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.
HIV activists from the group Michigan Positive Action Coalition have issued a press statement encouraging people with infectious diseases, including H1N1, HIV or the common cold, to call the Macomb County prosecutor and “voluntarily turn themselves in” to be charged with terrorism.
In the statement issued by Mark Peterson, a director for the group, activists called the charges leveled against 44-year-old Clinton Township resident Daniel Allen “ridiculous.”
Allen was charged Nov. 2 under Michigan’s 2004 anti-terror laws. He was charged with possession or use of a harmful device, which carries a prison sentence of up to 25 years. He has also been charged with assault and assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than death from an Oct. 18 fight with a neighbor. During that fight, Winfred Fernandis, Jr. alleges that Allen bit his lip.
Fernandis claims in a police report that Allen’s attack was unprovoked, but Allen says Fernandis began the fight, and that Fernandis’ wife, Denise, and the couple’s child, participated in the attack. Allen says he does not remember biting Fernandis, but he does remember feeling his fingers in Fernandis’ mouth.
Fox 2 News in Detroit got Allen to admit he was HIV-positive, and as a result Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith added the terrorism charge. Smith and his staff are essentially arguing, using a Michigan Court of Appeals ruling, that because HIV-infected blood is considered a harmful biological substance in the state, that Allen’s biting act constituted an act of bio-terror.
State Rep. Mark Meadows, an East Lansing Democrat and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called the charge “silly” in an interview with Michigan Messenger.
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter