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.
The 220 acre pit where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumps dioxin contaminated sediments from the Saginaw River has been given a pleasant new name.
The disposal site, which sits along the Saginaw River in Zilwaukee and Frankenlust townships, is known as the Dredged Material Disposal Facility, but Saginaw County Controller and Chief Administrative Officer Marc A. McGill has decided that it shall now be called the “Saginaw River Preservation Project”.
A county document provided to the The Saginaw News News indicates that McGill is chiefly concerned with preservation of the businesses along the Saginaw River.
“At least 14 businesses provide jobs associated with this River Preservation Project. Without the River Preservation Project, all these businesses could be subject to closure and all the over-300 Americans would lose their jobs.”
Moreover, according to the county definition, river freighters bring in materials that municipalities need, such as crushed stone and rock salt, at “advantageous prices,” and the project “improves the cleanliness of the river as well as improves its flow.”
“I think it’s kind of putting lipstick on a pig because it’s nothing more than a pit … in middle of the wetlands,” Lone Tree Council environmental spokeswoman Michelle Hurd Riddick told the News. “That’s hardly consistent with preservation.”
The Michigan Dept. of Environmental Quality opposed the Army Corps plan to dispose of dredged materials at the pit and asked that the Corps seek a groundwater permit for the disposal facility and construct a slurry wall to line the pit and protect against seepage.
State regulators backed off that request, however, after then-Lt. Gov. John Cherry intervened in a closed door meeting with the agency and Army Corps staff.
Environmental groups, health officials and people who live near the disposal site have expressed concern that dioxin from the dredged materials could contaminate groundwater, wildlife and locals.
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