Michigan lawmakers courted by Apple lobbyist

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Michigan lawmakers courted by Apple lobbyist

Following last week’s introduction of a $38 million “iPod bill” in Michigan, a report has surfaced claiming that two of the lawmakers backing the bill made a trip to California to meet with Apple — at least partially on Apple’s dime. According to the Detroit Free Press, Rep. Matt Gillard and House Speaker Andy Dillon, among others, made the trip to San Francisco. Dillon has issued a statement defending the trip, saying he was “one of several lawmakers to take this trip, and I am more convinced than ever that the future for our children lies in education. As we move to the technology age and the knowledge-based economy, it would be irresponsible to separate technology from our K-12 system.” They did not identify the other lawmakers who went on the trip, and Apple has not made their Lansing, MI lobbyist available for comment.

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Comments

1

But the “culture of corruption” ONLY applies to Republicans. Nope nothing to see here folks, move along..

Posted by TLo on April 11, 2007 at 8:22 AM (PDT)

2

Actually, the “iPod for every student” story has already been debunked:

http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6345567

“the idea of buying iPods or mp3 players for students came up…But quickly, the question “How can the state afford to buy iPods for students when there isn’t enough money to go around right now?” was asked…In reality, there was never a plan to buy all students iPods. There is a $38 million line item to pay for technology, far less than it would take to buy mp3 players for 1.65 million students.”

Bringing something up in a conversation happens all the time, and is NOT the same thing as putting it in a formal budget proposal, which evidently never happened.

Posted by Charles Gaba on April 11, 2007 at 8:52 AM (PDT)

3

What Michigan needs is a donation from a kind and generous benefactor to pay for all these iPods and perhaps even iMacs that Apple is obviously marketing to them.

Like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation…(heh)

Posted by flatline response on April 11, 2007 at 10:00 AM (PDT)

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