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.
Upper Peninsula lawmakers that oppose a ballot measure to regulate uranium and sulfide mines have failed to recognize that protecting Michigan’s water is essential to maintaining the U.P.’s tourism industry, according to Save the Wild UP, and have instead become “the mouthpiece for pro-mining propaganda.”
Earlier this week, Sen. Mike Prusi (D-Ishpeming), Sen. Jason Allen (R-Traverse City), Rep. Mike Lahti (D-Hancock), Rep. Steve Lindberg (D-Marquette) and Rep. Judy Nerat (D-Wallace) cast the proposed 2010 ballot measure as the work of wealthy “special interests” intent on turning the U.P. into their private playground.
In a statement released today, Save the Wild UP Director Kristi Mills responded:
Recreational and environmental tourism is the lifeblood of Upper Michigan’s economy. Visitation to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore alone potentially generates $100 million over a five year period, (based on 2008 figures) which is $30 million more than what the proposed Eagle Mine would produce. In addition, tourism doesn’t impose heavy utility lines, toxic tailings, industrial haul roads into remote, wild areas, or threaten the water quality of our local watersheds and Great Lakes.
Finally, the ballot initiative DOES NOT “ban mining” as our legislators erroneously assert. Currently no rules exist for uranium mining, so logically we need tough regulations to mine an intensely toxic and radioactive substance to protect health and water quality. The same can be said for sulfide mining that threatens our pure water with hard-to-control acid mine drainage. New ballot legislation would safeguard our resources by strengthening the existing mining law. We agree with the lawmakers when they say, “The people of the U.P. should have the right to decide what is in their region’s best
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