Michael Erickson of Belmont won approval from the secretary of state to start petitioning signatures for a ballot initiative that is more or less the same wording as that controversial Arizona immigration law passed earlier this year. If Erickson collects the necessary 433,971 signatures from registered voters by next April, the 2012 ballot will have an initiative which, per the Chronicle, "would require state law enforcement officials to investigate a person's immigration status if they are 'reasonably suspicious' the person is in the country illegally." It would also make it a crime to hire an illegal immigrant, whether or not you were aware of their citizenship status. [Chron]