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.
As if the city of Detroit needed more scandal to worry about, federal criminal charges were filed against an inspector from the Detroit Health Department for accepting bribes to look the other way rather than reporting lead contamination in homes and businesses. Rather than taking steps to ameliorate lead contamination, the inspector would charge the building owner a sizable fee for a “training session” about the issue:
Donald M. Patterson, 49, of Detroit, a city lead inspector, appeared in U.S. District Court in Detroit charged with wire fraud.
Patterson is charged in connection with payments he allegedly received from an owner and a tenant of a home on Junction in Detroit where a child was found with blood lead levels 15 times higher than those considered acceptable, according to a criminal complaint.
Patterson allegedly received $200 from the owner and $200 from the tenant for “lead abatement training” instead of following proper city procedures to ensure the high lead levels were brought down, the complaint said.
The only training Patterson gave took about 15 minutes and was “completely inadequate to properly abate the home,” the complaint alleges. Also, the lead-poisoned child was returned to the home during the time Patterson received the payments, the complaint alleges.
Patterson’s attorney, from the Federal Defender Office, which provides attorneys for those who can’t afford them when they face federal criminal charges, told the judge that his client had a serious substance abuse problem. The judge ordered Patterson to an in-patient substance abuse treatment center and ordered him to reappear in three weeks.
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