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.
Home foreclosures, frugal water use and a cool summer have resulted in a cash flow problem for the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, the Detroit Free Press reports; the department is planning to respond with rate increase next month. Water rates are expected to go up by as much as 10 percent and sewer rates [...]
Earlier this summer Lt. Governor John Cherry announced the intention of creating something called the Michigan Great Lakes Protection and Restoration Initiative. The initiative, we were told, would “protect, remediate and restore the Great Lakes.” Now, just a few months later, we have a draft of the plan (PDF) and an invitation to contribute our [...]
By spilling 23 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage into surface waters during 2007, the city of Detroit has won top honors in the Crappie Awards.
The Great Lakes Compact, a bill intended to maintain regional control over Great Lakes water, passed the Senate unanimously on Aug. 1, and Congress is expected to take the matter up when it reconvenes after the summer break. So far, Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak from Menominee is the only representative who has expressed concern that [...]
Sen. Feingold suggests blocking ships Oceangoing vessels have been entering the Great Lakes since the St. Lawrence Seaway opened up in 1959, and by introducing invasive species they have substantially degraded the ability of the lakes to support fisheries, tourism and other commercial uses. A conservative estimate of the economic impact to Great Lakes states [...]
Now on to the Governor for her signature House Democrats are calling it a landmark water protection package that will keep Michigan’s most precious natural resource here where it belongs The house passed all components of the bipartisan, comprehensive “Great Waters, Great Michigan Act” and sent to the desk of Gov. Jennifer Granholm. She is [...]
LANSING — Ingham County Drain Commissioner Patrick Lindemann had just been elected to the post of commissioner in 1993 when he and his office were faced with a dilemma. Federal law mandated that sanitary sewers and storm runoff sewers be separated to prevent raw sewage from entering local waterways. It was an overwhelming task, one [...]
While the Michigan state government prepares to argue over whether to set the level of Great Lakes water withdrawal that requires a permit at 2 million gallons per day or 5 million gallons per day, this report from Canada shows a very different legislative approach to water. Recognizing a connection between electricity efficiency and water [...]
By examining precipitation, evaporation and runoff data for Lake Michigan and Lake Huron between 1860 and 2006 scientists at the University of Michigan and Duke University found that water levels have gradually declined since 1973. The decline might be linked to increased evaporation, the scientists wrote, and is consistent with climate-change projections. Given the ongoing [...]
Amid growing concern about dropping lake levels and the possibility that climate change could accelerate water loss, Michigan lawmakers took steps this week to approve a regional water pact aimed at protecting the Great Lakes from destructive water withdrawals. The Great Lakes Compact is an agreement between eight states and two Canadian provinces that would [...]
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