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.
Cordlin Comer, a Grand Rapids area man who pleaded guilty earlier this year to failing to disclose his HIV positive status to a female sexual partner, faces less than a year in jail.
On Wednesday he was in Kent County Circuit Court for sentencing, reports the Grand Rapids Press. While he could have faced up to our years for the charge, the probation department had recommended Comer be sentenced to no more than a year in the Kent County jail.
But Judge George Buth sentenced Comer to time served for the six months he had already spend in the jail. He also revealed that the woman who accused Comer of failing to disclose his status was now his wife — and the couple had a child.
Comer’s wife was present in the courtroom for the sentencing.
The Press reports that Comer’s wife, and another woman who alleged he had sex with her without disclosing his status, are not infected with the virus. It is not uncommon in such HIV disclosure cases for the victims to not become infected. Michigan law, however, does not criminalize transmission of the virus, it criminalizes sexual penetration “however slight” when the person with HIV fails to disclose his or her HIV positive status.
While the time served is a good deal for Comer, that may not be the end of his time behind bars. Comer was paroled in April 2009 from prison. He has been sentenced to prison for a conviction in 2008 for stealing a financial transaction device and for possession of less than 25 grams of cocaine. For those charges, Comer was sentenced to four years in prison. Because he was on parole, Michigan Department of Corrections officials could revoke his parole and send him back to prison.
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