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.
Chris Christoff of the Detroit Free Press has an entirely unsurprising article about how state offices that handle unemployment, food stamps and Medicaid are being overrun with new clients as Michigan continues to lead the nation in unemployment and the Department of Human services has been cut to the bone with 320 recent layoffs.
The article tells this typical story:
People such as Tricia Baysdell, 30, of Troy, who, like many, is battling the worst economy of her life.
Last week, she waited five hours with her 9-year-old son at the Department of Human Services office in Madison Heights to apply for food assistance and Medicaid. She gave up waiting so she could pick up her other two children from school.
Baysdell’s husband was laid off this month from his $70,000-a-year job at an auto supplier. He has been diagnosed with chronic leukemia and can’t receive unemployment pay because he can no longer work.
“It’s just frustrating,” said Baysdell, who earns $8 an hour as a hotel housekeeper. But she returned to the DHS office three days later when it was less crowded and got prompt assistance — and apologies from the staff.
Since 2005 the number of Michigan residents on food assistance has grown by more than half a million, from 1.1 million to 1.65 million. In that same time period the number of residents on Medicaid has grown by 350,000. And at the peak of the crisis, the state legislature passed a budget with massive cuts to the Department of Human Services and cuts to Medicaid reimbursement.
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