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.
The Detroit Free Press has joined the fight to fix the constitutional crisis in Michigan’s public defender system with an editorial calling for legislative action. Noting that Michigan currently ranks 44th in the nation in spending on indigent defense, the editorial rightly declares, “Even in tough times, upholding constitutional rights and keeping innocent people out of prison ought to be a priority.”
And the editorial notes that failing to fix the system during tough economic times is pennywise and pound foolish:
An effective public defense system will save money by reducing wrongful-conviction lawsuits, keeping innocent people out of prison and making sure defendants who can’t afford counsel don’t get unjustifiably long sentences.
Every inmate costs taxpayers $35,000 — far too high a price to pay for those who are wrongfully convicted or unreasonably sentenced because of bad lawyering.
Not to mention the cost to society of keeping the real criminals on the street after police close a case thinking they’ve convicted the perpetrator. And the cost in lives ruined by wrongful convictions and the civil suits they may win should they ultimately be found to be innocent.
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