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.
[COMMENTARY] I’ve discovered a way to greatly improve my car’s gas mileage.
It’s something all of us can do to conserve energy while we’re waiting for the development of alternatives to oil, and meanwhile we don’t need more offshore drilling.
What I do is drive MUCH more slowly, and turn off the engine at red lights.
When I say I drive more slowly, I mean 25 mph for most of my six-mile commute into work in Ann Arbor. Surprisingly, not many drivers honk at me. I think they’re driving slower, too. Driving slower is actually more enjoyable and less stressful.
And when I get to a red light, instead of idling (which gets you zero miles per gallon), I turn off the engine. Since there are at least ten traffic lights on my commute, and at least five are red when I get to them, and often the wait time is a full minute at a red light, I’m saving about five minutes of idling each way, or ten minutes a day.
Restarting my engine doesn’t use up much gas, because ignition systems are efficient.
The result? Gas may be $4.14 a gallon in Ann Arbor, but my gauge needle is still hovering near FULL two days after filling up. That’s a beautiful sight.
So conserving energy is feasible, and makes a lot more sense than the proposals of Bush and McCain. More offshore oil drilling wouldn’t have much effect on gas prices for many years. Instead of more drilling — and more risk of violating the environment, not to mention keeping us more dependent on oil — we should do two things: 1) immediately reduce our oil consumption and 2) put much greater public pressure on policy makers to make a much bigger, more urgent effort to develop alternative energy.
If we learn to do that, $4 a gallon might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.
Tony Collings is a Lecturer in Communication Studies at the University of Michigan and a former CNN Washington correspondent and Newsweek London bureau chief. He is the journalism mentor of Michigan Messenger.
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