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 ACLU of Michigan is urging Michigan residents to pressure Gov. Jennifer Granholm to withdraw an agreement signed with the Department of Homeland Security that commits the state to begin offering an Enhanced Driver’s License (EDL) later this year. The group issued a press release arguing that the new licenses could put privacy at risk:
Under the current agreement with DHS, the Michigan Enhanced Driver’s License, one of three accepted pieces of identification for border crossing starting this June, requires the inclusion of an unencrypted “radio frequency identification” chip (RFID) in the license. RFID’s can store huge amounts of personal data and, when unsecured like proposed in the DHS agreement, can be accessed wirelessly by anyone with a reading device from 30 feet up to, according to some experts, a football field away.
At least one state legislator, Rep. Paul Opsommer (R-DeWitt), has joined the call to stop this program and is asking the governor to have the state’s newly created Information Privacy Protection Council review the agreement to make sure it does not put private information at risk.
Kelly Chesney, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of State, which oversees the issuing of driver’s licenses in the state, told Gonger News Service that such fears are unfounded:
“The RFID chip doesn’t contain any personal information, only a randomly-generated unique number that lets border officials quickly verify your identity so you can be on your way. It doesn’t make sense to encrypt a random number. Plus, it comes with a protective sleeve that would prevent the random number from being scanned if that is a concern,” said Kelly Chesney. “If the representative does not want to carry one, he doesn’t have to. He can opt to carry a standard license.”
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