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.
Michigan stands to receive about $600 million in total aid once the House passes a bill that the Senate passed last week to give $26.1 billion in aid to the states for Medicaid funding and school aid funding to avoid teacher layoffs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the House back into session for tomorrow during a normal recess period in order to pass the bill.
The Detroit News reports on the numbers for Michigan:
Michigan is in line to get more than $600 million in school and Medicaid funding under a bill going to a vote before the U.S. House on Tuesday.
The $26.1 billion measure passed the Senate last week before members left Washington for their summer recess. It includes $10 billion for school districts to stave off teacher layoffs.
Michigan is slated to get more than $310 million in education money, the equivalent of 4,700 average teacher salaries, according to numbers provided by federal Department of Education.
Unfortunately, the $300 million that Michigan will get for Medicaid funding through the FMAP extension is $260 million short of the amount that was promised earlier this year, a figure that was then assumed as part of the budget proposals by Gov. Granholm and the legislature.
The additional education funding is slated to be used to avoid laying off teachers from local public school districts and it will be administered by the Michigan Department of Education.
But the news isn’t all good on this bill. In order to make it deficit-neutral and assure passage, the Senate chose to make cuts in food stamp funding at a time when more Americans than ever rely on that program.
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