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.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is under pressure to approve the construction of a new pipeline for oil from the Canadian tar sands region. The pipeline, known as the Keystone XL, would be built by the TransCanada Corp. and would stretch from Alberta to Texas, doubling the export of tar sands oil to the U.S.
A group of 11 Senators is urging Clinton to require more review of the plan because it calls for the pipeline to run through prime Midwestern farmland and bisect the enormous Ogallala Aquifer which supplies water to people in eight states.
The Hill reports that TransCanada is pushing back.
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, TransCanada President and CEO Russell Girling argues a draft environmental impact analysis from the State Department of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline expansion already “fully takes into account all reasonable alternatives and satisfies the Department’s obligations and the public’s interests.”
“There is no justification” for conducting another environmental review, Girling wrote, noting the current review has gone on for two years. “It has been open and transparent and has provided ample opportunity for public involvement,” he wrote.
Meanwhile the Natural Resources Defense Council is warning about the environment fallout that Canadian tar sand development is having for migratory birds.
The group reports that last week a flock of about 350 ducks died after landing in a toxic tailings pond associated with a tar sands strip mine.
Already covering 65 square miles of what was once pristine Boreal forests and wetlands, the tar sands mine waste tailings ponds are growing every day. The problems of the tailings ponds are yet another reason that the United States should say no to the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that would drive expansion of yet more tar sands strip-mines and their accompanying tailings waste ponds.
The Enbridge oil spill in Marshall this summer involved oil from the Canadian tar sands.
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