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 State Sen. Rick Jones (R-Grand Ledge) tells Michigan Messenger he does not “favor ending the Michigan Film Credit.”
“I think we need to carefully look at it and see if it needs to be trimmed back. I await Governor Rick Snyder’s recommendation on Feb. 17,” Jones says. “We want to continue to encourage young film makers from MSU to stay in Michigan.”
Snyder has expressed doubt about the necessity of continuing the tax credit. In a May campaign appearance in Grand Rapids Snyder said the incentive had to go, reported the Grand Rapids Press.
The state film tax credit is another program, Snyder said, that needs eliminating. The current system allows film companies to receive up to a 42 percent tax credit for filming in Michigan.
“It simply can’t work at that level,” he said. “The government is not qualified to pick winners and losers. That’s a case of the government being short-sighted.”
The statements come after Jones announced film makers are viewing locations in Grand Ledge for an upcoming Batman film. Jones made the announcement on his Facebook page.
A film company is investigating Grand Ledge for filming a new Batman movie. They looked at Fitzgerald Park, The Grand Ledge water treatment plant, and the underground vault area.
The new film is called “The Dark Knight Rises,” and production is slated for New Orleans, the U.K and Detroit. Producers shifted the production from Chicago in favor of Detroit, reported the Ann Arbor News in January.
If filmmakers decide on any of the Grand Ledge locations, it will be the second big budget film to use the Eaton county town west of Lansing. Fitzgerald Park contains rock cliffs known as “The Ledges” by locals. The Grand River runs through the area and carved the feature into the land.
“Grand Ledge has already had one movie made there. The remake of ‘Red Dawn.’ Unfortunately, its release is held up because of a bankruptcy issue in the movie industry (that’s my understanding from reading about it),” Jones says. “They actually made fake caves along the Ledges in the Fitzgerald Park. The park was closed for a few days to film and have some explosions.”
Jones said he heard about the Batman scouting expedition from the director of parks for Eaton county.
Jones points to the continued tourism trade bringing people to Mackinac Island to see the Grand Hotel, which was featured in the 1980 Christopher Reeve film “Somewhere in Time.”
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