State and Local News That Matters
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s campaign slogan to “fix the damn roads” gained viral attention for the Michigan Democrat.
However, as she gears up to seek another term, the state is still burdened with infrastructure issues. Residents of the state are required to pay thousands of dollars annually to repair their vehicle due to poor road conditions, according to one study from the nonprofit organization, TRIP.
Controversy is swirling around Michigan Second District Court of Appeals Chief Judge Elizabeth L. Gleicher issuing a preliminary injunction Tuesday afternoon against the state’s moribund 1931 law criminalizing abortions.
Anti-abortion advocates, including Right to Life Michigan and the Michigan Catholic Conference, assert Gleicher should have recused herself in the case, Planned Parenthood v. Attorney General Dana Nessel, because Gleicher donates regularly to the organization. Additionally, Gleicher offered free legal services to the American Civil Liberties Union and its client Planned Parenthood in a late 1990s abortion case, Mahaffey v. Attorney General.
Amid calls from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to remedy a perceived teacher shortage in Michigan, some of the leading policy analysts in the state claim the governor’s “one-size-fits-all approach” is based on faulty premises.
Those premises are echoed in a Monday report in the education journal Chalkbeat Detroit.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and one economic analyst agree that Michigan needs more workers but disagree on the proper strategies necessary to acquire them.
John Mozena, president of the Center for Economic Accountability, a nonprofit organization for transparent economic development policy, questioned Whitmer’s “doubling down” on big business subsidies while many businesses need workers. There are about 10 million Michiganders but, as of January 2021, only 4.7 million are in the workforce.
Michigan moms and babies relying on a steady supply of baby formula are joining families nationwide stymied by supply chain issues, product recalls, and record 40-year high inflation that’s left many baby formula shelves bare.
Lynn Sutfin, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman, said the problem affected about 85% of the more than 200,000 people in the Women, Infant, and Children (WIC) program that gives recipients about $30 to $112 or more per month.
It started with the University of Michigan firing former president Mark Schlissel for a years-long relationship with a subordinate coworker deemed inappropriate. It ended with Schlissel receiving about $1 million in payouts.
UM granted Schlissel one year of leave starting May 1, 2022, with a salary of $463,000.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan’s Long-Term-Care Ombudsman Program failed to visit most facilities in person, an auditor general report found.
MLTCOP, housed within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, advocates for more than 100,000 long-term care residents statewide, investigates complaints and supports improved policies.
When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shut down most of Michigan’s economy in 2020, she promised to return 10% of her $159,300 annual salary to the state in solidarity with more than 1 million Michiganders either out of work or who were soon to be.
“I’m going to lead by example,” Whitmer said on April 20, 2020. “I know that times are tough and that we as a state are going to be confronting a tough budget as a result of the economic shutdown.”
The Michigan Legislature voted to place on the Nov. 8 ballot a question asking Michiganders if they want a constitutional amendment altering term limits and requiring financial disclosures.
On a 76-28 vote, the House approved House Joint Resolution R, followed by the Senate’s vote of 26-6 – each received the required two-thirds majority in support to reach the ballot.
About 53,406 kids attending Detroit Public Schools Community District still must wear a mask through the end of the regular school year because of an agreement with a teacher’s union.
The last day of the regular school year is June 27. The union agreement ends June 30.
DPSCD Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti said the Detroit Federation of Teachers still wants a mask mandate. In February, the state and counties dropped the requirement but left local decisions to each school.
Michigan State Police seized a voting machine as part of an investigation into possible unauthorized access to election equipment.
Law enforcement and officials at Democratic Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office had a warrant and took a voting machine from Irving Township into custody, officials told CNN and The Epoch Times.
A new House bill introduced by a Republican legislator aims to amend Michigan’s Revised School Code to grant school boards the authority to share critical incident mapping data to local law enforcement agencies for school safety purposes.
Government Operations Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Mueller, R-Linden, discussed House Bill 6042 before the House GOC on Thursday. Mueller stated his desire to use the state budget process to fund CMI. School safety spending budgeted by the House earlier this week includes $200 million for school safety grants, in addition to $50 million for school resource officers and $8.4 million for each intermediate school district to hire a mental health coordinator and an emergency and safety manager.
About 115,000 Michiganders should receive payments totaling more than $3.5 million from Intuit, the owner of TurboTax, for deceiving consumers into paying for tax services that should have been free.
As part of a multi-state agreement, Attorney General Dana Nessel said Intuit will pay $141 million in restitution nationally to millions of consumers it unfairly charged for a free service.
In the wake of a leaked draft opinion from a Supreme Court case that could overturn Roe v. Wade, a Catholic church and school in Michigan has been vandalized with vulgar graffiti.
