Congress

Maryland tackles getting students back into classrooms 

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The TPP program was designed to help students avoid becoming truant in Montgomery county, Maryland. Rebecca Marcolini who serves as the director of the TPP (Truancy Prevention Program) with Montgomery County wants to end truancy

TPP is a volunteer program created in 2010 through the state’s attorney’s office to help kids and teens identify what is keeping them from attending school and setting a goal in place for them to reach their full potential. 

Truancy Prevention Program

Students begin the program with an orientation and are in the program for 10 weeks. Those who are 10 to 20 % truant are invited to voluntarily participate in the program that lasts 2 1/2 hours per session and is during school hours. 

The program serves mostly middle school students. Resource officers act as mentors to the students within the program depending on the schools preference if they would like them to help out with the program. 

“This is not like a punitive thing, it’s not like the police are involved to get the kids,” said Lauren DeMarco, the director of public affairs for the state’s attorney’s office. 

Both Marcolini and DeMarco emphasized how in the program students are not in trouble but are here to help those who sign up to help them with attending class and raise their grades. “The essence of this program is to determine what is holding back this child,” said Marcolini. 

To figure out what is holding the child back from coming to school, TPP will bring in a mentor so that the child can discuss what’s going on whether that is bullying, helping out a younger sibling, or staying up playing video games. 

Those who successfully finish TPP get to participate in a graduation ceremony acknowledging the work that students have done in completing the program.

Government

Proposal would increase juror pay rates

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By JASON KRAFT
Capital News Service
LANSING – Michigan jurors would soon receive their first pay increase since 2003 if a bill on compensation passes, a representative said. Rep. Peter Lucido, R-Shelby Township, introduced a bill last year that would increase juror compensation by  $5 per full day and $2.50 per half day. They currently make $25 for a full day and $12.50 for a half day on the first day, then $40 and $20, respectively, on subsequent days. “Jurors aren’t even making enough to pay for their parking,” Lucido said. “When you look at the economics of it, it’s just not fair.

Government

Court: Cities can lease drilling rights under parks without citizens’ vote

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — Citizens have no legal right to vote on whether to approve leases for drilling for oil and gas under city-owned parks and cemeteries, the Court of Appeals has ruled. A three-judge panel unanimously rejected a challenge by the nonprofit Don’t Drill the Hills Inc. to a decision by Rochester Hills to lease underground oil and gas rights to one company and to allow another company to relocate an oil pipeline. City attorney John Staran said the decision is significant to local governments across Michigan because the court found a lease is not a “sale” of parkland that would trigger a public vote. “The court applied common sense and the plain and ordinary meaning to ‘park’ and ‘open space,’” Staran said. “Park means park.

Public Safety

Threats come with the job, many lawyers say

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By ERIC FREEDMAN
Capital News Service
LANSING — There was the lawyer who stabbed an opposing attorney in the shoulder with a pen in the courthouse. And the litigant who tried to run down a lawyer with a tractor. And the client who, angry about his bill, smashed his lawyer’s car hood with a baseball bat. Unusual? Not at all in Michigan, according to a newly published study.