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 GOP primary race for governor has been weighted with attack promotional materials since February. Websites, robocalls, radio commercials and television ads have targeted nearly all of the candidates at one time or another.
But Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, who is polling in fourth place in the five way race, says the ads are much ado about nothing.
In an interview on WJR, Bouchard had this to say:
“This campaign has to be focused on how we’re going to bring back jobs to the state,” Bouchard told host Paul W. Smith. “The building is on fire, and talking about what’s happening at our backyard barbecue is kind of irrelevant.”
That conversation fits right in with Bouchard’s tactics from the Detroit Chamber of Commerce Mackinaw Island debate. There, as Attorney General Mike Cox and Ann Arbor Businessman Rick Snyder shot nasty barbs at one and other, Bouchard responded:
“I’d like to talk about where we might take this state, if you don’t mind.”
The irony is that Bouchard is the GOP candidate who has hired Scott Howell and Company, one of the most notorious producers of negative ads in all of politics. So far, however, his campaign has not produced any controversial ads aimed at other candidates.
Meanwhile, Mike Cox who made waves with his first round of ads which attacked Congressman Pete Hoekstra, is crying foul over the publication of leaked, un-aired commercials from his campaign. On Monday, four commercials of current and former law enforcement officials, as well as the father of the now-deceased prosecutor on the Kilpatrick case, were posted to YouTube. The commercials defend Cox for his handling of the Kilpatrick scandal, particularly the Manoogian Mansion party claims.
In the ads, each speaker refers to opponents as “thugs” — a favorite of the right wing conservative movement in attacking opponents — and defends Cox as honorable.
The commercials were allegedly stolen, and Cox has called for a criminal investigation. And the whole Kilpatrick mess has been nipping at Cox’s heels for months. The fact those four ads exist at all says Cox is worried about what happens if Kilpatrick and his Detroit antics become front row center distractions for Cox’s team and the governor’s race.
Also posted online was a video purporting to show internal polling numbers from Cox’s campaign. The polling numbers were not legible in the video.
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