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.
I recently reported that the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t monitor for dioxin in commercially caught Michigan fish, even when the fish come from areas known to be polluted with the cancer-causing chemical.
On its web site the FDA states that it does sometimes test fish and dairy products from grocery stores and distribution centers around the country. So today I e-mailed the FDA and asked whether any Great Lakes fish have been sampled as part of this effort.
Spokesman Michael Herndon promptly replied:
“FDA doesn’t monitor Great Lakes’ fish since it is primarily a recreational fishery and what little is done in the commercial area is small and local and therefore up to the States to monitor.”
This is interesting because, according to the Michigan Department of Agriculture — which has a contract with FDA to inspect the states commercial fisheries — the operations fall under federal regulation because they involve interstate commerce. Commercial fishers have told me that the bulk of their fish are sold out of state.
According to this nifty commercial fisheries research tool created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration over 10 million pounds of fish were commercially harvested from Michigan waters in 2007.
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