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.
In an executive order issued Thursday afternoon, Gov. Jennifer Granholm directed the departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources to prepare to be combined as of Jan. 17, 2010.
The governor characterized the consolidation as streamlining move that will also “better enable the state to conserve, manage, protect and promote Michigan’s environmental, natural resource and related economic interest for current and future generations.”
Several Michigan environmental groups endorsed Granholm’s plan to combine the departments but warned that the recombination should not be seen as a panacea for the state’s budget problems.
“Monetary resources for protecting Michigan’s environment have fallen to a critically low, unsustainable level and resources are needed to ensure this new agency can do its job,” Sierra Club’s Michigan chapter, Clean Water Action, Michigan Environmental Council, Michigan League of Conservation Voters and Ecology Center said in a joint statement, “Finding new, sustainable sources of revenue is critical to ensure that the vision of Pure Michigan is real.”
Granholm said that she has appointed former Marshall Mayor Bruce Rasher to serve as transition manager for the consolidation. In a press release that announced the executive order, the governor’s office said that Rasher, a former Consumers Energy employee, is presently is director of operations, asset repositioning and global corporate services for the commercial real estate firm, CB Richard Ellis.
Among the tasks Granholm assigned Rasher is creating a report that includes a “proposed transformation in the way the state manages environmental quality to meet the needs of the 21st century that focuses on environmental integrity rather than concentrate on permitting.”
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