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 Salmon River flows through the Yellow Dog preserve. (Creative Commons photo by SavetheWildUP via Flickr)
Opponents of a nickel sulfide mine planned by Rio Tinto Corp.’s Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. for public land on the Yellow Dog Plain near Lake Superior are seeking a chance to argue a fundamental point — that by issuing permits for the mine and leasing 120 acres of public land to the company, the state has failed in its job to steward natural resources in the public interest.
Although arguments over the planned mine have been going on for years, mine opponents — the National Wildlife Federation, the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, the Huron Mountain Club and the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve — have not yet had a venue in which they could squarely address the basic public trust issue.
Earlier this month, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Paula Manderfield ruled that she did not have jurisdiction to take up the public trust issue.
In that case, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, represented by the attorney general’s office, argued that the public trust doctrine doesn’t apply to all publicly owned lands, just “navigable waters and lands beneath and in contact with them.”
Michelle Halley, attorney for the National Wildlife Federation, said Manderfield’s ruling “eviscerates the public’s ability to implement the doctrine that requires that assets held by the State must be managed for the good of the public.”
On Friday, the groups announced they would take the issue to the Michigan Court of Appeals.
In announcing the appeal, Halley pointed to a recent decision by Administrative Law Judge Richard Patterson in the contested case hearing over permits issued to the mine by the Department of Environmental Quality.
In a decision announced last week Patterson upheld DEQ permits for the mine, but he ordered state agencies to consider whether proposed coal plants represents the most “feasible and prudent” approach to meeting the state’s power needs.
Also, just last week, as part of an effort to protect state waters from commercialization, State Rep. Dan Scripps (D-Leland) announced legislation that would declare that all water is to be held in the public trust.
Kennecott spokeswoman Deborah Muchmore did not return a call seeking comment.
In February, Rio Tinto announced that it was putting development of the Kennecott mine on hold in response to changes in the metal market.
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