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 Marquette jury has found Cynthia Pryor guilty of trespassing on state land leased to the Kennecott Eagle Minerals Company.
Pryor is the sulfide mine campaign director for the Yellow Dog Watershed Preserve. She was arrested and charged with trespassing on April 20 after she refused to leave land on the Yellow Dog Plains that had been leased to Kennecott by the state. Pryor said that she believes that Kennecott’s lease is not valid because the company has not obtained a necessary federal environmental permit for the mine.
According to Kennecott’s lease with the state, all necessary permits for the project must be obtained before the lease is valid.
The Marquette Mining Journal reports that Marquette County District Court Judge Roger Kangas did not allow testimony and exhibits relating to the validity of Kennecott’s lease on the land.
Assistant Marquette County Prosecuting Attorney David Payant argued Koch had no standing to argue a violation of the lease terms between the state and Kennecott.
“Even if there was a violation of the lease as part of the permitting process, that doesn’t matter in a trespassing case,” Payant said.
Koch suggested there are differences between breaches of a public versus private lease. “If Ms. Pryor, as a member of the public, doesn’t have standing in a violation on public land, no one does,” Koch said.
Kangas said the state is the entity in charge of enforcing the lease. He said if a breach occurred, it doesn’t give anyone from the public the right to go onto the property.
Shortly after Pryor’s April arrest, another group of mine opponents gathered on the land in question in an effort to block mine development and protect a bedrock outcropping known as Eagle Rock which has cultural significance to area tribes.
A month into the encampment Kennecott ordered the demonstrators removed.
Two members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community — Chris Chosa and Charlotte Loons foot — refused to leave the area and were charged with trespassing. They are scheduled to face jury trials in early August.
Pryor has not yet been sentenced.
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