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.
Increasing stress on natural resources and declining public funds for preservation made for a rough year for the environment.
Water levels throughout the Great Lakes approached all-time lows, and people began to associate this with global climate change. Samples taken from the Saginaw River revealed the most concentrated dioxin contamination ever recorded, a whistle-blower lawsuit charged Dow with suppressing information about dioxin contamination and a memo from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused Michigan legislators of helping Dow avoid clean-up.
In a citizen lawsuit that challenged the Nestle corporation for the damaging effects of its water bottling operation on the watershed, the Michigan Supreme Court overturned a key provision of the Michigan Environmental Protection Act, the law that gives citizens standing to sue when a company does environmental damage.
In the name of economic development, the state backed a plan to turn Jean Klock Park in Benton Harbor into a private golf course. The Department of Environmental Quality issued a permit for the Australian Rio Tinto corporation to begin nickel mining in the UP. Seven new coal-burning power plants were proposed. The Department of Natural Resources planned to close 37 parks due to budget constraints. Grocery store giant Meijer funded a recall of politicians in Acme township who blocked an expansion plan there.
Continued -Michigan ranked at the bottom for conservation spending, higher only than Georgia, and the nonprofit Trust for Public Land bought 2,000 acres of Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness to be preserved as parkland.
Agriculture remained the state’s second largest industry and corn was the No. 1 crop. Farmers planted 15 percent more corn in 2007 as support for corn-based ethanol production grew.
“Locavore,” one who eats locally produced food, was designated by the Oxford University Press as the 2007 word of the year, and farmers markets expanded across Michigan, the second most agriculturally diverse state in the country.
Be sure to catch the rest of Michigan Messenger’s roundup of 2007.
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