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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

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

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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.

poverty

MI Senate approves 4-year welfare limit

By Sam Inglot | 07.14.11 | 5:23 pm

On Tuesday, the state Senate passed legislation that would put a 4-year cumulative limit on welfare benefits for Michigan residents.

About 13,000 Michigan citizens who receive financial aid will lose their checks by October, reports MLive.com.

Legislators say the cuts would put $64 million back into the state’s General Fund. The vote spurred a heap of comments on MLive supporting the measure, many implicating that anyone on welfare was lazy or did not want to work.

However, some legislators didn’t think it was that simple.

Sen. Mo Hood II (D-Detroit) had a question: “Do we know what we’re doing and do we know the people we’re going to impact?”

Critics say this supports their argument that the GOP is trying to balance the state’s budget on the backs of the poor and underprivileged.

Comments

  • Anonymous

    you guys in Michigan rock! it’s about time someone had the guts to do this and all other states should follow your lead. 

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

      mary640
      You must like to see children suffer.  Where are the jobs?  When parents are out of work or are having other problems without financial help children suffer and so do the parents!  If people did their jobs and didn’t allow any government fraud helping people in times of need wouldn’t be a problem. Lets put an end to the rich not paying taxes before the poor and ill are continously viciously attacked!

      • Thomas Allen

        EXACTLY Besty.
        It’s crass and unsympathetic to cut aid to 13,000 people living in a state that has the 5th highest unemployment rate in the country (tied with Mississippi at 10.3%). It’s not at all about being lazy. It’s about economic strife and a governor who is hell bent on making it worse by forcing the blue collar and senior population to pay for his 1.8 billion in business tax credits. Snyder makes John Engler look like a philanthropist!

        • CarmanK

          How many of these “worthless lazy bumbs are children”?? The Clinton years demonstrated that we could have fiscal responsibility and hold onto our humanity as a nation. The rich paid their fair share and all benefitted. These rethugs are in denial. It is actions like these, that sanction the rich sucking on the tits of american taxpayers, while the children go without essentials. I would say, this is just another sign of the level of depravity that republicans are willing to take this nation. Just how far down are we willing to let them go? WI is only the beginning. Benton Harbor, MI is a poster child for TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. The town is a fiefdom to the Snyder Emergency Financial Manager. And what is even more damning is the fact that the CEO of WHIRLPOOL (a 2nd generation spoiled rich kid) felt he had the right to stand up in a democracy and threaten the people of Benton Harbor. “If they didn’t stop protesting their plight, he would move his jobs elsewhere”. I would say the people of MI are not well served by their govt led by Rick Snyder. The sooner he goes down to defeat, the better for all.

        • Anonymous

          NO…it’s about cutting it from the ones who won’t finish their education, won’t even get up and go look for a job, continuously have more children they cannot afford, etc…

    • CarmanK

      You drank the Reagan KOOL AID. It is a mix of greed, selfish arrogance and willingness to serve the mighty rich while demonizing the poor. During the Clinton years, when the rich paid their fair share, there was a just review of public assistance policies. No one died on the streets because society favored the rich keeping their tax dollars for luxuries. This is unjust and your state will pay a dear price for its inhuman policies.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5Y5IZULFFTYQY4SYVYGNMI5QUU wolffsongg

    Yeah. It takes a lot of guts to be the cause that a lot of people get thrown out on the streets with empty bellies. Of course, those are the people you avert your eyes from, when you walk past, so you can pretend you didn’t see them. *sarcastic tone* I hope your karma gets you someday.

    I have worked hard all my life. I have a college education. I worked two jobs (one full time, one part-time at the same time), had scholarships and government loans while getting that education. So, don’t call me lazy. Unfortunately, I am now severely and  permanently disabled . I’m unable to work and on SSI. The state supplements that with $14 a month. That means a lot to me. I’m assuming that’s going to poof, along with a lot of folks’ aid, in October.

    As for others on financial assistance, the vast majority of them aren’t lazy either. They were/are hard working people who have fallen upon bad times for various reasons. I’m happy for you, if you’re not in the position of trying to find work in a time when there are (for example) 3000 applicants for 1000 job openings. That started happening prior to 2009. Let’s add to that the crash of the housing market the began sometime in 2007. Families need to feed their children, clothe them and keep a roof over their heads.

