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.
Local law enforcement in Emmett Township and Calhoun County are threatening to arrest citizen activists and journalists who go to the Kalamazoo River to check on claims that the oil has been cleaned up there — apparently without any legal authority for such arrests.
The Environmental Protection Agency is years behind in determining the health the risks associated with exposure to hundreds of toxic chemicals, according to a new report from the Center for Progressive Reform. Despite an effort by the Obama administration to streamline the process for risk assessments under the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), which [...]
Despite recent reports of significant amounts of oil remaining in areas that have been certified as cleaned up and allegations that contractors told workers to cover up the oil rather than clean it up, the EPA and Enbridge deny any cover up and say that remaining oil is expected.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 announced on Tuesday that it has begun cleanup work on an abandoned zinc electroplating facility in Albion, Michigan that has been designated as a federal Superfund site. The cleanup is expected to cost a million dollars. The former Pickens Plating site was abandoned after the company declared bankruptcy [...]
During testimony Wednesday before the House Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the agency had spent $17 million to date on cleanup efforts in Calhoun county. The EPA has been authorized to expend as much as $18 million from the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
Kevin O’Connor, spokesperson for Enbridge Energy Partners, says last week seven employees of Garner Environmental were dispatched to Romeoville, Illinois to assist in the oil spill clean up there. Enbridge, O’Connor said, was unaware of the move by Garner, which he said was Enbridge’s emergency responder in events involving oil spills. The seven workers left [...]
After firing off letters to the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the Secretary of Labor calling for an investigation into allegations a Calhoun county oil spill subcontractor was using undocumented workers to clean up oil, Rep. Mark Schauer gave the Michigan Messenger an earful of outrage over the situation.
State Rep. Kate Segal (D-Battle Creek) issued a statement Tuesday slamming Hallmark Industrial for allegedly employing undocumented workers for the oil spill clean up in Calhoun County. Michigan Messenger broke the story about the undocumented workers Monday. In that story, Messenger also documented conditions at various work sites the undocumented workers were working at. Those [...]
An oil spill cleanup contractor from Texas has been busing in possibly hundreds of undocumented workers to Battle Creek to work on the cleanup of the Calhoun County oil spill — and having them work nearly 100 hours a week in unsafe conditions, an investigation by Michigan Messenger has found.
MARSHALL — Susan Hedman, Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 director, announced that the government agency has submitted a a request to Enbridge Energy Partners to produce documents related to the July oil spill in Calhoun county. Hedman said the request was made “pursuant to our authority in… the Clean Water Act.”
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