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.
The municipal water systems for Bay City, Saginaw and Midland are slated to be screened for dioxin next week as part of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency effort to address citizen concerns that ongoing navigational dredging in the Saginaw River threatens the region’s water supplies.
SAGINAW — At a community meeting on dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials Wednesday night committed to sampling local municipal water systems for dioxin and posting up-to-date fish consumption advisory signs — two key and immediate community concerns that have been examined in depth by Michigan Messenger.
Detailed information about a new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency strategy for addressing dioxin contamination in the Saginaw Bay watershed is expected at a community meeting in Saginaw on Wednesday evening.
As a resident of the infamous Niagara Falls, N.Y., neighborhood Love Canal in the 1970s, Lois Gibbs led the fight to clean up dioxin contamination and relocate people who were being exposed to it. Now she is warning that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to spend more time reviewing its decades-old draft report on the human health effects of dioxin is the misguided continuation of a plan established by the administration of former President George W. Bush.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s promise to hold Dow Chemical accountable for dioxin contamination in Michigan’s largest watershed is being greeted with “cautious optimism” by some environmental groups and with weariness by others who have been living on contaminated ground for so long they’ve learned not to get too excited about the announcement of a government action plan.
Dow Chemical Co. — which is sponsoring a walleye tournament, a “Celebrity Chowder Challenge” and fresh fish market at Bay City’s BayFest this weekend — claims that it learned about the state’s walleye consumption advisory just last week when it was brought to its attention by Michigan Messenger.
The Michigan Messenger’s Eartha Melzer was a guest on WDET’s Detroit Today on Wednesday afternoon. She discussed the ongoing situation with Dow Chemical and dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed. You can listen to the show by clicking here. Her segment is about 15 minutes into the show.
In an effort to ward off a shareholder resolution that sought greater transparency of the company’s handling of dioxin contamination in the Saginaw River watershed, Dow Chemical gave the Securities and Exchange Commission inaccurate information about the state of Michigan’s consumption advisory for walleye downstream from the company’s Midland plant.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has started a project to remove contaminated sediments from the Saginaw River without safety measures requested by the state, a move that sparked worry because toxins such as dioxin could make their way into the water supplies for Saginaw and Bay City, which don’t test for the toxins.
The Department of Environmental Quality has warned Tittabawassee Township on the lack of signs warning of dioxin dangers at the park where this weekend’s fishing celebration will be held. Dow Chemical promised to pay for fish advisory signs but has refused to provide necessary funds. “I am not aware of anything further that we will be doing on this,” a company spokeswoman says.
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