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.
Automotive News has an article looking at the devastating effects of GM’s financial problems on the city of Pontiac, where the number of auto manufacturing jobs has been in steady decline. The loss of jobs has all but bankrupted the city and sent the unemployment and foreclosure rates through the roof.
GM said on June 1 that by October it would close a truck plant in Pontiac that employs 1,100 people. A GM stamping plant employing another 1,100 has been idled indefinitely.
At its peak, GM employed 30,000 hourly workers in Pontiac in the 1970s. After its latest cuts, the company’s total hourly workforce will barely top that figure…
Even before June 1, the city was in a pickle. Unemployment hit 27.2 percent in April, more than three times the national rate of 8.9 percent that month. Property and income taxes have fallen and there were 1,000 home foreclosures in 2008.
Pontiac’s budget has a deficit of $7 million, prompting Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to appoint an emergency financial manager in March to clean house. The GM plant closure makes that job harder.
“Sorting out our finances now is like trying to climb a glass mountain wearing greasy socks,” Mayor Phillips said.
Pontiac is not alone, of course. Flint is in much the same condition.
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