Community Empowerment Matters

  Part 1: Introduction You have decided to create a business entity in Michigan, congratulations!   One of the most important steps in entity formation is choosing a name—it tells the state and the public a lot about your business.   Maybe you already know what name you want to choose.   Maybe you are overwhelmed by all of the rules you have seen online.   Maybe you fall into both (or neither) of those categories. Keep reading to learn more about what you may and must include in your business’s name, what you cannot include in your business’s name, and where to find additional resources. Part 2: The Dos You May. . .             Often, the name is the first thing consumers see about a business.   Because first impressions are so important, it is a great idea for your business’s name to be a reflection of the service(s) you provide, your business’s mission, or some other related facet of your bu...

  Returning Citizens and Reducing Recidivism   Each year, over 610,000 individuals are released from state and federal prisons in the United States.   There is an undeniable link between lack of investment in community resources, socioeconomic disparities, and incarceration rates.   Communities of color are disproportionately impacted by incarceration.   For example, Black Michiganders represent roughly 14% of the state’s population, but a staggering 53% of the state’s incarcerated population.   Many returning citizens face nearly insurmountable barriers to successful reentry into the community, including a lack of stable housing, food, and the skills needed to obtain meaningful employment.   Avoiding recidivism is important for the well-being of these individuals, their families, their communities, and society at large. Research has shown that landing a job as soon as possible after being released from incarceration is one of the keys to avoid...

     image source: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpxhere.com%2Fen%2Fphoto%2F1622288&psig=AOvVaw18njGMw8jfH8XEWXt71KKg&ust=1637124002859000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAsQjRxqFwoTCKCbq7eInPQCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD Creating a second company is an exciting venture and will entail taking many of the same steps as when you created your first company. However, there may also be some new questions you have to consider when getting started, a primary one being: what kind of legal organizational relationship, if any, do you want your new company to have to your existing one? You can choose to keep your companies as completely separate entities that have no legal relationship to each other, or you can choose to link them in a parent-subsidiary relationship. There are multiple factors to consider when choosing whether or not to form a parent-subsidiary relationship, some of which will be addressed in this post. What is a Parent-Subsidiary Relati...

  https://urbjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/stock-tracker.jpeg Introduction   It is well established that starting a small business differs greatly from forming a giant corporation. There is less spotlight that falls on the business’s operations after its formation or on its long-term fate. Yet important questions persist during these later stages. How can a small business keep its employees engaged in the business? It’s an especially relevant concern for small businesses, because they can often rely on having a tight-knit group of workers who believe in the company. And what happens to the company when the founder sells up or retires?   Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOP) are one option to answer both of those questions. ESOPs distribute shares to the business’s workers, giving them part ownership in the company. And ESOPs can simultaneously set up a succession plan: the company will pass from founder to employers. These benefits, and others, have seen a mi...

  Defined as an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food, food deserts are a modern phenomenon of our industrialized and ever urbanizing world. Affecting many urban centers within the United States, the city of Detroit is no exception to the norm. The majority of the food we consume in the US travels hundreds, if not thousands of miles to its final destination [1]. There is however, light at the end of the agronomic tunnel. Following the rapidly expanding trend of eating local, and farm to table sustainable living, in 2012 the City of Detroit legalized urban farming. This not only alleviates some of the economic impacts associated with eating fresh produce, but also has served to bolster and beautify Detroit’s communities.             The 2012 amendment to varying sections of the Detroit Zoning Ordinance established the legal basis for today’s urban agricultural movement [2]. This act...

    I. Justice for Some In 1963 Clarence Earl Gideon was charged with felony breaking and entering and was sentenced to 5 years in prison after defending himself in court—he could not afford a lawyer. The United States Supreme Court reversed the judgment, establishing that under the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution guaranteed counsel in criminal matters is a fundamental and essential right. [1] As it turns out, in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance phrase “with liberty and justice for all,” apparently “all” includes even those who can’t afford it… or does it? Unlike in criminal cases, where legal counsel is appointed to those who cannot afford it, in civil matters there is no right to counsel. As a result, many Americans who risk losing their home, job, or children lack legal representation. In fact, we have a system lacking liberty and justice for millions less than “all.” Consider the case of Lorenza and German Artiga. [2] The Artiga’s had rai...