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.
Five homeless sex offenders are asking a federal judge to bar the state from prosecuting them if they stay in Grand Rapids area homeless shelters. The move came as part of a lawsuit by offenders and two homeless shelters in Grand Rapids. Those shelters are located in so-called Student Safety Zones, which officials have said prevent the homeless offenders from using the facilities.
The Grand Rapids Press reports that the attorney for the offenders, Miriam Aukerman, filed the motion in court this week. In that filing she wrote:
“If a Student Safety Zone law is interpreted to prohibit homeless registrants from accessing emergency shelters, then registrants are faced with a ‘do or die’ choice…They can commit a crime by staying in a shelter, or risk injury or death by sleeping in the street.”
The issue is particularly pressing in Grand Rapids, where a homeless sex offender froze to death because he was turned away from a shelter.
But homeless offenders have also pinged state lawmaker’s radars when the Appeals Court ruled earlier this year that if a sex offender is homeless, he or she does not have to register. Michigan State Police officials have reported that ruling has resulted in a “dramatic” increase in the number of self identified homeless offenders.
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