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.
Most of the schools that are targeted for takeover by the Snyder administration are located in the Metro Detroit area.
Yesterday in an address on educational priorities Snyder said that Emergency Managers may be appointed for 23 school districts that are over $1 million in deficit.
The Detroit News reports that 18 of those schools are in Metro Detroit.
The districts range from Detroit and Inkster in Wayne County to Pontiac and Avondale in Oakland and East Detroit and Clintondale in Macomb. Each has more than a $1 million budget deficit and together they have an operating deficit of $440 million, state Department of Education documents show. The smallest district is Covert in Van Buren County with 579 students but a $3.2 million deficit.
The largest deficit is Detroit Public Schools’, at more than $327 million, but Benton Harbor’s school deficit — just under $16 million — is a higher percentage of its operating revenue, at more than 43 percent.
The News reports that layoffs are expected in the West Bloomfield School District where officials are struggling to close a $1.7 million deficit by June 30 in order to avoid takeover.
Under recently enacted Public Act 4 Emergency Managers have the power to void contracts, change academic programs and consolidate or dissolve schools.
Progress Michigan has published a map of financially stressed communities and schools at risk for state intervention.
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