I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
4:02 PM EDT — UPDATE in bold below
LANSING — Residents and business owners are responding to a series of anti-gay comments spray-painted on buildings in the city’s historic Old Town late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning. The area is known for its artist community, trendy lofts and two of the city’s three bars catering to homosexual clients.
Spray-painted throughout an alley and parking area were the words “Kills Gays”; “KG,” presumably meaning “Kill Gays”; and “Mushroom Militia Kill Gays.” It was all spray-painted in fluorescent orange paint. The graffiti appeared on doors and walls.
Police charged Dustin Corey Green, 18, of Lansing in connection with the graffiti. He was charged with malicious destruction of property against a business, being a minor in possession of alcohol and a weapons violation for having a knife with a blade longer than three inches on his person.
Jamie Shriner-Hooper, executive director of Old Town Mainstreet, a nonprofit community group in Old Town, said the community is angry.
“Old town is a very open and welcoming community. This is a time we need to unite together and show more than ever who we are,” Shriner-Hooper said. “The one thing we don’t welcome is the message of hate. What occurred here is not acceptable anywhere, but especially not in our neighborhood.”
“This infuriates me,” Shriner-Hooper said.
She praised the response of police. Within moments of her phone call about the spray-painted attacks, Lansing Police officers were on the scene, followed shortly by a member of the department’s gang office, as well as a photographer. She also said Capt. Ray Hall who runs the Lansing Police North Precinct had called and said police were taking the incident “very seriously.”
“It was LPD coming down here and doing everything they could,” said Shriner-Hooper, “that I thought was very reassuring.”
“Just the idea of it is despicable,” said Lansing City Council member Carol Wood. “It is heart-wrenching that people would have to walk into their businesses or leave their homes and see that kind of hate painted all over. Especially in a city that has embraced diversity as a part of the fiber of this community.”
This story was cross posted on Between the Lines / Pridesource.com
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