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 National Republican Congressional Committee is reserving $22 million worth of ad time leading up to the November elections, most of it in districts currently held by Democrats that may be vulnerable — including two races here in Michigan. Politico reports on how this strategy differs from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee:
While Democrats have reserved ad time in 60 races to date, the vast majority of those reservations—54 of them—are designed to protect vulnerable incumbents. Republicans, on the other hand, are investing in an almost entirely offensive effort. Of the 40 seats covered in the NRCC buy, 39 are currently held by Democrats.
The bulk of the Democrats in the crosshairs are vulnerable first-term legislators sitting in Republican-oriented seats. Many are clustered in the South, including Rep. Bobby Bright (D-Ala.), Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-Fla.), Rep. Travis Childers (D-Miss.), Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.) and Rep. Glenn Nye (D-Va.).
Republicans are also looking toward a handful of Republican-leaning seats that have been left vacant by Democratic retirements. Among them: Arkansas’s 1st District, Indiana’s 8th District, Kansas’s 3rd District, and Tennessee’s 8th District.
Also on the list: Michigan’s 1st District, a seat vacated by the retirement of Rep. Bart Stupak, and 7th District, currently occupied by Rep. Mark Schauer, a first-term Democrat. Schauer is being challenged by Tim Walberg, the man he defeated as an incumbent in 2008.
Republicans obviously feel that those are two seats they can take back this year and they may well be right. If I were handicapping the race, I’d make Republican Dan Benishek the favorite in the 1st and Schauer the favorite in the 7th.
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