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.
With another deficit of $1.7 billion projected for the fiscal year 2011 budget that begins in October, Republican leaders in the state legislature are proposing the same thing they proposed last year – deep cuts, including salary reductions for teachers and other public employees, and no new revenues to help pay for government services. And [...]
The annual January Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference (CREC) in Lansing is over and the news is as bleak as expected. The bottom line projection is a $1.725 billion deficit — at least — for the state government in FY 2011, which begins in October. That’s not a surprise, of course; early estimates predicted a deficit [...]
A new poll from Epic/MRA reveals that Michigan voters are very upset about the steep cuts to K-12 school funding in the new budget — and that they want at least some revenue increases to prevent further cuts in the future. WXYZ Channel 7 reports on the new poll, which showed an overwhelming percentage of [...]
Longtime capitol reporter Tim Skubick, who is generally reticent about crossing the line to become a commentator, has a clearly angry post on his blog about the state legislature going on a hunting vacation rather than staying and working on Michigan’s budget crisis. He writes:
More fallout from the all-cuts budget passed by the legislature: Dozens of state police officers who were expected to be called back to work next week will stay on the sidelines while the government decides whether revenues will allow them to keep the troopers on the job long term. The Detroit News reports:
Gov. Jennifer Granholm used the megaphone of her office Friday to put pressure on lawmakers to fix the “flawed” budget the legislature sent her early Thursday morning. “While I do my job, the Legislature must finish its job,” Granholm says in her weekly radio address. “This budget is flawed, and the Legislature needs to resume [...]
LATEST UPDATE, 6:11 PM: Gov. Jennifer Granholm signed a temporary budget agreement early Wednesday morning to keep the state government up and running for 30 days while budget negotiations continue. At a Thursday afternoon press conference, the governor said: “I will use my veto pen to shape this budget …”
The Michigan House and Senate adjourned Thursday afternoon and are expected to return to the State Capitol on Tuesday.
At 11:25 p.m., the Michigan House took up HB 4447, the K-12 funding bill, for a second time. It was brought up earlier in the afternoon and was headed for defeat when the House leadership suddenly pulled it, made a motion to clear the vote and tabled the matter. This time the measure appeared to [...]
With only five hours to go before the state government turns into a pumpkin, here’s a rundown of what’s going on. First, we have two outstanding budget bills that have not passed the House: The general government operations budget, which includes the massive cuts in revenue sharing, and the K-12 school budget, which includes nearly [...]
The Detroit Free Press reports that state legislators are now shifting their focus toward using more federal stimulus money than previously planned to reach a balanced budget without having to increase taxes. Several sources told the Free Press on Monday that House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford Township, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester, had [...]
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