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.
Under a new policy adopted by the Lansing City Attorney’s Office, medical information is required to be redacted from public documents. In addition, employees who handle requests for public documents will be required to undergo an annual training regarding the law and the policy. The new policy arose after City Attorney Brigham Smith released the [...]
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.
After Lansing City Attorney Brigham Smith spent Wednesday afternoon explaining the policies and procedures he and his working group on Freedom of Information Act adherence put together in the last two weeks to the Lansing City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the committee sent Smith back to the drawing board with requests for more clarifications on the policy.
Members of the Lansing city attorney’s Freedom of Information Act policy working group left a 45-minute closed-door meeting on Friday promising a renewed spirit of openness going forward.
LANSING– Lansing City Council member Carol Wood Monday released a draft of a proposed ordinance which will serve as a guide to city employees in the release of public information under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. Under the proposed ordinance, city officials charged with responding to Freedom of Information Act requests and release private information, [...]
Lansing City Attorney Brigham Smith has directed staff of the city involved in Freedom of Information Act requests to review, and “likely redact,” private medical information from documents. “We have reiterated the need for review (and likely redaction) in the small number of cases that involve personal medical information among the small number of people [...]
LANSING — New documents obtained by Michigan Messenger show Lansing City Attorney Brigham Smith may have violated city policies and state laws when he released the HIV-positive status of a man arrested in a May 22 sex sting operation in a city nature center. Smith argues he has not broken any laws.
LANSING — Buried at the end of one of the arrest reports from a controversial May 22 sex-sting operation in the capital city’s Fenner Nature Center is information that one of the men arrested was HIV positive. That disclosure, experts say, may have violated the state’s confidentiality laws protecting the identity of those who are infected with the virus.
LANSING — Documents released by city officials Tuesday evening show that Lt. Larry Klaus, who oversees the police department’s special operations unit, coordinated a controversial May 22 sex sting in Fenner Nature Center for responding a Board of Police Commissioners member’s requests that have been criticized as inappropriate and out of step with proper police protocol.
LANSING — A variety of city officials, from council members to the mayor’s office to the city attorney, are trying to figure out what to do about the case of Jan Kolp, a Board of Police Commissioners member who said on Friday that she placed a call to the police’s special operations unit which triggered a controversial May sex-sting operation in a city nature center. But some are saying that it may be inappropriate for board officials to make such call, which could be leaning in the direction of special treatment.
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