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.
Michigan beekeepers say an initiative to rid the state of an invasive species could hurt their business, according to a report by the Associated Press.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have teamed up to introduce a bug that feeds on the invasive spotted knapweed plant. The plant produces a chemical which inhibits the growth of other plants and chokes out native species. But beekeepers like the plant because it blooms later in the summer when many native plants aren’t blooming. That gives their bees access to needed nectar to continue making honey.
Michigan is one of the top ten producers of bees and often ships hives to Florida and California to pollinate fruit and vegetable crops in those states. The move to eliminate the knapweed comes as the industry is struggling with the mysterious die off of bee colonies. Colony Collapse Syndrome has killed off an estimated 30 percent of the bees.
Beekeepers say the knapweed is essential to their industry.
“If it wasn’t for this plant, we wouldn’t even be here,” said Kirk Jones, the 57-year-old founder of Sleeping Bear Farms in the northwest Lower Peninsula community of Beulah. If knapweed control efforts prove successful, he said: “It could be detrimental to the future of the beekeeping industry.”
But state officials say the goal is not total elimination of the plant, but an attempt to curb its growth. The state released two species of flies that feed on the plant in the 90s, but it didn’t help. They have now released a weavil to eat the plant.
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