though their bids were lower. The businesses that refused to participate in pay-to-play schemes and just stayed away -- or went somewhere else.

"The numbers don't tell the gravity of the situation," said Reid Schar, the former federal prosecutor who successfully prosecuted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. "When you have public corruption cases, the things that are very difficult to gauge and are not captured are, 'How much of public confidence is eroded by what the person has done? ...

"How do you put a value on a company that didn't bid or get the job?' You don't know."

In 2002, for example, Kilpatrick killed a plan to add a House of Blues restaurant at Ford Field because the company that proposed it refused to hire Kilpatrick's father and codefendant as its minority partner. Kilpatrick had pledged $10 million in city funds but changed his mind when the company refused to hire his dad.

In 2006, Ferguson used his relationship with the mayor to pressure a company into giving him 40% of a contract to renovate the Detroit police headquarters. The company offered 30%. Ferguson declined. The company then bowed out of the deal.

In 2001, minority contractor William Hayes was stiffed out of a $24.7-million sewer repair job that Kilpatrick steered to Ferguson instead. Six years later, Hayes closed his 40-year-old excavation business, claiming later that Ferguson and Kilpatrick made it impossible for him to compete for water and sewer contracts.

"He helped put me out of business," Hayes told the Free Press in March, referring to Ferguson. "It said right in the text messages. He told Kwame to put me out."

Meanwhile, Kilpatrick padded the city payroll with friends and family, including a cousin who admitted stealing nearly $20,000 from the Manoogian Mansion restoration fund. City payroll records show that more than two dozen of Kilpatrick's appointees were relatives or close friends who got an average 36% in salary increases while other employees got 2%.

The government is seeking at least 28 years in prison for Kilpatrick and up to 28 years for his longtime friend and partner in crime, Ferguson, who got $127 million in city contracts while Kilpatrick was mayor. Prosecutors said at least $73 million of that work was obtained illegally.

The defense is challenging the sentencing guidelines, saying the high end of Kilpatrick's sentence should be 15 years. The defense will make its own sentencing recommendation on Monday.

Schar, who got a 14-year conviction for Blagojevich, said the government's request for Kilpatrick is noteworthy, but not surprising.

"The courts are becoming less tolerant of the behavior and are willing to punish them more severely," Schar said of corrupt politicians.

For example, former Illinois Gov. George Ryan, who preceded Blagojevich, got 6½ years for 18 public corruption convictions in 2006. Five years later, Blagojevich got 14 years on similar counts. And last year, Jimmy Dimora, a county commissioner in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, got 28 years in prison.

"You're beginning to see (public corruption sentences) move up. ... The trend is definitely up," Schar said. "It seems clear that because these types of cases continue nationwide, the lesser sentences are not proving a sufficient deterrent."

Prosecutors in Detroit agree. "Unfortunately, the prosecutions and resulting penalties in past public corruption cases in this region have not been sufficient," they said in court documents. "They clearly did not dissuade Kilpatrick and his associates from using the mayor's office to engage in a brazen six-year crime spree."

"Kilpatrick is more culpable -- and his misconduct more pervasive -- than any other public corruption defendant sentenced in recent memory," prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo, later adding: "None of the other public officials disrupted his community as profoundly as Kilpatrick did."

Todd Haugh, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law, says he believes Kilpatrick's criminal record is especially damaging. He has been to jail three times: once for obstruction of justice and perjury in the text message scandal and twice for probation violations, including one that took place in the middle of his public corruption trial. He took a cash wire money transfer from a pastor in Chicago and never reported it to his parole officer.

"I can't imagine that he's not going to get a very stiff sentence," said Haugh, a white-collar crime expert who helped amend federal fraud sentencing guidelines, which stiffened public corruption penalties in 2004.

"That's a problem under the (sentencing) guidelines. It shows that someone has a history of doing the wrong thing, and that's something judges care about," said Haugh, adding that the monetary cost of Kilpatrick's crimes also is noteworthy. "This is a lot of money. We're not talking about a couple thousand bucks here. We're talking about pretty big amounts."

