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.
One of the many joint House/Senate conference committees in the state legislature approved a bill on Wednesday that includes massive cuts in state funding for public schools around the state. If approved, the bill would cut state aid to schools by $218 per student and decrease funding for intermediate school districts by a whopping 44 percent.
The overall cuts would add up to $482 million less than the current fiscal year, including cutting $18.7 million in state aid for the Detroit Public Schools alone. Detroit schools are already facing a massive deficit that would only be exacerbated by these cuts.
What remains to be seen is whether the state House, controlled by Democrats, will vote for these cuts without any attempt to raise revenue. Gov. Granholm has called for a collection of niche taxes to raise nearly $700 million in revenue to balance off the budget cuts, but House Speaker Andy Dillon has struck a deal with Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, a Republican, to accept their full range of nearly $1.3 billion in budget cuts.
Whether House Democrats will follow their leader, and whether Granholm will sign a budget with such steep cuts, remains to be seen.
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