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.
Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle was found guilty of assault for brandishing a shotgun at his girlfriend, former state Rep. Mary Waters, after she caught him in bed with another woman in the home they shared. The jury only took three and a half hours to reach the verdict. Riddle said afterward that he thinks [...]
The bizarre relationship and situation between former state Rep. Mary Waters and her former boyfriend Sam Riddle, a political consultant who is also her co-defendant in a federal bribery and corruption trial, got even weirder on Tuesday during his trial on charges that he brandished a shotgun at Waters after she caught him in bed [...]
Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle has rejected a plea agreement offered by the prosecution in one of the many criminal trials he is facing, this one the assault charge for allegedly brandishing a loaded shotgun at his then-girlfriend, former state Rep. Mary Waters, in the home they shared after she caught him in bed with [...]
Just a day after warning Mary Waters that his orders of no contact between her and Sam Riddle were to be followed, and only a few days after throwing Riddle in jail for violating those orders, a state judge has lifted that restriction and released Riddle from jail. The Detroit Free Press reports:
The judge handling the federal corruption trial of former state Rep. Mary Waters and Sam Riddle lambasted their attorney, former U.S. Attorney Richard Convertino during a hearing on Waters’ request to have Convertino named as her court-appointed attorney and paid out of taxpayer money. Waters hired Convertino months ago but now says she doesn’t have [...]
Sam Riddle may be back in jail for having contact with girlfriend Mary Waters, but Waters was not held in contempt by the judge for initiating the contact by calling Riddle. The Detroit News reports that while the judge spared Waters any jail time, he was clearly sending a stern message:
Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle has violated the terms of the bond in his state trial for assault for the second time, having contact with (ex?)-girlfriend and former state Rep. Mary Waters despite a clear warning from the judge in his case that to do so would land him in jail — as it did [...]
Former state Rep. Mary Waters, facing a corruption trial in federal court in Detroit, long ago hired former federal prosecutor Richard Convertino to represent her. But now she says she’s broke and can’t afford to pay him, so the court should appoint him as her public defender and pay him with taxpayer funds. The Detroit [...]
A few weeks ago, as his first corruption trial was ending in a hung jury, Sam Riddle fired his court-appointed attorneys and shocked observers by naming Richard Convertino as his new attorney for the second round of the trial. Convertino, a former federal prosecutor who has made news on his own by suing for wrongful [...]
Sam Riddle doesn’t seem to follow instructions from judges very well. First he continued to talk about his federal corruption trial on his Facebook and Twitter accounts, against the explicit instructions of the judge, and now he has violated the terms of the bond in his state assault case by having contact with the victim [...]
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