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.
HIV/AIDS advocates are raising red flags and accusing President Barack Obama of backing off of his campaign promise to end a federal ban on needle exchange programs. But the administration says it is not backing off, according to Time Magazine.
From the report:
The Administration says no. Responding by email, Jeff Crowley, director of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy said that the President has no plans to abandon needle exchange, but is simply not moving on the issue yet. “The President is looking forward to working with Congress and the American people to build support for this change,” says Crowley, “and his Administration is committed to moving forward to address the federal ban on syringe exchange programs as a part of a national HIV/AIDS strategy.”
While conservatives have often opposed needle exchange programs, studies show they work to drastically reduce the spread of HIV in the intravenous drug using community.
“I think the evidence for needle exchange is stronger,” says Don Des Jarlais, director of research for the Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute at Beth Israel Hospital in New York, comparing the scientific support for needle exchange to the overwhelming evidence of human impact on the climate.
Des Jarlais’s studies of HIV infection among drug addicts in New York City have found that new infection rates dropped more than 75% after city and community activists expanded clean-needle programs, beginning in the early 1990s, and later legalized possession of needles. Likewise, needle-exchange programs in other cities, including — after a rocky start — Montreal and Vancouver, had similarly significant impact.
Candidate Obama made needle exchange a part of his plan to address the HIV epidemic, while Republican rival Sen. John McCain was mute on the issue.
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