The Michigan Messenger

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The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

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 [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

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.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

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.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

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.

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Nervous tea partiers see possible Democratic win on health care

By David Weigel | 03.17.10 | 10:05 am

Tea party protests on Capitol Hill are getting smaller and more pessimistic as activists realize the House may well pass the health care reform bill.

GOP sees ‘win-win’ as Stupak splits Dems

By David Weigel | 11.12.09 | 9:51 am

On Saturday, 64 Democrats backed Rep. Bart Stupak’s (D-Mich.) amendment to prevent abortions from being funded with taxpayer money in the comprehensive House health care bill. On Wednesday morning, House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) attempted to soothe the jangled nerves of pro-abortion rights activists who were lighting up switchboards and issuing not-another-dime fund-raising threats against the party for letting it happen.

Delay in unemployment benefits vote tied to GOP’s fight against ACORN

By David Weigel | 11.06.09 | 12:01 pm

WASHINGTON — This rundown of why a vote on unemployment insurance benefits was delayed by five weeks seems like a nadir in the War on ACORN. According to Ryan Grim at The Huffington Post, the GOP objected to an early vote because they “were trying to introduce unrelated amendments attacking ACORN and the financial-industry bailout, [...]

Far-right site gains influence in Obama era

By David Weigel | 09.04.09 | 1:44 pm

WASHINGTON — On April 12, the conservative website WorldNetDaily published an expose on newly appointed White House “green czar” Van Jones that labeled the environmental activists “an admitted radical communist and black nationalist leader.” But the story wasn’t picked up by the mainstream media until July 23 when Fox News’ Glenn Beck talked about the WorldNetDaily story.

GOP ruling out health care co-op compromise

By David Weigel | 08.19.09 | 10:51 am

WASHINGTON — Smelling blood in the water as Democrats made contradictory statements about what a Senate health care reform bill might contain, Republicans spent Tuesday pushing back against a possible compromise–non-profit health insurance cooperatives, an idea that Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) had pushed for months before the debate centered on a Medicare-style “public option.” Inside the Senate and inside the conservative third-party groups that have been working against the White House, “co-ops” are being framed as an attempt to engineer a stealth government takeover of health care.

Forged Kenyan document splinters ‘Birther’ movement

By David Weigel | 08.03.09 | 9:03 pm

WASHINGTON — Jon Chessoni, a first secretary at the Kenyan Embassy, can’t understand why his office gets so many baseless questions about whether Barack Obama was born in Kenya. “It’s madness,” said Chessoni on Monday. “His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya. When this matter first came up, the Kenyan government [...]

McCain campaign investigated, dismissed Obama citizenship rumors

By David Weigel | 07.24.09 | 10:59 am

WASHINGTON — In the final months of the 2008 presidential race, Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) campaign learned of a lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania that asked the state to strip Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) of the Democratic nomination on suspicion that he was not an American citizen. The complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief was filed [...]

GOP health care plan: Stall reform into political oblivion

By David Weigel | 07.21.09 | 12:23 pm

WASHINGTON — The lengthy speech on health care that Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele delivered on Monday was short on details. Steele’s performance at the National Press Club was less a kick-off, more an amplification of a year-long conservative campaign that is entering its final months without much remaining subtlety. Republicans are in the precarious position of arguing for a “pause button,” as Steele put it, in the ongoing negotiations over health care, while Democrats are aware that any pause or slow-down would effectively kill reform in the 111th Congress.

Palin still finds fans in anti-abortion movement

By David Weigel | 07.07.09 | 10:25 am

WASHINGTON — Debbie Joslin wasn’t happy to see Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announce her resignation. “I was disappointed that she wouldn’t be governor anymore,” the president of the Alaska branch of the conservative Eagle Forum and a longtime Republican activist said in an interview. “It’s hard to get things done now because of the 10-10 split between the parties in the State Senate. What she did was out of the box, and anybody else would be politically dead.”

As some question Palin’s decision, anti-abortion activists, who embraced Palin after the birth of Trig and after the unmarried pregnancy of Palin’s daughter Bristol, are ecstatic about the possibility that Palin, freed from the duties and turmoils of office, could become a historic leader and spokeswoman for their cause.

McCotter, Hoekstra push GOP’s ‘Sovereignty Caucus’ to battle Obama on international treaties

By David Weigel | 07.01.09 | 1:02 pm

WASHINGTON — Shortly after leaving their offices on June 24, dozens of Hill staffers, foreign policy experts, and old Washington hands made their way to the lower floor of the Capitol Visitor Center, a sprawling complex below the halls of Congress. The occasion was the low-key launch of the new House Sovereignty Caucus, the project of three Republican members — U.S. Reps. Doug Lamborn of Colorado, Scott Garrett of New Jersey, and Michigan’s own Thaddeus McCotter of Livonia — who had become more and more worried about Americans ceding their rights to foreign institutions.