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.
Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer (Photo by Todd A. Heywood/Michigan Messenger)
LANSING — Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer wants to know if Attorney General Mike Cox has misdirected litigation settlements he has brokered since he assumed the state’s top cop job in 2003 and announced today during press conferences in Grand Rapids and Lansing that he’s filing a Freedom of Information Act request to seek answers.
The issue has been a hotly contested since last month when Cox announced plans to use money from the state’s Countrywide mortgage fraud settlement to fund development of two park improvement projects in the Grand Rapids area. That decision came under fire when it became clear, Brewer said, that Cox directed the funds to the parks projects following a suggestion by Peter Secchia, a GOP fundraiser and party activist from East Grand Rapids.
Amid the fiery local criticism last month that the parks funding should instead be used to help fraud victims, Cox decided to give the funds to the United Way instead.
“This is an attempt to get the bottom of what he’s been doing with the [settlement] money,” Brewer said. “Is there a pay-to-play scheme here?”
The request seeks records of all settlements, communications regarding those settlements, and where, who and how settlement monies were dispersed by the attorney general.
Robert Wolfert, a state Republican Party spokesman, was on hand for Brewer’s press availability in Lansing and referred Michigan Messenger to a prepared party statement that attacks Brewer’s moves and claims the attorney general has been helped approximately 10,000 people with mortgage difficulties, but doesn’t elaborate on that point.
“Attorney General Mike Cox is putting the priorities of tax payers first,” state GOP chairman Ron Weiser said in the statement. “Day after day he is on the front lines, protecting our taxpayers and investing in Michigan’s future.”
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