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.
LANSING — The Republican-controlled state Senate has passed a measure which could impact the final phase of construction on a new Michigan State Police headquarters. The building, which is being constructed downtown at the corner of Kalamazoo Street and Grand Avenue, was being built based on a lease agreement signed with the Granholm administration.
Lansing developer powerhouses Joel Ferguson, who is also the chairman of the Michigan State University Board of Trustees, and Gary Granger are building the $39-million building on the agreement the state will lease the building for 25 years. At the end of the lease, the state can purchase the building for one dollar.
But Republicans are rejecting the plan, noting that in the first 11 years of the lease the state will pay $45.2 million in lease payments. The project has been called the Triangle Project.
Sen. Cameron Brown, a Republican from Fawn River Township in St. Joseph County, is an opponent of the building agreement, and a candidate for secretary of state. He introduced the amendment on Thursday which would forbid taxpayer funds from paying for the lease.
From a report in the Lansing State Journal:
“At a time when our state is facing a budget crisis, it is simply irresponsible to move the state police from a building leased for only a dollar a year to one that will cost more than $3 million next year,” Brown said in a statement. “Most shamefully, this move would come at a time when 100 state troopers are poised to lose their jobs, supposedly due to a lack of funds.”
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who is running for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, earlier this week issued a ruling that the state would be on firm legal ground to break the lease agreement.
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