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.
On the two most controversial budget bills, one for general government operations that includes an 11 percent cut in revenue sharing for municipalities and one for K-12 school funding that slashes the per-pupil state funding by nearly $350 million, the Michigan House of Representatives bailed out in the middle of what was going to be a losing vote on those bills.
On SB 245, the revenue sharing bill, and HB 4447, the K-12 budget bill, the vote board clearly showed that both budgets were going to be defeated. But rather than concluding the vote, in both cases Majority Floor Leader Kathy Angerer motioned for the board to be cleared and for the bill to be “passed temporarily.”
This is essentially a legislative mulligan, where the leadership sees that it’s going to lose a vote, doesn’t want to lose that vote, and pulls the plug on the deliberations so they can pull members into the back room and do some arm-twisting to get them to change their minds.
Sources tell us that legislators are feeling tremendous pressure to get a budget done to avoid a shutdown, and the legislative leadership is obviously putting on a full-court press to makes sure a shutdown does not occur.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter