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.
Two competing proposals for a light rail transit system on Woodward Ave. are still being discussed by public officials and business leaders, according to Dan Cherrin, spokesperson for interim Detroit Mayor Kenneth Cockrel Jr. At the forefront of the talks is a possible merger of the private and public plans, with a view to adopting the best parts of each, he said.
“Right now we are working to unify those two proposals … that will help us get federal funding,” Cherrin said.
Over the summer, the public proposal, created by the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT), won a key approval from the regional planning group, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG). The next step was to apply for federal funding.
With the private and public proposals joining into a public plan as part of DDOT, both federal and private funding would be options, Cherrin explained.
“[With] any plan, you’ll see a combination of private and public funding,” Cherrin said. “All parties are in discussions.”
The original DDOT proposal includes the $371-million, 8-mile-long light-rail transit up Woodward Avenue that was approved by SEMCOG in July.
When the proposal was first approved, DDOT estimated construction would begin in 2011 and end by 2013. Cherrin said he didn’t know if these goals were still reasonable. For the moment, he said, the focus is to take the best parts of each proposal and create one plan that will offer the most benefits to the city.
The proposed private light-rail line is called the Woodward Transit Catalyst Project and calls for a $103 million light-rail line that serves a 3.4-mile stretch in the downtown and Wayne State areas. This is considerably shorter than the DDOT line proposed, but it is part of a larger plan to extend the rail up to Eight Mile Road.
The proposal is backed by Detroit business billionaires such as Quickens Loans founder Dan Gilbert, Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos and Penske corperation CEO Rodger Penske, according to Cherrin.
“Each proposal has merits, [and] each proposal has issues that need to be worked out,” Cherrin said. “We’re working on constructing a solid regional transportation system.”
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