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 — A major stakeholder in the city’s controversial trash incinerator wants to keep the 20-year old east side facility burning for at least another year. According to The Detroit News, the contract between the city and the incinerator’s majority stakeholder, Energy Investors Fund may allow the nation’s largest trash incinerator to keep burning trash through 2010.
But the Detroit City Council wants to explore other trash disposal options for the city. In June, the council passed a resolution to seek a court injunction to halt municipal trash burning. Mayor Dave Bing vetoed the measure because he wants to make sure the city won’t be sued for breaking contracts with private incinerator investors according to his representatives.
The issue is one of the first instances since Bing’s election victory on May 5 where he and the council have disagreed to the point of the mayor exercising his veto power.
In 2008, it was understood that the contract between the city and incinerator owners would expire July 1. Last year, the determining factor in the future of the incinerator was money. There is a clause in the contract that mandates the Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority, which controls the incinerator, to offer an incineration price lower than all landfill offers in order to keep burning trash past the July 1 contract expiration date. Since GDRRA failed to place a bid, it is combing the contract for other ways to keep trash burning.
The incinerator has been controversial since it opened in 1989 and today environmental groups and residential organizations are fighting to close the facility.
Residents in the area surrounding the incinerator, located near the interchange of I-75 and I-94, believe the towering structure believe it contributes to respiratory diseases and emits toxins into the air from burned plastics and other inorganic waste.
Members of the community living near the base of the incinerator have discussed filing a class action lawsuit against the city for ignoring health problems caused by the incinerator and failing to utilize other trash disposal methods.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this post cited an incorrectly year for the end of the Detroit incinerator contract. It is 2010, not 2020. The post has been updated accordingly.
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