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.
Here’s another odd twist to the dispute over abortion and the health care reform bill. Despite opposition from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Catholic Health Association — which represents more than 2,000 Catholic hospitals and medical providers in the United States — has officially endorsed the health care reform bill currently being taken up by the House. You can view their statement here (PDF).
The letter to legislators says:
On behalf of the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA), the national leadership organization of more than 2,000 Catholic health care sponsors, systems, hospitals, long-term care facilities, and related organizations, I am writing to urge you to move quickly to enact health reform by passing the Senate-approved legislation in conjunction with a second “corrections” bill providing for necessary legislative fixes that will improve the overall package.
The CHA does advocate that several things about the Senate bill be changed after it is passed, including addition of language preventing any federal funding of abortion. But that, they say, should not stop the passage of the bill in the first place. It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on Catholic legislators like those Democrats aligned with Rep. Bart Stupak against the bill due to abortion issues.
It’s unlikely that this will change Stupak’s position; he’s far too committed to it publicly to be able to pull back now. But it could perhaps sway a few of the dozen or so legislators he has claimed to speak for over the last couple weeks. And with this vote likely to be extraordinarily close, every vote counts.
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