Top Stories

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

HIV-AIDS-small
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

foreclosure
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

epa_logo
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.

ACLU wants DOJ to keep medical marijuana promises

By Ed Brayton | 05.11.11 | 8:01 am

The ACLU sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that the Obama administration live up their repeated promise not to prosecute people for using medical marijuana in compliance with state and local laws.

Though Obama and the DOJ have said several times that they would not use federal resources to go after those who are complying with state laws allowing the use of medical marijuana, U.S. Attorneys have been sending letters to state officials telling them that even state workers who handle regulation and licensing of the substance are at risk of federal arrest now.

In a press release, the ACLU said:

The ACLU also says in its letter that the recent U.S. Attorneys’ letters conflict with a DOJ representation to a federal court that the Ogden memo represented a significant policy shift, under which those individuals and entities that use or distribute medical marijuana in full compliance with state medical marijuana laws would no longer be targeted by federal law enforcement. Based on that representation, the ACLU in 2009 voluntarily dismissed a lawsuit against the federal government arising from a 2002 DEA raid of a California medical marijuana garden, in which the ACLU represents a group of plaintiffs including Santa Cruz, Calif. city and county officials, which sanctioned the garden. The federal court had previously upheld the ACLU’s 10th Amendment claim alleging the federal government had selectively enforced federal marijuana laws in an improper federal attempt to undermine and disable the functioning of state medical marijuana laws.

“If, contrary to the assurances its attorneys provided the court in the Santa Cruz case, the federal government’s enforcement policies now include ‘vigorously enforcing’ federal drug laws against individuals and entities who manufacture and distribute marijuana on a completely non-profit basis and in full compliance with state medical marijuana laws, it marks a significant departure from the federal government’s position in the Santa Cruz litigation and could lead to that case being reinstated in its October 2009 posture with discovery proceeding as originally planned,” the ACLU’s letter reads.

Comments

  • http://profiles.google.com/danno1962 Daniel Leclair

    Legalize Not Legal Lies!

  • Anonymous

    I am horrified by President Obama and Eric Holder for their blatant lies to the American people.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rmadair Rett Morgan Adair

    I hear presidential runners, as well as the president himself condemn the use of medical marijuana. Wouldn’t you hope that they were better informed of its use rather than go with popular vote values that affect the freedom of choice. I am a medical user that can not get the benefits of herb that works so well for me. Why, because the people are convinced the herb is the very root of evil. After twenty years of opiate use an only moderate relief that leaves me sick from the side affects which will eventually kill me by destroying my organs, I would hope the studies on marijuana could hold water by now! Which high official has to need help before its acknowledged and not condemned. Even the use of “high” in the association of official brings laughter or ridicule.

  • Chris Myers

    Carter where are you? You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by using your voice to educate the population and make cannabis legal again.

    Remove all the violence assosciated with it, and save all those tax dollars we use to prosecute and lock up non-violent drug users.

    Total BS that we allow tobacco and alcohol which kill a half million of our population yearly as a CHOISE for adults, yet we don’t allow them to CHOOSE cannabis which kills ZERO!!!

    It’s a JOBS PROGRAM for the prinson industrial complex and the justice department. Plain and simple.

  • http://profiles.google.com/davidwkessler David Kessler

    If our president is not going to follow through on his campaign promises and if we cannot trust what he says while he is in office then we need to work to elect someone who will. Insurance companies still run amok in people’s lives and record high unemployment is still a problem. We do not have a public option for insurance nor are we out of a war in the middle east. Our country still tortures people and our prison industrial complex has grown and continues to torture our own at rates higher than any other country in the world. How can we teach our children that honesty is the best policy when their role models are not held to any reasonable standards?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SQMKXMIXQSOFVG6SYXAL2H45QA Pixie Dust

    @David Kessler exactly. ^^^ We need citizen elected candidates for any and all positions in office. Not just the popular kids or the political dynasty//bloodline brats. Someone that isn’t bought or bribed or created by big corporations and ruling elite. Thats the problem. The problem was that he was never OUR president to begin with. So his loyalties does not lie with everyday citizens and hopeful voters like you and I. It lies with the people that are paying him to dance around and be their next “campaign of lies and deceit” model. IMO

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SQMKXMIXQSOFVG6SYXAL2H45QA Pixie Dust

    @David Kessler exactly. ^^^ We need citizen elected candidates for any and all positions in office. Not just the popular kids or the political dynasty//bloodline brats. Someone that isn’t bought or bribed or created by big corporations and ruling elite. Thats the problem. The problem was that he was never OUR president to begin with. So his loyalties does not lie with everyday citizens and hopeful voters like you and I. It lies with the people that are paying him to dance around and be their next “campaign of lies and deceit” model. IMO

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SQMKXMIXQSOFVG6SYXAL2H45QA Pixie Dust

    think about the legalizing marijuana controversy like this… it would be BIG competition for the cotton industry ((hemp)), the narcotics, pharmecutical industry and the alcohol industry…hmmmmm…. best defense is a strong offense… and ANTI-marijuana//cannibus//hemp propaganda…sooooo

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SQMKXMIXQSOFVG6SYXAL2H45QA Pixie Dust

    all kinds of typos and what not up there ^^^^ but do you feel me?

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1756587767 Charles Wasserman

    NOWHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION ARE DRUGS MENTIONED.
    THIS IS A TENTH AMENDMENT ISSUE.
    THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NO LEGAL JURISDICTION IN THIS ISSUE.