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.
Ottawa County Circuit Court Judge Jon Van Allsburg has ordered the state to reconsider its denial of an air permit for the expansion of the James DeYoung coal-fired power plant in Holland.
In August the Michigan Dept. of Natural Resources and Environment rejected a Holland Board of Public Works proposal to build a new 78 megawatt boiler at the DeYoung plant on the grounds that the increased capacity was not needed.
The Holland Sentinel reports that Van Allsburg said the MDNRE was wrong to base its permit decision on need.
Van Allsburg also ordered the MDNRE to disregard Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s executive directive that the state agency consider a needs analysis.
He agreed with the Attorney General Mike Cox’s assessment that Granholm’s executive directive was an attempt to amend the state law, violating the state constitution’s principle of separation of powers.
Van Allsburg called the decision “capricious” and based on a “whim.”
Although the city asked the judge to require that the state issue the air permit immediately, he gave the MDNRE 60 days.
The Holland Board of Public Works is not the only group fighting the state’s approach to coal plant regulation.
In May, citing a lack of need for the power, the state denied an air permit for the Wolverine Power Cooperative which planned a 600 megawatt coal plant in Rogers City. Now, in a case that is pending in Missaukee County circuit court Wolverine is asking that the MDNRE permit denial be overturned and that the governor’s executive order on coal be declared unconstitutional. Attorney General Mike Cox has joined Wolverine in this case.
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