Activist Dave Reilly shared photos of the destruction of Saint Joseph’s Church and Academy in Armada on his Twitter account Friday.
The GOP-dominated Michigan Senate approved 14 budget bills that aim to provide $2 billion in tax relief in the fiscal 2023 budget amid 40-year high record inflation.
Senate Bills 827-843 were welcomed by Senate Appropriations Chair Jim Stamas, R-Midland.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has a history of vetoing Republican-led legislation which strives to strengthen the security of the state’s elections. Her most recent veto concerns information being added to voter ballots, which she claims to be restrictive.
Gina Swoboda, executive director of the Voter Reference Foundation, criticized the veto.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she’ll “fight like hell” to protect abortion access in Michigan.
She responded Monday night to a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft majority opinion from Politico claiming that the nation’s top court would overturn Roe v. Wade, which established abortion as a constitutional right.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s two covert plans to convict Michigan militia accused of plotting to overthrow the government have failed so far but share striking similarities.
In 2010, officers arrested nine Hutaree militia members for allegedly planning to kill a police officer and then bomb the funeral. But just two men pleaded guilty to weapons charges, and a judge acquitted the remaining seven defendants in 2012.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive on Sunday ordering state agencies to spread information about how to register to vote.
On Friday, Whitmer vetoed a bill that aimed to notify potential voters on on an absentee ballot application that it is a felony to vote more than once in the same election.
The Michigan Democratic Party and another group are challenging the petition signatures of three Michigan GOP gubernatorial challengers.
Lawyers filed challenges against former Detroit police Chief James Craig, conservative commentator Tudor Dixon, and businessman Perry Johnson.
Six private companies will share $577,400 of Michigan funding to expand electric vehicle infrastructure, promote EV adoption, and enhance electric bicycle sharing and charging.
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II announced Thursday a round of funding that will launch additional EV charging stations, increase access to EVs and expand adoption of EVs with Michigan drivers. More than $577,400 will be appropriated to six mobility projects from the Michigan Mobility Funding Platform, which was created through a partnership between the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, the Michigan Department of Transportation, and the Office of Future Mobility and Electrification.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy (MCPP) is suing the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), saying it won’t explain how it calculates the return on investment for its Pure Michigan tourism program.
MCPP requested the documents via the the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer awarded $1 million to two Children’s Savings Account (CSA) pilot programs, which will provide education money for 1,960 Michigan kids.
Battle Creek Community Foundation and Wayne Metro Community Action Agency will receive a $500K grant to create CSA programs.
A new report from the nonprofit Mighty Michigan, which self-describes as a “taxpayer advocacy group,” says that Pres. Joe Biden’s Build Back Better Act would reduce Michigan economic activity if it became law.
April 2022 research by the American Culture Foundation (ACF) estimates that the BBB would drop Michigan’s real economic output by $588 million and slash income by about $2,100 for the median Michigan family over 10 years.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to spend $60 million on electric vehicles (EV), including electrifying the state’s fleet. However, the production of EVs is beset by a supply chain riddled with shortages in addition to environmental concerns.
Whitmer’s proposed 2023 budget aims to spend $50 million to subsidize new EV sales or a $500 rebate for at-home charging equipment for new or used EVs. Another $10 million would start converting Michigan’s roughly 13,637-vehicle fleet to EV.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants to spend $60 million on electric vehicles (EV), including electrifying the state’s fleet. However, the production of EVs is beset by a supply chain riddled with shortages in addition to environmental concerns.
Whitmer’s proposed 2023 budget aims to spend $50 million to subsidize new EV sales or a $500 rebate for at-home charging equipment for new or used EVs. Another $10 million would start converting Michigan’s roughly 13,637-vehicle fleet to EV.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has withdrawn $5 million from the state’s new Energy Efficiency Revolving Fund to pay for three energy-efficiency projects.
The EERF was included in the governor’s fiscal year 2022 budget recommendation and passed by the state Legislature.
A month and a few days after Sunshine Week, which celebrates government transparency, Michigan’s three highest-ranking public officials won’t answer questions about a possible $1.4 million security protection bid from DK Security.
Three video clips from drop box locations in Detroit released this week reveal multiple issues that occurred with absentee ballots during the November 2020 election.
The absentee ballot drop box video evidence was shared Thursday in a series of three tweets by 45th President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, Liz Harrington.
Attorney General Dana Nessel entered a proposed settlement with Consumers Energy Company to end its use of coal by 2025 — 15 years earlier than originally planned.
The proposed settlement with Consumers Energy is in its integrated resource planning case, (Case No. U-21090), which is subject to final approval from the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC).