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.
Throughout the hearings on his restitution claims, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has pleaded poverty as the reason why he has to have his $6,000 a month restitution payment reduced. As the Detroit Free Press reports, prosecutors in court showed bank transactions for Kilpatrick in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, including paying for limousine [...]
LANSING — One prosecutor who “zealously” went after child molesters now believes Michigan’s overly broad sex offender registry has “really insulted the victims of these really heinous offenders when you lump them all in” with so-called underage Romeo and Juliet cases.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Tuesday demanded a new trial for Dwayne Provience, a Detroit man recently released after spending nearly a decade in prison due to the work of the Michigan Innocence Clinic. The Innocence Clinic documented false testimony — coerced by the police — and a number of inconsistencies in his 2000 [...]
As many Americans countdown to President Obama’s address tonight on an expected troop surge in Afghanistan, TIME correspondent Steven Gray pivots to another war — a very different war — in a post on the national outlet’s Detroit Blog published earlier today. Which war would that be? The one devastating urban America.
After two Detroit Public School (DPS) audits uncovered millions in wasteful spending, those suspected of being responsible for the misspent money now face charges. Detroit Public School financial manager Robert Bobb and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy on Wednesday announced that five people have been charged in connection with fraudulent spending of DPS funds.
LANSING — The House Judiciary Committee heard nearly five hours of testimony on Tuesday about proposed legislation to change the way juveniles who commit murder are punished. Right now, juveniles age 17 and under who are charged with and convicted of first-degree murder face a life-without-parole sentence. The bill would change that, allowing a parole board to take testimony and consider releasing convicted youth after 15 years.
DETROIT — Following the conviction of a local journalist for felony police obstruction, Congressman John Conyers, the Detroit Democrat who chairs the powerful House Judiciary Committee, said that his office would be taking a very careful look at the case, which has been cited as an example of retaliatory prosecution of a reporter known for her work documenting police brutality and other justice issues in Michigan’s largest city.
The conviction of Diane Bukowski on felony police obstruction charges last week has prompted warnings about a chilling of press freedom as well as calls for a federal investigation of the Wayne County prosecutor’s office. One state lawmaker said the conviction is a “travesty of justice” and a pay-back from Bukowski’s reporting on police brutality in Detroit.
DETROIT — Immediately following her conviction for allegedly obstructing police in November, Michigan Citizen reporter Diane Bukowski spoke out at the Michigan Campaign for Justice law forum, calling her conviction a “political attack.” Bukowski said police lied to the jury. “Five state troopers committed perjury on the stand in my case,” she told the group [...]
The closing of the Detroit police crime lab last fall after a report found a “shocking level of incompetence” in handling and analyzing evidence has prompted a review of cases where evidence handled at the lab may be suspect. That review has found nearly 150 cases that need to re-examined:
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