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.
In 1992, I was working for the Lansing Community College newspaper, The Lookout, and I had the opportunity to see then-Gov. Bill Clinton speak at Michigan State University’s Beaumont Tower. He was there in 1992 to snub then-President George H.W. Bush, who was fighting against debating Clinton. It was termed the non-debate debate. That year, Bush and Clinton (and as it turned out Ross Perot) were to debate at MSU’s Wharton Center for the Performing Arts.
Police officers stand on the roof of the IM West overlooking Adams Field as part of a security detail for the appearance of Sen. Barack Obama at MSU Thursday.
During that appearance, Clinton spoke in the greens in the shadows of the famed bell tower across from the MSU Union. The space was merely snow fenced in, and Clinton was dropped off by limo at the curb on one end of the space, walked in, gave his speech, then walked out the other end. At the other end, his limo was waiting, but he ignored the limo and instead walked from the greens several blocks through downtown East Lansing surrounded by a screaming throng of some 10,000 plus people.
Flash forward to today’s appearance by Barack Obama, and you can tell the world has changed. Adams Field, which is located on the other side of Cowles House (the former residence for the president of MSU) from the greens of Beaumont Tower, was as hard a venue as any outdoor venue can be made to be.
The area was surrounded by a snow fence, but it was also “hardened” by tents that blocked views. Along one side of the space, where the stage was placed, the bleachers acted as a natural block, and a long tent was staked up in order to give Obama entrance to the speaking area in as obscure a way as possible.
To add to this sense of hardened security, there were police officials from MSU Police, Lansing Police, East Lansing Police, Michigan State Police, Eaton County Sheriff, Ingham County Sheriff and Lansing Township Police. In addition, there were employees of the Transportation Safety Administration, the FBI, and the Secret Service in place. On the roof of the IM West building that looks down over Adams Field, two police officers scanned the crowd with binoculars.
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