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 coalition of Great Lakes conservation groups is asking President Obama to appoint a “federal incident commander” to coordinate the federal response to the threat posed to the Great Lakes by invasive Asian carp.
Last week months of positive Asian carp DNA samples were confirmed when a 20 lb. Bighead Asian carp was caught in a lake connected to Lake Michigan.
Today nine environmental groups including the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Resources Defense Council warned that Asian carp migration is a crisis that threatens the country’s largest freshwater ecosystem and they urged the president to intervene.
The groups wrote:
The likelihood that Asian carp are moving toward the Lakes through other waters connected to the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers signals the immediate need to establish clear authority, responsibility, accountability, transparency and leadership for federal action in this crisis.
In light of the of the clear need for a focused and disciplined response that is commensurate to the urgency of the threat, we are alarmed by the lack of coordinated action and urgency shown by federal agencies in advancing real solutions to the Asian carp crisis, and particularly the lackadaisical approach of the US Army Corps of Engineers in moving forward with its Great Lakes Mississippi River Interbasin Study (GLMRIS) of long-term solutions.
Carp control efforts are now being coordinated through the multi-agency Asian Carp Regional Coordinating Committee.
In their letter to the President the conservation groups said that direct presidential involvement is needed to ensure the carp control efforts have appropriate urgency and that they are based on the best available science.
Accordingly, we strongly support the call of Senator Richard Durbin, Senator Debbie Stabenow, and other Senators for the appointment of a “federal incident commander”, reporting directly to you, to assure the appropriate coordination, focus and action required to fix the threats posed to our irreplaceable fresh water seas, the Great Lakes. Our nation cannot afford the loss of another great water resource.
Experts have warned that the fast growing Asian carp could destroy Great Lakes fisheries by eating all available food.
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