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 folks running around Michigan with petitions to opt the state out of the recently enacted federal health care reform have a new argument: The legislation will lead to fewer marriages and ruin many existing ones.
Wendy Day, director of the Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom, has a blog on RightMichigan.com arguing just that. MCHF is a coalition of Tea Party and anti-tax forces sponsoring the ballot initiative to opt out of national healthcare reform, and Day herself is a well known anti-tax, Tea Party advocate, and social conservative.
On her blog on RightMichigan.com, Day argues:
In the first few pages the law indicates that adults, up to age 26, can remain on their parents’ healthcare insurance policy. The catch is that the individual must remained unmarried to recieve (sic) the benefit.
According to the State of Michigan, 42% of men and 58% of women get married between the ages of 20 and 24. But what happens to that rate if the couple involved wants to stay on their parents’ healthcare insurance until age 26?
Will they be more likely to live together first? Only time will tell, but the new law gives young people an incentive to remain unmarried and live together instead. If that happens, those same couples are more likely to either not marry or get divorced if they do marry, at least according to a study quoted in the New York Times.
It ought to be noted she starts the blog by invoking the boogey man of the right wing social movement — “gay marriage.”
The irony is the New York Times article she cites, actually supports the idea of folks getting married after age 26. It also finds education is a key factor in determining the success of marriage followed by cohabitation.
Half of couples who cohabit marry within three years, the study found. If both partners are college graduates, the chances improve that they will marry and that their marriage will last at least 10 years.
“The figures suggest to me that cohabitation is still a pathway to marriage for many college graduates, while it may be an end in itself for many less educated women,” said Kelly A. Musick, a professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell.
Couples who marry after age 26 or have a baby eight months or more after marrying are also more likely to stay married for more than a decade
But hey, why waste time with facts when you have a petition drive to run?
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