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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

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 [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

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.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

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.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

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.

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Granholm joins Dow Chemical board of directors

By Eartha Jane Melzer | 03.24.11 | 3:11 pm

Just months after ending an eight year long term as governor, Jennifer Granholm has joined the Dow Chemical board of directors.

In announcing her new role Dow Chairman and CEO Andrew Liveris said that Ganholm has a “demonstrated track record of cultivating many public-sector and private-sector collaborations that have laid the groundwork for profitable and sustainable growth for 21st century manufacturing.”

The Midland Daily News reports:

Granholm’s appointment may seem a natural fit for Dow, a Michigan company that has invested heavily in clean energy fields such as solar and battery technology as the company has transformed itself in recent years. As governor, Granholm made multiple stops in Midland to highlight hundreds of millions in state tax incentives for Dow and its subsidiaries for clean energy projects that have boosted job opportunities in the region.

Tax breaks aren’t the only way the Granholm administration helped Dow Chemical.

Dow is responsible for a 52 mile long plume of chemical contamination that stretches from its Midland plant through the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers and into Lake Huron’s Saginaw Bay.

In her role as governor Granholm argued against having the federal government declare the contaminated area a Superfund site — a move that could have allowed for relocation of people living in the contaminated zone.

Comments

  • Neill D varner

    Interesting observation that two of the past administration’s superstars: Jennifer Granholm and Andy Coulouris have both joined the DOW family , one as a Board member, the other as a lobbyist. NOt to forget to mention the Chamber of Commerce, Veronica Horn’s, role there….this transition could portend ‘good’ for the chemical giant which has been besieged with environmental concerns by an outraged public …Voices from the very public ex-Governor’s office , Michigan Legislature , and Saginaw County Chamber of Commerce can do a lot to dispel the demonizing of DOW albeit at some risk to their own credibility……..we wish them and DOW good luck as future remediation strategies at contamination sites evolve………

    • Anonymous

      You really don’t see a conflict? Wishing Dow good luck. What’s that? How about some luck for the people who are taking up this poison.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1580611162 Betsy Rose

    Very sad and disappointing. Just a bunch of crooks the ex-governor and dow chemical. Poisioning people and the environment to line their pockets.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1580611162 Betsy Rose

    Very sad and disappointing. Just a bunch of crooks the ex-governor and dow chemical. Poisioning people and the environment to line their pockets.

  • Neill D varner

    “Good Luck” is, indeed, an imperative where remediation at sites of contamination is concerned……Knowing what to do is not easy and doing it more difficult yet…SImply moving contamination from one location to another does little overall to ‘remediate’ a spoiled environment…….to resort to ad hominem abuse is tempting when dealing with high profile people involved in social issues but little is ever accomplished except to vent one’s spleen. The topic of environmental contamination by industry , of governmental regulations designed to lessen its impact, and of grass-roots movements …well-intended— to mitigate against health-destroying exposures have become intertwined in the fabric of modern life and have been chronicled along the way in many books beginning as long as as the early 1900′s THE JUNGLE by Upton Sinclair, the 1958 A SILENT SPRING, by Rachel Carson, the 1995 A CIVIL ACTION by Jonathan Harr, the 2004 AN AIR THAT KILLS by Andrew Schneider and David McCumber and others…………well-chosen words seldom need explanation, so I apologize if mine fall short…we are ALL in this together inasmuch as we share the space where, in an age of nuclear energy, geographic bou ndaries are meaningless……

  • Anonymous

    “In her role as governor Granholm argued against having the federal government declare the contaminated area a Superfund site — a move that could have allowed for relocation of people living in the contaminated zone. ” Just more proof that a politician is a politician is a politician.

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