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 former aide to State Sen. Michelle McManus (R-Lake Leelanau) who worked on her 1998 congressional campaign claims that McManus directed her to break election law and to sign a false affidavit to conceal that act.
Christi Carpenter told the Traverse City Record Eagle, that during that campaign McManus told her to sign her name to dozens of nominating petitions that had been circulated by other people. When Democrats and her Republican primary opponent challenged the validity of the positions, Carpenter said, McManus pressured her to sign a false affidavit stating that she had circulated the petitions. Carpenter, who was 18 at the time, said that McManus told her she would face criminal charges if she did not sign.
“Michelle knew about it, knew about my problems with signing it and urged me to sign it, despite it being false,” she said.
A few days later, Carpenter said she was handed a new affidavit that stated she signed the petitions, but was “unaware that this was improper.” She signed that affidavit, then put in her two weeks notice and subsequently quit the campaign.
“The fact that they asked me and tried to persuade me to sign a false affidavit is what pushed me over the edge and caused me to leave the campaign,” she said.
Carpenter now lives in California and told the Record Eagle that she has no stake in the Secretary of State race but believes her experience with McManus is relevant today.
“(McManus) doesn’t have a full and deep understanding, a sophisticated understanding, of the law and how things work together in the state,” Carpenter said. “I just don’t think she has the ideas or the ability to manage the Secretary of State.”
Carpenter’s story is not the first account of campaign violations and pressure tactics by the longtime Northern Michigan politician.
Earlier this week Grand Traverse County Clerk Linda Coburn told the Traverse City paper that Michelle McManus and her father Mike McManus had pressured her to change affidavits submitted by candidates who sought election as precinct delegates on the Aug. 3 primary ballot.
This weekend Republican delegates select a nominee for Secretary of State at their state party convention in Lansing.
The Republican candidates for Secretary of State are Calhoun County Clerk Anne Norlander, Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson, State Rep. Paul Scott (R-Grand Blanc), State Sen. Cameron Brown (R-Sturgis), and Michelle McManus.
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