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 endorsement season in the city of Detroit is fully upon us. With the Nov. 3 city election approaching fast and furious, voters are gaining a clearer picture of who’s backing whom — whether or not that info actually moves any votes.
The 800-pound gorilla of endorsers — the Detroit Free Press — announced the sequel to its “Team Turnaround” slate of endorsees from the August 4 primary in its Sunday edition.
Only two incumbents made the list — Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. and Councilor Brenda Jones — along with seven challengers. The endorsed challengers are retired Detroit deputy policy chief Gary Brown; businessman Fred Elliott Hall; self-employed CPA Lisa Howze; nonprofit director Saunteel Jenkins; ex-local TV journalist Charles Pugh; pastor Andre Spivey; and another police department veteran, former second deputy chief James Tate.
Also on the city endorsement beat, the Detroit News has a front-page story today on what some candidates must pay — literally — to win the backing of some venerable Detroit civic and political organizations. Or at least that’s the sinister, pay-to-play implication. Groups like the Original Eastside Slate, the Community Coalition and Fannie Lou Hamer PAC say that the contributions they solicit from candidates merely fund expensive campaign mailings to thousands of voters, or fund the small armies of get-out-the-vote volunteers on Election Day.
Ernest Johnson, head of the Community Coalition, told Detroit News reporter David Josar that it seeks $1,000 from endorsed council candidates. The purpose?
“We tell candidates we need their help getting the word out,” Johnson said. “This is just part of the process.”
Sounds innocent, right? In the story, Josar includes some nice historical context for the practice of “paying for endorsements” — or helping underwrite endorsers’ operating costs, to put it a tad more delicately. It’s well worth the read.
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