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.
Note: Michiganian Erik Prince is the CEO of Blackwater Worldwide
Uber-contractor Blackwater Worldwide is nothing if not business savvy. An audit today reveals that a Blackwater affiliate, Presidential Airways, Inc. won 39 contracts between 2005 and 2007 by labeling itself a small business. The Inspector General of the Small Business Administration has concluded that 33 of these contracts involved misrepresentation of the numbers of employees working for Presidential Airways.
The Blackwater affiliate dubiously claimed to have fewer than than 1,500 employees, which gave it small business status.
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The gambit worked because the government decided that for Afghanistan and Iraq security contracts, workers trained by Presidential would be considered independent contractors, not company employees. Once providing security overseas, the independent contractors apparently lose their affiliation (if not their paychecks) with Blackwater/Presidential.
The report was requested by Henry Waxman’s House oversight committee. The committee has been looking for a while at how the world’s largest private security contractor has manipulated contracting and tax laws. Last week Blackwater said it was planning to leave the private security business. But they still haven’t reneged from any contract– though perhaps now they’ll have no choice.
Matthew Blake of sister site The Washington Independent filed this report from Washington, D.C.
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