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.
The Michigan Supreme Court issued rulings in two cases that expanded privacy exemptions that limit the scope of information that can be requested via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
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FOIA laws are intended to aid political accountability by allowing citizens and the press access to government documents, but the exact limits of what kinds of information can be demanded through FOIA requests is a question courts are constantly having to address.
In the first case, the court ruled against a labor union that filed a FOIA request for the addresses and phone numbers of University of Michigan employees who, by their own choice, were not listed in the staff and faculty directories. The university refused the request, citing the privacy of their employees, and the state’s high court has now agreed with their position.
In the second case, the MSU student newspaper, the State News, filed a FOIA request for a police report on an incident that took place in a dorm on that campus. The administration denied the request, again citing privacy protections, and the court again sided with the administration.
In both of these cases, the initial trial court ruled in favor of the university administrations, the appeals court reversed and ruled for the plaintiffs and now the Supreme Court has reversed again.
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