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.
With the mood in Washington trending toward deep budget cuts, environmental groups are concerned that funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative may be slashed by Congress.
The Detroit Free Press reports:
Nonprofit groups across the eight-state region had hoped for a major influx of money to improve wildlife habitat, dredge toxic sediments left by industrial sources, fix beach pollution and upgrade crumbling sewer systems, as President Barack Obama promised during his campaign.
Obama proposed and Congress approved $475 million to kick-start the initiative last year, providing funding for hundreds of projects and creating jobs, said Jeff Skelding, director of the multistate Healing Our Waters Coalition.
But Congress has yet to approve the amount Obama requested for the 2011 fiscal year, $300 million, to continue the program and the administration has said it plans further cuts for 2012. In a column in Sunday’s New York Times, Obama’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jacob Lew, specifically named the Great Lakes Restoration as one of three programs the president will cut in 2012. That could stall the work now under way, directors of several environmental groups said.
If the White House isn’t willing to fight for that funding, it will be very difficult to imagine a scenario whereby the funding remains in place.
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