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.
Capitol building, Lansing, Mich.
The Michigan House of Representatives on Thursday evening passed by a surprisingly wide margin a bill that adds sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression to the state’s existing hate crimes legislation.
There were two bills tied together, HB 6340 and HB 6341, which combined amend state law to add protection for the victims of what the bill calls “bias-motivated crimes” on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression.
The two bills passed with overwhelming support by votes of 82-18 and 81-18, respectively, drawing a good deal of support from Republicans. Assistant Minority Floor Leader Tonya Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, even spoke in favor of the bill during debate. The bill even had one Republican sponsor, Lorence Wenke of Kalamazoo.
Julie Powers, director of development for the gay rights group Michigan Equality, attributes the strong Republican support to the fact that this bill was strongly supported by the law enforcement community, who view the bill as strengthening their hand in prosecuting bias crimes. Powers told the Michigan Messenger:
After more than a year of hard work by law enforcement, educators, community members and legislators, Michigan Equality is very pleased that the Michigan house has overwhelmingly voted in favor of this important legislation.
The bills will now move to the Senate. The Legislature is currently in a lame duck session and members are rushing to get through a backlog of legislation before the session ends and the newly elected members take their seats in January.
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