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.
U.S. Congressman Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) says the draft legislation being floated by California Rep. Barbara Lee “looks like a good bill.”
In an exclusive interview with Messenger, Clarke said that he needed to fully vet the legislation. “I like the spirit of it,” he said.
Clarke, a freshman who beat former Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick last November, said his interest in the legislation was two fold.
“HIV/AIDS is a public health crisis in metro Detroit,” Clarke said, echoing statements from progressive activist Van Jones. Jones in an interview with Michigan Messenger in June of last year said the HIV epidemic in Detroit required “federal resources.”
The second issue to address with the legislation, Clarke said, was stigma.
“We’ve got to address the stigma of this disease,” he said. “It’s the stigma on people that is causing this to continue. This bill at least addresses the laws.”
Clarke said he had spoken with African American gay leaders in Detroit who told him gay men were afraid to disclose their HIV-positive status because of the stigma of both the viral infection and being gay. “That concerns me,” he said.
In addition, Clarke renewed calls for people to get tested for the virus. “People are waiting to long to get tested,” he said.
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