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 Detroit Free Press reports on documents they’ve obtained from the ongoing corruption investigation into Detroit politics which show Rayford Jackson, the Synagro executive now in prison for bribing city officials to get a sludge-hauling contract, listing all of the various political insiders who demanded money from him to get the contract passed by the city council.
As he crisscrossed Detroit in a $415,000 Rolls Royce Phantom, Synagro’s Rayford Jackson complained bitterly about the politicians and community activists demanding cash for support of a 2007 sludge-disposal contract.
Jackson was being extorted by Detroit power brokers, he said in documents the Free Press obtained. He was so frustrated, he said, he never wanted to do business in Detroit again — the cost was just too steep.
Among those demanding money for support: some City Council members, board of education candidates, political consultants and activists. They wanted cash, contributions to pet causes, jobs or deals, according to previously undisclosed records in the federal probe of metro Detroit corruption.
Among those implicated in the alleged bribes: former Detroit City Council members Barbara-Rose Collins and Martha Reeves and former Detroit Board of Education Chair Otis Mathis, who is now also facing charges of criminal lewd behavior for allegedly fondling himself in front of the school’s superintendent.
Four people have already pleaded guilty to bribery and corruption charges stemming from the Synagro scandal, including Jackson, former city council chair Monica Conyers, and her former aide Sam Riddle. Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is facing new fraud and tax evasion charges partly stemming from Synagro payments.
The federal investigation into corruption in Detroit politics is likely to snare several more leading city politicos before it’s done.
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