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 son of slain Owosso anti-abortion rights protester James Pouillon told the Flint Journal that abortion foes have selected the wrong man to lionize as a martyr for their cause.
Grand Rapids podiatrist James M. Pouillon has not had contact with his father since 2001. But he isn’t staying silent about the way his father is being called a martyr by some in the anti-abortion rights movement.
“I don’t think he really cared about the unborn,” said Dr. James M. Pouillon, a Grand Rapids podiatrist, who had not spoken to his father since 2001. “I don’t think he was really pro-life.”
Pouillon’s sister disagreed with the doctor, saying her father was a Christian acting on his beliefs.
“He died out there doing what he believed in,” 26-year-old Mary Jo Pouillon of Owosso said at a memorial service Wednesday.
But the son argues that the actions of his father, who would regularly protest, carry signs and yell at passers-by, was all part of a larger plan. The younger Pouillon called his father a “sociopath who terrorized a small town while hiding behind his First Amendment.”
“You could speak with a couple of hundred people who don’t agree with me, so who is right? I’m not going to try to yell louder than my dad’s friends,” he said.
The son also said his father used his abortion stance to terrorize women and said his father abused his mother, Mary Lou Kadera. The two divorced in 1987 and she died in a 2001 car accident.
In a 1992 interview with The Flint Journal, the activist acknowledged years of marital problems, including a fight where he pushed his wife into a piano. Three days after the fight, he told the Journal that “the Holy Ghost came on me.”
The senior Pouillon has been hailed as a martyr by Cal Zastrow of Kawkawlin, chairman of the Michigan Citizens for Life.
Pouillon was gunned down last week Friday while standing in front of Owosso High School, something he would do regularly. Officials have said the alleged shooter, Harlan Drake, told them he was offended by Pouillon’s graphic signs and felt children should not have to view them.
An attorney representing the Drake family put out a statement saying Drake was suffering from depression and that they did not believe the shooting had anything to do with abortion.
Drake is also accused of shooting the 61-year-old owner of a gravel pit in Owosso Township. Drake is in jail without bond awaiting trail on charges of first degree murder and weapons violations.
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