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.
The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee is looking into reports that the Bush Administration used the Central Intelligence Agency to spy on University of Michigan professor and Middle Eastern politics blogger Juan Cole as part of an effort to discredit him.
Five former Blackwater guards have plead not guilty to fourteen counts of voluntary manslaughter and twenty counts of attempted manslaughter. The charges were brought by a federal grand jury over the guards’ involvement in a firefight at a checkpoint in Baghdad that left seventeen Iraqis dead and many more injured in September 2007.
For the second time in a year, a legal malpractice suit brought by Blackwater against their former attorneys in an earlier wrongful death case has been dismissed.
AP reports the sad news: Two soldiers from Michigan who were among three who died when their vehicle crashed on Christmas Eve in Baghdad are being remembered by relatives for their devotion to their families. The Department of Defense on Friday identified the soldiers as Staff Sgt. Christopher G. Smith, 28, of Grand Rapids; Spc. [...]
A report from the State Department’s Inspector General suggests that Blackwater, the private military contractor founded by Michigan’s Erik Prince, may lose its license to operate in Iraq, forcing the State Department to change its plans for protecting diplomats in that country:
CNN reports that five former Blackwater employees have turned themselves in to authorities and are to be charged in the firefight that led to the deaths of 17 Iraqi citizens in September, 2007:
The Iraqi parliament ratified the Status of Forces Agreement, but with a major change. The agreement mandates that American forces are completely withdrawn by the end of 2011, but it adds a referendum by July, 2009 at which time the Iraqi people can demand that they be withdrawn in one year’s time, or July, 2010:
Thanks to Zachary at TPMmuckraker for pointing out this McClatchy report about State Department plans to fine the private military contractor Blackwater, founded by Michigan native Erik Prince, for illegally importing hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq.
The Associated Press had another installment of factual record-straightening ready to go as the curtain closed on another night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
It’s looking more and more possible. Raw Story reports that the DOJ has sent target letters to a group of Blackwater guards being investigated for an incident that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead.
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