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.
Despite spending much of the last year and a half declaring that the stimulus package failed to create any jobs or boost the economy, the Michigan Republican congressional delegation signed a letter to the Department of Energy seeking a significant portion of those funds for the state on the grounds that they would boost the [...]
A congressional hearing into the Enbridge oil spill in Calhoun county has begun. In opening statements, members of Congress used the opportunity to rip into Enbridge Energy Partners and federal regulators from the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. “This corporation is not practicing a corporate culture of safety,” said Committee Chair James Oberstar, directly slapping [...]
ThinkProgress points out that Rep. Pete Hoekstra, running to be governor of a state with a 13.6 percent unemployment rate, missed the last two votes in the House on the unemployment benefits extension bill because he’s attending fundraisers. Last night, while the House was voting to pass the bill, Hoekstra was at a country club [...]
While British Petroleum (BP) is in the news for the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico — quickly becoming the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s history — environmental groups and lawmakers are arguing that the company’s environmental practices pose a similar threat to the Great Lakes.
Reps. John Dingell (D-Dearborn) and Vern Ehlers (R-Grand Rapids), together with Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN) have introduced a House bill that would restore Clean Water Act protections weakened by recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions and guidance from the Bush administration. America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act (H.R. 5088), introduced Wednesday, will legislatively override the effect [...]
With several veteran legislators stepping down, others facing tough reelection fights and the state likely to lose one seat due to declining population, the influence of Michigan’s congressional delegation may be far lower in the next Congress than in the current one. The Detroit Free Press reports:
The members of Michigan’s congressional delegation in D.C. are pushing for an increase in funds for Great Lakes clean up and restoration. Sen. Carl Levin and Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) this week submitted the Great Lakes Ecosystem Protection Act of 2010, a bill that would provide long-term annual funding for a variety of projects to [...]
The League of Conservation Voters annual report ranking members of Congress on their actions on environment, public health and energy issues gives Democratic Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow perfect scores and ranks the entire Democratic delegation at 93 percent or above. The Republicans scored far lower with retiring Vern Ehlers of Grand Rapids and [...]
It looks like that primary showdown with Justin Amash won’t be happening after all. Rep. Vern Ehlers is retiring and will not seek reelection to his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives from Grand Rapids. Ehlers, who is a PhD physicist, is 76 years old. This will undoubtedly spark a primary fight, probably between [...]
State Rep. Justin Amash, considered one of the most conservative members of the Michigan legislature in only his first term, announced on Tuesday that he was going to mount a primary challenge to Republican incumbent Vern Ehlers in the U.S. House of Representatives. But Ehlers may not even run for reelection and has scheduled a [...]
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