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.
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.
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.
FREELAND — At this past weekend’s fishing celebration in Saginaw County, the state’s advisory to avoid consumption of locally caught fish in a river contaminated by Dow Chemical went largely unnoticed by the crowds. And despite warnings from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality that toxic river sediments can settle on a riverside dock, families at Walleye Fest were walking barefoot as high water partially submerged it.
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.
Despite advisories that warn people to avoid contact with river sediments and consuming locally caught fish, thousands are expected to participate this weekend in a Dow Chemical-sponsored walleye festival along the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers, where the watershed has been contaminated with harmful dioxin and other toxic substances. And just as the Michigan Department of Community Health is warning that children and pre-menopausal women should mostly avoid eating river fish including walleye because of contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls and dioxin, organizers of the festival say they plan to donate walleye fillets to a local food bank.
Fresh off a listening tour in Michigan last week, officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency laid out three options for the cleanup of dioxin in the Saginaw Bay area — but some of the options may be off the table without support from Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Michigan Messenger’s recent reporting on dioxin contamination in the watershed downstream from The Dow Chemical Company made MSNBC’s Countdown series, “Still Bushed,” on Wednesday evening. Video can be viewed at this link: ‘Still Bushed!’, MSNBC’s Countdown, Mar. 11, 2009 Michigan Messenger’s coverage on dioxin contamination of the Tittabawassee and Saginaw Rivers can be found at [...]
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