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 Detroit News has an interesting look behind the scenes of the Obama administration’s auto taskforce as it debated what to do about the sinking financial fortunes of GM and Chrysler after taking office in January. The article is based on an interview with the chairman of that taskforce, Steven Rattner, and an account he published recently in Fortune magazine. There are several fascinating bits of information not previously known.
Rattner indicates that when they started looking at the figures, the taskforce was “shocked, even beyond our low expectations” by how bad the situation was in both companies, but particularly in Chrysler. The group deadlocked 4-4 on whether to just let Chrysler go bankrupt, with President Obama breaking the tie when he decided that the economy just could not sustain the loss of another 300,000 jobs all at once.
The taskforce entertained arguments that the auto industry might eventually be better off without Chrysler, but as Rattner puts it, they ultimately could not let those arguments win the day because “we were dealing with people’s lives, not mice.”
The article also sheds light on the firing of Rick Wagoner as CEO of General Motors, noting that the taskforce was appalled by his constant passing of the buck and pointing the finger at anything but the company’s own mismanagement. Rattner also says that Fritz Henderson was the only person seriously considered to replace Wagoner because they could not afford to go outside the company to find someone to right the ship.
The full article is well worth a look.
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