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.
DETROIT — Michigan House lawmakers approved a bill package on Thursday that would lease the Detroit-owned Cobo Convention Center — home of the North American International Auto Show — to a regional authority.
The legislation calls for a 30-year lease of the riverside convention center to an authority with board members representing Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties in exchange for $280 million in expansion and renovation funds to upgrade Cobo in order to keep the auto show in Detroit. In recent months, as state and local officials have bickered over the ownership of Cobo, auto show organizers have been looking at venues outside the city that could host the annual expo.
The House bill, sponsored by Detroit Democrat Shanelle Jackson, gives the Detroit City Council power to reject the plan, but unlike a Cobo ownership transfer deal that fell through earlier this year, the legislation would allow Mayor Dave Bing the power to veto the council’s decision.
The newly approved House plan would also give residents in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb employment priority for Cobo-related jobs.
But there are key players who are displeased with the House bill, namely L. Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County executive who supported the first Cobo deal that would have transferred Detroit’s ownership of the convention center to the authority instead of a 30-year lease as currently proposed.
“They have all but guaranteed that the 2011 North American International Auto Show will be at McCormick Place in Chicago,” Patterson said of the approved house bill, according to the Detroit Free Press.
Unlike the Senate bill passed last month, there is no mention of expanding Novi’s Rock Financial Showplace, the venue that has been mentioned as a possbile home for the auto show if an agreement can’t be reached to expand and upgrade Cobo.
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