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.
A former FBI agent is supporting the agents at the scene of the Dearborn raid during which Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah was killed, saying that it appears from the information he’s seen that they followed agency protocol in handcuffing Abdullah even after he had been shot more than 20 times.
The former agent said neither the fact that so many shots were fired nor that the body was handcuffed after the shooting was unusual. The Detroit News reports:
Agents would have been justified in firing if Abdullah had reached for a weapon, let alone having brandished a weapon and fired three shots, as Stejskal said he understands Abdullah did and as a person familiar with the investigation told The Detroit News.
In a space of three to four seconds, four agents fired an average of five shots each, striking Abdullah 20 times, with one shot creating two wounds for a total of 21 entry wounds, according to the medical examiner’s report and a person familiar with the investigation.
“Once you’ve made the decision to use deadly force, you fire until the threat is eliminated,” Stejskal said.
FBI procedures called for Abdullah to be immediately handcuffed when the agents approached, he said. Agents would have then checked for vital signs, found that he was already dead, and would have not disturbed the shooting scene by removing the handcuffs, he said.
It is not likely that activists are going to find this to be a compelling argument. Rep. John Conyers has called for a thorough investigation and could even hold hearings before the House Judiciary Committee, which he chairs.
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