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.
LAS VEGAS, NV — Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, told a crowd of 2,000 progressive bloggers and activists Saturday that while pressure is building for swift passage of the DREAM Act, it is unlikely to move until comprehensive immigration reform moves.
“There is a difference of opinion on how to move this forward,” Pelosi told the crowd, gathered for the fifth Netroots Nation conference. “The Hispanic Caucus doesn’t want us to take one part of comprehensive immigration reform which may be easier to pass — but instead pass it as part of comprehensive immigration reform.”
This news is likely to anger student activists who have been coordinating a concerted effort to move the Congress to pass the DREAM Act now. The legislation, if enacted, would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented youth who were brought to the United States at a very young age.
Speaking just hours after Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the DREAM Act won’t move in the Senate unless he is certain he has 60 votes.
“I am happy to do the DREAM Act,” Reid said. I’m not going to do the Dream Act unless I have 60 votes. I won’t disappoint all those young men and women.”
Reid prefaced the announcement by telling the story of meeting an undocumented youth who was top of her small high school. The young woman told Reid that she was unable to attend college because of her status as an undocumented resident. Reid said he thought the woman had it wrong, and when he found out she didn’t, he said that made him want to do something to help her and thousands of other young adults brought to the United States as children.
“No one has worked harder on immigration reform than me,” Reid said. “And I have the scars to prove it.”
As Reid spoke four young adults walked up the barricade before the stage. They were dressed in graduation gowns and caps. This is a visual tactic being used by undocumented youth who have unleashed a coordinated effort to pressure the Congress to pass the DREAM Act.
Ann Arbor resident Mohammad Abdollahi is one of the organizers of the direct action group which has staged a shut down of a major freeway in California and did a sit in in Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) Tucson office.
Abdollahi was arrested at the sit in, and is now facing deportation. As a gay youth from Iran, if he is returned to Iran he faces torture and execution for being gay.
The issue of immigration has become a flash point issue nationally after Arizona passed SB 1070. The new law allows law enforcement to inquire about a person’s citizenship during contact such as a traffic stop. Critics of the law say it demands law enforcement engage in racial profiling. Michigan has joined other states in considering a similar measure.
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