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.
A continuing decline in demand for electricity may work against Wolverine Power Cooperative’s bid to build a 600 megawatt petroleum coke fired power plant along the shore of Lake Huron, Glenn Puit of the Great Lakes Bulletin News Service reports.
In the name of increased efficiency and amidst massive budget deficits, Gov. Jennifer Granholm issued an executive order on October 8 combining the Departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality and appointed a specialist in corporate “asset repositioning” to manage the transition.
The Department of Environmental Quality says that amidst declining resources its Water Bureau is trying to meet its most critical obligations by prioritizing five goals and spelling out how to measure whether they are achieved. The Water Bureau’s “Measures of Success” document, released this month, describes the top goals as: to ensure safe drinking water, [...]
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has tested Saginaw Bay-area municipal water supplies and found them free of toxic dioxin, but the soil in a residential area 22 miles downstream from Dow’s Midland complex has been recontaminated with dioxin and the plan for the long-term work of actually removing the contamination from the Saginaw River watershed is, after 30 years, still in its earliest stages.
Gov. Jennifer Granholm is facing opposition to her Oct. 8 executive order that restructures government by combining the departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality. The order also removed the power of the Agriculture Commission and the Natural Resources Commission to appoint the directors of their departments. The move was presented as a way to save money but farmers, sportsmen and conservationists say they are worried that it will improperly concentrate power in the governor’s office.
Some of Michigan’s largest polluting corporations are receiving millions in tax breaks for installing environmental control equipment that is required under state and federal law. With the state facing an ongoing budget crisis, some say these tax breaks have become a costly and unnecessary entitlement program.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public review of a proposed agreement with Dow Chemical that establishes a process for evaluating dioxin contamination in Saginaw Bay, the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers and their floodplains.
A coalition of environmental groups is asking state and federal regulators to take a careful look at the potential wetlands impact of a coal-fired power plant planned by Consumers Energy along Saginaw Bay.
For the last six years, University of Michigan research funded by Dow Chemical has figured prominently in public discussions over what to do about the dioxin contamination caused by the company in the Saginaw River watershed. Federal and state environmental agencies have warned that U-M’s Dioxin Exposure Study has failed to answer crucial questions and that its results are being misinterpreted.
Despite this, the U-M’s lead researcher on the project — a man some environmental health scientists say should not be seen as an objective because of his track record of working for industry interests — is actively insisting his study should shape regulatory action on dioxin.
Michigan’s 19 coal-fired power plants will need to install technology to reduce mercury emissions by 2015, according to new rules finalized this week. Mercury is a powerful neurotoxin and coal burning power plants are the main source of mercury in the environment. The Michigan Department of Community Health has issued fish consumption advisories for all [...]
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