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.
After numerous reports of this taking place over the last week, Gov. Rick Snyder announced that he is appointing Michigan Supreme Court Justice Maura Corrigan to lead the Department of Human Services.
Corrigan has tendered her resignation from the high court and it will be effective on Jan. 14. Snyder said he expect to name her replacement prior to that date in order to assure “a smooth transition.”
Snyder said the search for Corrigan’s replacement is underway, and he will apply the same standards he has for his searches for top department heads.
Corrigan will take the reigns of a department under court orders to increase the number of case workers dealing with child abuse and neglect cases and will work with recent appointments former state Rep. Dudley Spade and attorney Brian Rooney. Rooney has been appointed with an eye towards hunting down fraud and abuse in the system.
Snyder told the press on Thursday that avoiding a contempt of court ruling against the department was a “number one priority,” for his administration.
Corrigan agreed with that, and said the department was currently working to hire 500 to 600 new employees for the department. In early retirement deals under Granholm’s budget austerity plan, the department lost some 1,300 employees. Corrigan says those positions have to be filled quickly in order to avert violating the federal court order’s consent decree.
“That’s a number one problem for us,” Corrigan said of the employee drain.
Corrigan said she plans to rely on recommendations from employees on how to improve the department. She plans to meet with employees within two weeks of starting the job as director of the Department of Human Services.
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