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.
Michigan stands to receive about $600 million in total aid once the House passes a bill that the Senate passed last week to give $26.1 billion in aid to the states for Medicaid funding and school aid funding to avoid teacher layoffs. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the House back into session for tomorrow during [...]
Thursday, the Senate approved a state aid bill providing $26.1 billion in funding for cash-strapped local governments to use for Medicaid and teachers’ jobs. The provision is expected to save or create at least as many as 290,000 jobs, including 140,000 teachers’ jobs. Wednesday, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), the speaker of the House, announced on [...]
Yesterday, the Senate overcame a key procedural hurdle to move forward on a much-needed $26.1 billion state aid bill. The provision provides $10 billion in funds for teachers’ jobs and $16.1 billion for Medicaid. Without the additional funding, promised to states for months, local governments might have laid off hundreds of thousands of teachers, police [...]
The Senate this morning managed to overcome a filibuster on a bill that would send $26.1 billion in aid to states to pay for Medicaid programs and help avoid more teacher layoffs. Two Republicans, Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine, crossed the aisle and voted with the Democrats to achieve the 60 votes [...]
The stimulus increased benefits, but lower-than-expected inflation led to lower-than-expected food prices. Now the Senate might reclaim some of the benefits increase, starting in 2014.
This evening, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) attached an amendment with funding to preserve teachers’ jobs and to provide much-needed Medicaid funding to states to a Federal Aviation Administration bill. The amendment is fully paid-for, and the FAA bill is just a vehicle. Reid filed cloture, meaning the Senate will vote on the provisions on Monday.
The Senate may finally have managed to pass the unemployment benefits extension bill but another policy advocated by the White House that would have been hugely beneficial to Michigan has been voted down by a sizable margin. Originally part of the larger “extenders bill,” a provision to extend about $10 billion in aid to the [...]
As Annie Lowrey reports at our sister site the Washington Independent, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a war funding bill late Thursday night before leaving for the 4th of July recess that includes $10 billion in funding to the state to help prevent some teacher layoffs. The problem is going to be getting this [...]
The Obama administration has led a furious charge to convince Congress to help states meet their budget needs — so far, to no avail.
This week, with Congress back from the Memorial Day recess, legislators will again push for a $23 billion aid bill to keep public-school teachers in their classrooms. Sen. Tom Harkin’s (D-Iowa) proposal, the Keep Our Educators Working Act, would help prevent the firing of as many as 300,000 educators. The states’ fiscal crises are peaking [...]
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