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.
An HIV-positive 30-year-old resident of Minnesota has been convicted by a jury of attempted first degree assault for allegedly failing to use a condom during sex.
United Press International reports that while the jury believed the man had disclosed his HIV-positive status to his partner, it was obligated to find him guilty of the attempted assault charge. The man’s attorney has said he will challenge the guilty verdict.
“Because he didn’t use any protection, it didn’t matter if he told or not,” [defense attorney Landon] Ascheman said. “Reading the statute exactly as it is, they were told they essentially had to convict him.”
The law has two parts. The first addresses the situation with the HIV-positive man, while the second addresses assaults against police and peace officers.
Subdivision 1.Great bodily harm. Whoever assaults another and inflicts great bodily harm may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than 20 years or to payment of a fine of not more than $30,000, or both.
A legitimate series of questions were not addressed by the UPI story. Specifically, there is no indication if the man was on successful anti-retroviral treatment. Successful treatment has been shown to dramatically reduce the transmission of the virus from the infected to uninfected. Additionally, there are questions about consent involved in this case. If a person consents to harmful behavior, can the state come back and charge one of the partners with assault for consensual behavior?
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