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.
13 of the 55 freighters that operate on the Great Lakes will likely be exempted from a proposed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air pollution rule that would require ships operating within 200 miles of a coast to burn cleaner fuel and upgrade their engines, AP reports.
Smog-producing freighter emissions result in thousands of premature deaths due to heart disease, respiratory illness and cancer, according to EPA.
Republican Congresswoman Candice Miller of Michigan was among those who negotiated for an exemption for the freighters.
The shipping industry has argued that upgrading the vessels would increase costs and endanger jobs in the Midwest.
The House is expected to vote on the measure soon.
As written, [the rules] would require ships by 2012 to burn fuel with sulfur content not exceeding 1 percent, or 10,000 parts per million. In 2015, the limit would drop to 1,000 parts per million.
The 13 Great Lakes steamships are powered by a type of marine fuel that carries about 30,000 parts per million of sulfur.
This is not the only recent environmental rule exemption for Great Lakes shipping.
In June EPA gave the coal-powered passenger ship S.S. Badger until 2012 to come up with an alternative to dumping coal ash into Lake Michigan.
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