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.
Blackwater — now known as Xe — may be hit with a federal indictment for illegally stockpiling automatic weapons at one of its facilities in the United States. The Associated Press reports:
By March 24, the private security corporation formerly known as Blackwater — last seen in Afghanistan shooting civilians and stealing weapons intended for the Afghan police — may win a new Defense Department contract to train the Afghan police. And nearly no one in the government wants to own up to how it could happen. [...]
Sen. Carl Levin is asking the Pentagon to consider prohibiting any new contracts for service in Afghanistan to Blackwater (now known as Xe) because of a long track record of scandal over the last few years in that country and in Iraq. Levin, who just held hearings on some of those scandals as chairman of [...]
Our AINN colleague Spencer Ackerman will be blogging about the Blackwater hearings being held today in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan. In his first post, prior to the hearings starting, he notes that some in Congress are pushing legislation to prohibit private security companies from doing [...]
Employees of the CIA-connected and Michigan-owned private security corporation Blackwater diverted hundreds of weapons, including more than 500 AK-47 assault rifles, from a U.S. weapons bunker in Afghanistan intended to equip Afghan policemen, according to an investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee.
A lawsuit filed by a husband and wife, both of whom worked for Blackwater (now Xe), has revealed affidavits given under oath accusing the private military contractor owned by Michigan native Erik Prince of defrauding the government by billing for booze, spa trips and even a prostitute. The Washington Post reports:
In the wake of last week’s dismissal of all charges against five former Blackwater employees accused of opening fire in a public square in Baghdad and killing 17 unarmed civilians, the government of Iraq is preparing to take action against those guards on their own and warning other ex-Blackwater guards now working for other companies [...]
Michigan native Erik Prince is apparently going to take a less active day to day role in running Blackwater (now known as Xe), the infamous private military contractor he founded. He announced the move through a spokesperson with more than just a hint of self-pity:
Blackwater Global (now called Xe), the private military contractor founded by Michigan native Erik Prince, is already facing a long list of legal problems, both criminal and civil, ranging from illegal gun smuggling and child prostitution to unprovoked attacks on civilians. Now you can add bribery to the list. The New York Times reports that [...]
A few weeks ago news came out that CIA Director Leon Panetta had briefed Congress on a secret CIA assassination program that he had just found out about and had canceled. Now the New York Times reports that this secret program involved Blackwater, now known as Xe, the private military contractor founded by Michigan native [...]
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