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 has delayed a decision on whether to allow judges to force witnesses to show their face in court. The court had proposed rules to do that in response to a lawsuit brought by a Muslim woman whose case was dismissed because she would not remove her hijab.
The court put up the proposed rules for public comment last year and had a public hearing on the matter today. Many group, including the ACLU of Michigan and the Michigan Civil Rights Commission have strongly opposed the rule, arguing that there is no reason why seeing a witness’s face would help them judge the credibility of their testimony and good reason to believe it may do the opposite.
The ACLU cited several studies showing that using non-verbal cues to judge the credibility of a witness or the truthfulness of their testimony is actually less likely to evaluate the testimony accurately than when they read the testimony or hear it in audio only. They also argue that there are many other situations, such as a blind judge or juror, where there can be no facial view to evaluate.
Several justices on the Supreme Court said that they wanted more time to study the issue before making a final decision on the proposed rules.
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