    4 year time limit to welfare? Really? While tax breaks are given to corporations to put in their pockets or pay large bonuses to CEOs? Bah. Humbug. That’s nothing but welfare for the rich.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4H4DSADWK7TDKUIWEKIJHNBSZ4 Andrew Johnson

      THOSE BAD TIMES ALL CORRELATE FROM BAD DECISIONS THEY MADE THEMSELVES. honestly, if people were so worried about not being able to feed there kids than they shouldnt have had any, or stop having them one after another. it is gross the way people reproduce and expect everyone else to raise their kids. if you dont have gas money dont buy a car. if you dont have a home dont buy a couch, and if you dont have any money than DONT HAVE KIDS!!!!! im glad this is happening. i am a single father who has taken rights to my son away from his mother because she could not take care of him. and instead of using the the help to get on her feet. she goes and has 2 more kids, and borrows my sons bday money to spend on groceries. i hope this happens in ct

  • Anonymous

    $64 million back in the state coffer

    13,000 more homeless just in time for winter.

    I propose a tent city on Snyder’s lawn in AA.

    • CarmanK

      After his recall election defeat. He should have to live with the daily reminder of his inability to govern and his incompetence as a political leader.

  • Anonymous

    My husband & I struggle from paycheck to paycheck and sure do wish it was easier for us and our family  but I do NOT expect that the wealthy should give me a handout just because they have it. Whether they got it easily from a wealthy family member or worked their a$$ off to get where they are, it is their money and I have no business getting any of it. If they choose to spread the wealth on their own…then great..otherwise leave them alone!
    I believe that the public assistance should be there for the families who DO work and are still having trouble, that is who needs it. Quit handing out all our hard earned dollars to slugs that are a consistent drain on society.  If you’re too lazy to work then you don’t deserve any help from any of us who are getting up early and going to work after dropping our children off at daycare. Hey, I would have loved to quit my job and not have been deprived of that quality time with my children, but I had a responsibility. The responsibility to feed the children I created, pay for the roof over their heads and the shoes on their feet. The working people in society did not ask me to create children I could not care for so that they could pay for them. I mean COME ON!!!
    For instance, get a load of this…soak it all in and let me know what you think…I can’t afford to go pick up my glasses so they sit at the eye doctors office not doing me a bit of good, while my tax dollars paid for the glasses of a 20 year old girl who lost parental rights of 2 children and just popped out another one the other day. Guess who paid for that? 
    Guess who’s taking care of one of the children she wouldn’t take care of and lost?? My 25 year old single son (child is NOT his) who is working full time at $10 per hour and trying to pay all his bills.
    For the first 2 years he was taking care of this child, she was collecting the welfare $$ for him and he never saw a dime of it.
    His car quit at the same time his furnace quit working back in January and he called DHS to see if he could get some kind of help to fix his vehicle &/or furnace and guess what the answer was? A BIG FAT NO…but let’s send more money to the deadbeat girl on welfare who’s only purpose on the earth is to procreate and keep popping out children into the system for all of the working society to pay for. Never mind that if his car isn’t working, he can’t get to work and could lose his job. Then how would he keep paying her way in life? Let alone his own and the little boy he saved from the system??????
    The whole thing infuriates me and I can’t even wrap my head around it all.
    Why can’t these “people” be made to get their tubes tied??? Because it would infringe on their “rights”. So, this girl could feasibly pump a baby into the system every year for the next 20 to 25 years and there is nothing anyone can do to stop her. What about our rights? What about the poor babies rights that they keep producing? Not to mention, she is dropping dirty for her probation officer WHILE PREGNANT and they don’t put her in jail! Oh, they don’t want the responsibility of a pregnant girl in the jail. Then, the baby is born drug positive. They can’t arrest her for child endangerment because of taking drugs while pregnant??????  NOPE. The law doesn’t recognize an unborn child.  Oh Yeah, the children have no rights until they are actually born.   WHATEVER!  Just another screwed up part of the system.
    Yes, something needs to be done and it needs to be done NOW. The system is broken and we the people are tired of paying the way for the bottom feeders that are too lazy to earn their own way in life.

  • Joe Sylvester

    This is great news!

    In response to the Senator Hood question:  “Do we know what we’re doing and do we know the people we’re going to impact?”

    Yes, we are cutting money from people that usually don’t vote and are at best marginally productive and if they do happen to vote they would vote for someone like Senator Hood or Barack Obama. 

    Slash and Burn!

Categories & Tags: Budget| Poverty| Unemployment| | |