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.
According to the Michigan secretary of state, county canvassing boards are required to issue final election results by today. It’s not clear that Oakland County will make this deadline. Late this morning, Tracy Ward, spokeswoman for the clerk’s office, told me that Oakland is “still working” on finalizing its vote totals.
When I asked her whether the county expected to be able to finish today, she said she didn’t think my coverage was fair and didn’t want to talk to me anymore.
Just before the election I reported on an Oct. 24 letter written by Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson to the federal Election Assistance Commission. In this letter Johnson expressed concerns that dust build-up in the county’s ES&S M100 vote-tallying machines could lead to inaccurate vote totals. She stated that the county might need more time to certify the election results. On Election Day Johnson’s office released a statement that it was prepared to conduct a hand-count of the ballots if necessary.
Preliminary election results show the races for county clerk (Johnson’s job) and drain commissioner were won by a less than a 1-percent margin.
Sheila Smith, the Democrat candidate for clerk, has said that she plans to request a recount of that race.
Last week activist Bruce Fealk asked Oakland County commissioners to pass a resolution authorizing a county-funded recount of the election. The Oakland County Commission meets Thursday.
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