Michigan News

 

Wind Turbine Dirty Electricity and Vibrations Causing Severe Health Problems in Michigan

Wind turbines generate dirty electricity, just like smart meters. People who live within 22 miles of wind turbines are experiencing tinnitus, insomnia, depression, and other problems, just like people exposed to smart meters.  Consumers Energy is being sued for the health effects its wind turbine south of Ludington is causing.

Residents in Mason County, near Ludington, MI, filed a lawsuit against Consumers Energy “claiming noise, vibrations and flickering lights generated by the 56 turbine facility are adversely impacting their health. Dizziness, sleeplessness and headaches are among the symptoms noted in the lawsuit.”   Read the full story about the Michigan wind turbines here.

Read more here.

---

If AT&T and Verizon have their way, we can kiss our beloved landline phones goodbye. The Michigan Senate just voted to eliminate landlines. WRITE YOUR REP NOW!! There isn’t much time! This is the same Committee that refuses to take up Tom McMillin’s smart meter bill. The bill is on a fast track through the legislature.

AT&T wants to switch off all of its landline service, everywhere, by 2020. Customers will be given a choice of wireless or U-verse in urban areas and only wireless in rural ones.

Click here to find your representative. Write your representative today! There isn’t much time. This bill went through the Senate like wildfire. Click here for a sample letter: Word document; PDF. Click here for a letter one person just wrote: PDF.  See some additional letters people have written--#3, #4, #5. (We strongly suggest that you take parts of these letters and create your own. Too many of the exact same letters will not look good.)   See talking points below. Use the information on this page to add to the sample letter. Opposing the bill: AARP, Michigan Chiefs of Police, anti-monopoly groups, Rep. Henry Yanez of Sterling Heights. Supporting the bill: Reps. Jeff Irwin and Adam Zemke of Ann Arbor. Only 4 senators opposed the bill.  See their letters: Irwin; Zemke. They provide the arguments people make for the bill.

AT&T and Verizon are introducing legislation state-by-state that would put an end to land lines.  The legislation helps in the approval process for phone companies to begin phasing out landlines by 2017. The problem for those who are electro-sensitive is that the Internet-based land lines (VoIP) proposed to take the place of the current lines are intolerable.  They cause headaches, insomnia, and tinnitus—just like smart meters! They are also unreliable, which is why the Michigan Chiefs of Police and AARP oppose them.

The bills are fundamentally deregulation schemes dressed up with confusing language that makes legislators think the bills are about promoting better technology, therefore progress and jobs. Read more here  and here. Michigan has already passed the first part of this scheme, the Regulatory Modernization Act. Telephone companies want monopoly status, and this is one reason they want to get rid of copper lines. Federal law requires them to share their copper lines with competitors. There’s no such requirement for fiber. In 2010, Verizon urged the FCC not to modify its rules allowing carriers to retire copper lines. The bills are written by ALEC, an alliance of corporations and conservative activists who push for legislation that will benefit them and their pocketbooks. Read more here. Four out of five people use landlines for the majority of their phone and computer communication needs. The health, environmental, and social impacts are profound. Twenty-three states have already fallen for the telecoms’ schemes.

Only four senators voted against the bill: Sen. Glenn Anderson, D-Westland; Sen. Jack Brandenburg, R-Harrison Township; Sen. Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba; Sen. Geoff Hansen, R-Hart. Click here to see how your rep voted: http://states.aarp.org/heres-how-senate-voted-on-landline-elimination-bill/.

Consumer Reports cautions on fiber optic and VoIP lines: “Access to 911 is so important that we have long advised VoIP customers to maintain a separate, basic copper line, especially those without cell phones or who can’t receive a cellular signal from their homes. The concern will only deepen as more households switch over to VoIP and fiber systems and as telephone companies, motivated to cut costs, remove or simply deactivate the old copper lines that have been the backbone of the nation’s phone system for decades. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that about 28 percent of residential wireline 911 calls are made using VoIP service.

“The benefit of the old copper service is that, unlike fiber and hybrid-fiber lines, it carries not only the voice and data signals but also the power to operate a standard, non-cordless telephone. The phone company itself provides that power, which often keeps the phones working even when a problem at the power company knocks out electric service.

“But traditional copper telephone lines can’t handle the large amount of data required for television and high-speed Internet services, especially over long distances. Although advanced techniques can enhance copper’s capabilities, Verizon, AT&T, and most other companies are installing fiber or hybrid fiber lines, in some cases alongside the copper ones. We've found that telephone and cable company terms and conditions typically warn customers that these systems can’t maintain phone service indefinitely during a power failure, if at all.

“The problem is greatest with cable company VoIP services and with systems that use fiber lines all the way to the home, such as Verizon’s FiOS. It can be less of a concern with hybrid copper-fiber systems, in which copper lines carry the signal the last mile or so to the home. In those systems, carriers can maintain phone power by installing batteries and generators at the point where the fiber meets the copper, as AT&T and CenturyLink did in parts of the country during Hurricane Irene.”

TALKING POINTS

• Landline phones do not require electricity to run (some do, but you can buy one that has a battery back-up).
• Monopoly status will be granted to each supplier—only one provider per line.
• People who are highly sensitive to electromagnetic frequencies cannot use VoIP or cell phones.
• I want a choice in my internet and phone provider.

Comment on these sites: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/Plan-to-eliminate-landlines-in-Michigan-moves-forward/-/1719418/23348872/-/nya62mz/-/index.html
http://www.freep.com/article/20131203/NEWS06/312030150/

For more information:
Michigan Radio—news article, with latest story
Consumer Reports
Stop theCap.com
Bill Moyers
Blake Levitt, author of Electromagnetic Fields
http://www.freep.com/article/20131203/NEWS06/312030150/

 

---

 

 

Newsletter, Facebook—Stay Up to Date

Stay up to date by subscribing to our newsletter (it comes out every 1 to 4 weeks). We constantly update our website, so check back often. You can find updates and time-sensitive actions to take under our “Alerts and Breaking News” box. We also use Facebook to send out quick news updates. (While we understand the privacy concerns with Facebook, at this point in time it is a useful tool for us, and is a great way to spread the word about smart meters. If you only wish to use Facebook for access to our updates, you can get an account without revealing personal information—it’s all in what you choose to share, and you can give them any name or birthdate you like.)

Our newsletter comes out every 1 to 4 weeks. It will keep you informed and tell you what actions you can take to fight smart meters. Note that most email programs will filter out our newsletter unless you adjust your email settings. Even though you may receive individual emails from us, when we send the newsletter out to a large group, the emails may be placed in a folder other than your inbox. This happened to us! We weren’t even getting our own newsletter.. Please make sure you look for emails from smartmetereducationnetwork@ gmail. com in your Promotions, Spam, Junk, or other folders. Please contact your email provider to learn how to adjust your settings, or search on the internet.