Kilpatrick and Ferguson have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Ferguson has long maintained that he earned every contract he got. And Kilpatrick has argued that he didn't have as much say over contracts as the government claims, and that he never forced anyone to give Ferguson work.

Kilpatrick's lawyer, Harold Gurewitz, argues that Kilpatrick's suggested punishment is based on crimes that were never proved. He also said Kilpatrick's criminal history was overstated, and Kilpatrick was never the leader of any conspiracy.

"I have faith in the judicial system," said Gurewitz. "All we can really hope and pray for is that the system works in the way that it's intended."

When U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds sentences Kilpatrick, she will have several factors to consider, including: the purpose of the punishment, the harm that was caused, deterrence, whether the defendant can be rehabilitated, and how other similar defendants have been punished to ensure there's no disparity.

Haugh noted that Edmunds also can consider the city's bankruptcy filing. "That's like a CEO cooking the books and the company goes bankrupt. ... I don't know that there's a reason the judge can't consider that."

Edmunds also heard plenty at trial. There was minority contractor Avinash Rachmale, who said that he gave Ferguson $1.7 million for no work because he feared having his contracts killed. Contractor Thomas Hardiman said he lost two contracts worth $15 million combined because he wouldn't give Ferguson a big enough cut. Past mayoral employees said they were hit up for cash twice a year to buy Kilpatrick Christmas and birthday gifts. And Emma Bell, Kilpatrick's fund-raiser, said that she gave the ex-mayor more than $200,000 in cash kickbacks because she felt pressured.

"It struck me as such a brazen case," said Richard Winters, a veteran government professor at Dartmouth College who has researched and written about political corruption.

"I can't believe that the courts will ignore that anecdotal evidence," said Winters, referring to allegations of pay-to-play schemes that shoved certain businesses out of deals.

Winters noted that public corruption doesn't always deter economic development. For example, Illinois and Chicago have had plenty of public corruption, including four convicted governors -- yet Chicago is thriving.

Unfortunately, Detroit's not in the same boat. The city says it's bankrupt.

"I would be hesitant to lay something as big as that at the foot of (Kilpatrick)," said Schar, the Blagojevich prosecutor. "But if I wanted to subtly address this, I'd say, 'We're in bankruptcy. There may have been ways to avoid that.' "

Multilingual driving schools help immigrants get on the road From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131006/METRO08/310060012#ixzz2h4OlGZpM

Story originally appeared on the Detroit News.

Sterling Heights— Determined to master parallel parking, Iqbal Kina concentrates as she maneuvers her car between a pair of conesin the parking lot behind Madamma Driving School.

Outside, instructor John Bitti calls out commands in his student’s native Chaldean.

As a new immigrant from Baghdad who is just learning English, Kina, 32, is relieved to be working with an instructor who speaks her language and is excited to get her license.

“Here you can’t live without being able to drive,” the Madison Heights resident said through an interpreter. “You can’t go shopping, you can’t go to school.”

Kina is one of nearly 23,000 Chaldeans who have moved to the state within the last four years, according to U.S. census data. The Chaldean Community Foundation said 13,000 of them sought refugee status in Michigan after fleeing Iraq, which has been torn by sectarian violence since the U.S. invasion a decade ago.

As more of these new immigrants seek driver’s licenses in Metro Detroit, multilingual driving schools have been popping up.

Eric Younan, director of strategic initiatives for the Chaldean Community Foundation, said the number of Chaldean refugees continues to grow.

Once they arrive, after securing housing and getting their children into schools, these refugees seek jobs, Younan said. Often they don’t speak English, which makes it difficult to get a driver’s license and therefore to travel to work, he added.

“Learning how to drive is very important for the acculturation process,” Younan said. “If you’re not from Metro Detroit, it’s a really large expanse of area to travel.”

The foundation works to provide interpreters who help translate the written driver’s test, said Fred Woodhams, a spokesman for the Michigan Secretary of State.

