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 proposed House bill that would require members of the Natural Resources Commission to have a history of purchasing hunting and fishing licenses would turn the group that oversees the Department of Natural Resources and Environment into a gun club, critics say.
Gayle Miller, legislative director for the Michigan chapter of the Sierra Club warns that HB 5994 eliminates the requirements that NRC members have experience in key areas of NRC responsibility and instead requires only that commission members be hunters or anglers.
In a notice posted to the enviro-mich listserv Miller states:
The NRC has a broad range of responsibilities that requires its members to have a range of experience, expertise and perspective. This bill would create a myopic commission that only considers the needs of the hunting and fishing community – rather than the much broader needs of ecosystems, wildlife populations and user groups (the majority of whom do not hunt).
The current NRC is not ignoring the needs of hunters and anglers. They do a fine job. So what is the purpose of this bill? Changing the NRC into a equivalent of a gun club does a disservice to science, conservation, protection of vulnerable species and the many other issues that the NRC is supposed to address.
Rep. Joel Sheltrown(D-West Branch) is the primary sponsor of the bill. The House Committee on Tourism, Outdoor Recreation and Natural Resources is scheduled to consider the bill on April 20.
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