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.
When the U.S. House of Representatives returns to Washington today for an unexpected session called by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in order to pass a bill to send $26.1 billion in aid to states to help fund Medicaid and prevent teacher layoffs, Rep. Mark Schauer (D-Battle Creek) will vote for the bill — despite concerns that the bill cuts food stamp funding in order to keep it deficit-neutral, as Republicans have demanded.
The Jackson Citizen Patriot reports divisions among advocates for the poor on whether the tradeoff of food stamps for Medicaid is worth it:
Robert Randels, executive director of the Food Bank of South Central Michigan, which provides food to eight counties, including Jackson, and provides food for about 30 locations in Jackson, said he hopes Congress doesn’t “vote to rob Peter to pay Paul.”
He said 50 percent of those who use food stamps have children and said it seems counterintuitive to talk about needing to help poor children, and then cut food stamp funding.
In Jackson County, distribution was up 33 percent in 2009, and he said it has increased 12 percent so far this year.
“We’re seeing an ever-increasing number of people showing up to pantries that never thought they were going to be there,” Randels said. “It’s not a good time to be making cuts on hunger programs.” …
Karen Holcomb-Merrill, state fiscal project director for the Michigan League for Human Services, said her organization supports passage of the bill, but wishes it didn’t also include the cuts to food stamps.
“Not only will it help the Medicaid, it will free up additional general fund dollars and alleviate cuts,” Holcomb-Merrill said. “We think it’s a really unfortunate situation that Congress feels the need to cut those benefits. We do not support those cuts.”
But, she said, if those benefits are going to be cut, at least it is going to support Medicaid.
“That’s certainly far better than other ways they may choose to use that money,” she said.
For comparison purposes, the U.S. spends approximately $16 billion a month for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And just last week it was revealed that nearly $9 billion worth of reconstruction funds in Iraq seems to have disappeared.
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