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 state Senate is expected to vote soon on a package of bills that would require that state environmental laws be no more stringent than federal rules, privatize some functions of the Department of Environmental Quality and require state agencies to review regulations for business-friendliness.
The bills — SB 434, SB 435, and SB 436 — were approved by members of the Senate Economic Development and Regulatory Reform Committee earlier this month.
Analysis by the Senate fiscal agency states that the package will cost the state an unknown amount of money.
James Clift, policy director for the Michigan Environmental Council, said that the bills will hamper economic recovery by placing a heavy administrative burden on state agencies that are already stretched thin.
Clift said that in proposing the measures the senators are “catering to a fringe element” that opposes all environmental regulation.
Federal legislation is designed as a minimum floor for regulation, Clift said, states need to be able to pass laws to address special needs.
“In Michigan,“ he said, “we have exercised our State’s right to enact legislation to crack down on invasive species.”
A spokesman for Sen. Judson Gilbert (R-Arenac), the primary sponsor for two of the bills, was unavailable to comment on the proposed legislation.
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