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.
Dakotah Eliason, 14, of Niles faces a charge of open murder in the March 7 killing of his grandfather, Jesse Miles. Berrien County Prosecutor Arthur Cotter has opted to file the case in adult court, the Niles Star reports, and under Michigan’s controversial sentencing guidelines Eliason could face life in jail without possibility of parole.
Nearly 350 Michigan inmates are serving life without parole sentences for crimes that they committed while juveniles.
State Sen. Liz Brater (D-Ann Arbor) has introduced legislation to end mandatory life sentences for juveniles.
Last year she told Michigan Messenger, “It is inhumane and it is inappropriate to take children before their brains are fully developed and subject them to same sentence that adults would get.”
Brater’s legislation has stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue an opinion this spring on whether life without parole for juveniles is cruel and unusual punishment.
According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, Berrien County has one of the highest rates of juvenile life without parole sentences in Michigan.
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