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.
On Monday, a federal judge sentenced a suburban Detroit man to four years in prison for his role in a 2005 stock fraud scheme that included $2.7 million in ill-gotten gains. The man, Alan Ralsky of Oakland County’s West Bloomfield Township, was accused by the feds of being one of the most prolific spammers in the world.
A story in today’s Detroit Free Press provides some of the background:
Alan Ralsky, 63, pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and to violating the federal CAN-SPAM Act, which bans misleading subject lines in e-mail and the sending of commercial e-mail messages that appear to be from friends.
An indictment in U.S. District Court in Detroit charged that Ralsky of West Bloomfield, his son-in-law Scott Bradley and others used unsolicited e-mail to pump up the price of penny stock in Chinese companies to artificially high prices, and then sold it.
The Associated Press’ account provided this epilogue — of sorts — to the case:
Ralsky told Detroit U.S. District Judge Marianne Battani during Monday’s sentencing that he took full responsibility for his crimes. He said his company specialized in mass Internet mailings, and he entered the business with good intentions.
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