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.
While lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people saw gains at the federal level in 2010, Michigan saw the ugly side of anti-gay animus with straight pride celebrations in local schools, a rash of national and local teen suicides and the death of LGBT-specific legislation in the Republican-controlled state Senate.
In 2010, HIV garnered headlines on Michigan Messenger for a variety of reasons, from continued criminalization concerns to activists gathering to create a coalition to drive pubic policy debates to controversies over Michigan Department of Community Health policies related to the virus.
Since July 19, the Michigan Department of Corrections no longer bars HIV-positive inmates from working in food service positions. HIV-positive prisoners had been barred from such jobs, considered some of the most desirable, as well as the highest paying, jobs in the prison system, for years by departmental policy. The policy first came to light [...]
Advocates for the poor say Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s amended budget proposal for FY 2011, which calls for $600 million in budget cuts and no new revenues, will further diminish the state’s ability to serve the needs of residents during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
During an interview with Michigan Messenger, Van Jones, a former White House adviser to President Obama, was asked about Michigan’s bloated corrections budget, and the report the department had overspent its budget allocations by $46 million dollars. “I’m not surprised at all that the ‘lock ‘em up’ crowd continues to under-perform on safety and on [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that sending juveniles to prison for life without parole is unconstitutional unless the juvenile has been convicted of murder, the Washington Post reports.
The controversial ex-gay ministry Corduroy Stone of Lansing will no longer be recognized by the Michigan Department of Corrections or allowed to operate within the Michigan prison system.. John Cordell, spokesman for MDOC, released the following statement to Michigan Messenger late Thursday afternoon:
Under a budget proposal released last week, prisoners housed in the Michigan Department of Corrections would see their pay for work and educational assignments eliminated, and an increase the fees assessed for phone calls. Advocates for prisoners call the move “immoral” and the MDOC says it opposes the plan.
An aspect of Governor Granholm’s budget proposal that is already drawing controversy is the plan to reduce Department of Corrections costs by allowing well behaved inmates to get out of jail earlier, the Detroit Free Press reports. Under this plan inmates would be awarded credit for each misconduct free month, a practice that prison officials [...]
The Michigan Department of Corrections is objecting to new rules placed on disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick by Judge Groner in his restitution appeal earlier this week. As part of that ruling, the judge transferred Kilpatrick’s probation from Texas to Michigan, making the DOC responsible for overseeing his probation — something they say is [...]
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