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.
The Natural Resources Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has approved two bills that will allow the building of casinos by Native American tribes in Romulus and Port Huron.
The bills involve a land dispute that goes back 150 years and could only be resolved by an act of Congress. Two tribes from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the Sault Ste. Marie tribe of Chippewa Indians and the Bay Mills tribe of Ojibwe Indians, have longstanding disputes over land for their reservations. They negotiated a deal to swap land in the Upper Peninsula for land in the Romulus and Port Huron areas that they can use for the construction of new casinos, but those deals require the approval of Congress.
The battle pits legislators from Michigan, even within the same party, against one another. The bills were sponsored by Democratic legislators John Dingell and Bart Stupak, but fellow Democrats Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and John Conyers testified against the bills. Meanwhile, Republican legislator Candace Miller testified in favor of the bills while her fellow Republican Mike Rogers testified against them. Rep. Dingell’s district includes Romulus, Rep. Miller’s district includes Port Huron and Rep. Kilpatrick represents Detroit, which has three casinos that would likely be hurt by the competition from the new casinos.
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Rep. Stupak, on the other hand, represents the entire Upper Peninsula, which does not stand to benefit from the casinos directly because they will be located in the Lower Peninsula. But Stupak’s district contains Charlotte Beach, which includes the tribal land that has been under dispute for so long. Because the true ownership of that land is disputed, the current owners of the land have had difficulty getting a clear title and financing for that property. Because the land swap would settle those age-old disputes, Stupak argues that it would increase the value of that property and benefit his constituents. Stupak explained the background in his testimony:
The tribes
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