Ban Manna, owner of Southfield-based International Driver Testing, decided to start her business two years ago after she heard from family members and friends about how hard it was to find a Chaldean-speaking road testing agency.

Manna experienced it herself when her family came to the United States and her mother was taking her road test.

“I was sitting in the back and translating for her, but by the time I could translate it, she’d miss the turn or the sign,” she said.

Manna speaks English, Chaldean, Arabic and some Italian. Many of her clients are women whose culture would make it difficult to drive alone in a car with a man from outside their family.

“Most of the people I’m road-testing are adults who have been here less than a year,” she said. “Without a car, it’s like you have no life.”

Bitti, Manna’s cousin, said he has been a driving instructor for seven years and opened Madamma Driving School two years ago in the hopes of improving the quality of life for his community members.

“A lot of these people, the first question they get when they go to find a job is, do you have a driver’s license, which is the same as saying, do you have a car,” said Bitti. “I want to put everybody on equal ground. I can teach them in Arabic and Chaldean just as I could teach in English.”

Bitti said he teaches students the signs and road rules in English as well, to make sure they get used to it.

Driver’s training is only one part of the equation, Bitti said. Not everyone coming to the school can afford the lessons, which start at $50 per two-hour session, and the road test, which costs around $50.

The Chaldean Community Foundation is working to alleviate some of the expense for refugees.

The foundation, started in 2006 as the nonprofit wing of the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce, provides services such as mental health care, English classes and job training and placement. But foundation members soon noticed another gap they needed to fill.

Last year, the foundation launched the Chaldean Loan Fund to help recent immigrants buy cars. The loans have a $5,000 cap, Younan said.

Wasan Wartan said she moved to the United States four years ago after escaping religious persecution stemming from the Iraqi civil war. She came alone, knowing almost no English and with no family members and few friends living here.

The Southfield resident became the first of 11 people to get a car loan through the program last November.

Now 34, Wartan, is drives her 2003 Buick Rendezvous to her job as a sales associate at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift store in Utica.

“I’m more independent than I was without a car. Before, I had to call a friend or pay a neighbor to drive me,” she said. “Now with my car I’m feeling more energy and I can go to work, go shopping or do anything.”

4 PEOPLE CONNECTED TO ADULT WELL-BEING SERVICES CHARGED IN MEDICAID FRAUD SCHEME

Story First Appeared in  Crain's Detroit Business.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette has filed felony charges against four employees and former employees of Detroit-based mental health care provider Adult Well-Being Services for their alleged roles in a Medicaid fraud scheme.

The attorney general filed charges on Sept. 25 in the 54B District Court in East Lansing against:

• Current employee Dr. Sandra Schiff, PhD, 66, of West Bloomfield.

• Current employee William Vallier, 65, of Clawson.

• Former employee Marceia Lugo, 39, of Sterling Heights.

• Former employee Laura Leca, 27, of Westland.

The charges allege that in March 2011, a healthcare provider left her employment at Adult Well-Being without completing progress notes for hundreds of meetings with mental health patients.

The incomplete patient records violated Medicaid program rules, and a scheduled audit of the agency would have revealed that and triggered a repayment demand to Adult Well-Being, the attorney general said in a release.

He alleges that the four employees forged the electronic signature of the former employee more than 10 months after her departure, without her knowledge or consent, to create and authenticate false progress notes.

The former employee whose signature was allegedly forged by the four defendants does not face criminal charges at this time, but the investigation continues, the attorney general said. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services – Office of Inspector General is assisting in the investigation.

The charges stem from a June 2012 raid of Adult Well-Being Services locations.

The four defendants are each charged with:

• One count of Medicaid fraud- false record or statement to avoid payment to the state, a felony punishable by four years in prison and/or a $50,000 fine.

• One count of medical records- intentionally placing false information on chart-health care provider, a felony punishable by four years in prison and/or a $5,000 fine.

The four defendants surrendered themselves to authorities and were arraigned on Sept. 26 before Judge Andrea Larkin, who set personal bond for each at $25,000.

A preliminary exam of the defendants is set for Wednesday.