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.
East Lansing Mayor Victor Loomis (left) and U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (center) join the Rev. Jesse Jackson at a state Capitol rally in Lansing on Monday. (Photo by Todd A. Heywood/Michigan Messenger)
“This whole crisis was triggered by the lending crisis. The stimulus was supposedly to stop the housing hemorrhaging. Somehow the stimulus shifted from housing to banks. But there are at least four gushers of blood: There’s jobs, there’s housing, health care and student loans. And right now there is no relationship between the stimulus coming in and the numbers going out. But stimulating banks and closing plants. those workers will then compound the housing crisis and the health crisis. They’ll be going from working to unemployment compensation.”
State Sen. Hansen Clarke, a Detroit Democrat, introduced legislation earlier this year which would create an optional two-year, judicially reviewed moratorium on foreclosures. And while some local politicians, including Lansing Mayor Virgil Bernero have called for the bill to be passed, such a legislative timeout on foreclosure is frozen in the Senate Banking Committee.
Republican Sen. Randy Richardville of Monroe has said he won’t hold hearings on the legislation until he is convinced it won’t “destroy the economy and the housing market.”
Jackson also said he was “absolutely” in support of H.B. 676, a bill pending in Congress to create a single-payer health care system in the United States.
“One of the practical reasons is that every car comes off an assembly line here is minus $1,500,” Jackson said. “That is a factor in the hemorrhage is the health costs. We pay more for insurance per car than we pay for steel. It’s just practical. You have to link the lending and the bail out with reconstruction.”
But such a single-payer health care system is a tough sell on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are being pressured to pass health care reform legislation before the summer recess. In a recent interview with Michigan Messenger sister site The Colorado Independent, former Vermont governor and Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, who supports a universal “public option,” said that it’s unlikely that the U.S. would adopt a plan that would abolish options for private insurance.
“The truth is there is no pure single-payer on the face of the Earth,” Dean said.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter