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.
A larger than usual bloom of blue-green algae in Saginaw Bay is causing an unpleasant flavor in Bay City’s municipal water and adding to pressure to find a new source for water.
As the debate over deep cuts to the state’s per pupil allowance in education funding continues, Greenhills School in Ann Arbor has released a fundraising video in which school officials say the $20,000 per year tuition per student is not enough to keep the school running.
A federal study of a potent toxin that has contaminated Michigan’s largest watershed may not be done by the end of the year as promised. The director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Center for Environmental Assessment, Peter Preuss, has reportedly warned that EPA is “really unlikely” to meet the December 2010 deadline set [...]
The Michigan Court of Appeals has agreed to hear a case revolving around the question of incumbency in Bay County. At the heart of the matter is whether or not a judge, appointed to replace a retired judge, should be designated as an incumbent. The Bay City News has the scoop on this case.
GM’s bankruptcy created confusion over who would pay for cleanup at 90 contaminated sites around the country, including 47 here in Michigan. Yesterday the White House announced that it would address this problem by creating an $800 million trust fund to be used for environmental cleanup and demolition at the sites. Speaking from a conference [...]
From terrorism to discrimination to privacy issues, HIV-related issues made headlines in Michigan in 2009.
1. HIV-as-terrorism case in Macomb County
Perhaps the most watched, and outrageous, HIV related story of 2009 is the situation facing Daniel Allen, a 44-year-old Clinton Township resident who has been charged by Macomb County prosecutors under state terrorism laws.
A Bay City man will spend the next nine months in jail for having unprotected sexual intercourse with a 16-year-old Midland girl. The Midland Daily News reports 21-year-old Isaiah Jacob Diaz pleaded guilty under Michigan’s felony disclosure law. Under that law, any person who is HIV positive must inform a sexual partner before any penetration [...]
In what is likely to be a headline repeated all over the state of Michigan, Bay City officials are considering how to eliminate more than a half million dollars from its already gutted budget. The cuts are needed, officials say, because of cuts to state revenue sharing. The revenue sharing program is funded from state [...]
In June, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed to test the municipal water systems for Saginaw, Midland and Bay City for a range of contaminants. The move, as Michigan Messenger reported, was a response to citizen concerns that navigational dredging in the Saginaw River could stir up dioxin-contaminated sediments that could contaminate city water supplies that draw from Saginaw Bay. Dioxins and furans from Dow Chemical’s Midland plant are known to have contaminated the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and the bay.
Opponents of health care reform being debated in the Congress held a rally and protest outside the offices of U.S. Rep. Dale Kildee this weekend in Bay City. The Sunday event, organized by the Bay County Taxpayers Association — which is chaired by Republican blogger-activist Joe Sylvester — featured hand lettered placards emblazoned with such [...]
Do you know where to vote on Election Day? Do you know what to bring with you? Get comprehensive voter information for your state here.
Sign up for our email newsletter