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 move by the EPA and state officials to drop the water level in Allegan Lake has resulted in a fish kill in “the hundreds” the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Environment reported Thursday.
The lake was ordered reduced by two feet in preparation for the off chance there was a major rain event which caused EPA officials to lose containment of the oil spill in the Kalamazoo River. Consumer’s Energy which controls the dam at Allegan Lake has been ordered to increase the water level back up, and it is expected to be up 15 inches by this evening, officials said.
“I was out on the lake at 1:45 and the number is probably in the hundreds,” said DNRE’s Jim Dexter.
He said the draw down also impacted several species of mussels the MDNRE was not aware were present in the lake. Two of those species are considered endangered or threatened (pdf) by the MDNRE, Dexter said. Dexter identified those species as the black fanshell and fawnsfoot mussel species.
“I can tell you we were quite surprised at the variety of mussels discovered last night,” Dexter said.
“Mussels do have the ability to survive out of the water for some time,” Dexter said. “They will probably be alright once they are watered.”
He said he expected the mussel kill to be “low impact.”
The decision to drop the water level down was made by the unified command team, which includes the EPA, Enbridge and state and local officials.
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