The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments later this month in a case determining whether government has the right to keep all the proceeds from foreclosed properties. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michigan-in-focus/support
An April 5 meeting to discuss a planned Gotion electric vehicle battery plant with $1.1 billion of backing in Mecosta County has been moved online, allegedly because of planned protests and possible threats of violence. Green Township Supervisor Jim Chapman told The Center Square in an email: “Yes it is a go, virtual only because of the huge numbers of protestors that intended to overrun us. Also we received threats of violence that we felt might be credible. A link to the panel will be on our w...
Saginaw Township residents might see up to a $460 annual increase in tax bills if voters approve a tax hike to repair school buildings. The Saginaw Township Community Schools Board of Education placed a $243 million bond proposal for 30 years on the May 2, 2023 ballot. With voter approval, the bond would finance school facility improvements, including demolishing three classroom pods and constructing a new 600-seat theater at Heritage High School. The bond proposal would require a 5.75 mill tax ...
The Ann Arbor public school district has a book available in its pre-kindergarten library called “Introducing Teddy: a gentle story about gender and friendship." The book is about a boy's best friend and teddy, Thomas, who is sad because "he wishes he were a girl, not a boy teddy, but what only matters to both of them is that they are friends." School districts across the country purchased books in 2022 that cover controversial topics such as critical race theory, white supremacy and gender dysp...
Jennifer and James Crumbley will face a trial on four counts of involuntary manslaughter for their alleged role in the Oxford School shooting in which four students were gunned down by their son, Ethan. The Michigan Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld District Court Judge Julie A. Nicholson’s ruling last month that a jury could find probable cause the parents could reasonably foresee their son’s violent actions against students and faculty Nov. 30, 2021. In their opinion, Judges Christopher M. M...
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a deaf former student can pursue monetary damages against a Michigan school district that allegedly failed to provide an adequate education. Nine-year-old Miguel Perez, the plaintiff, left Mexico with his family and enrolled at Sturgis Public School District in 2004. Perez was assigned to a classroom aide and was never given a sign language interpreter - only aides who were either unqualified or absent. For 12 years, Sturgis allegedly awarded...
The Detroit Police Department is seeking a $22 million increase to its budget in 2024, citing an increase in violent crime. The budget, proposed by Mayor Mike Duggan, would total $389 million, up from $366 million in fiscal year 2023. Most of that funding increase, about $13.5 million, would fund a bump in salaries and wages, while another $10 million would fund employee benefits. Meanwhile, planned operation costs in 2024 would drop by about $6 million. Chief James White says homicides are up 1...
The Democrat-dominated Michigan Senate voted to repeal right-to-work and to reinstate the prevailing wage. The House passed bills to repeal right-to-work last week. If signed into law, the first bill would affect about 9% of Michigan workers. Right-to-work was implemented during a lame-duck session in 2012 under former Republican Gov. Rick Synder and a Republican majority. In short, the 2012 law says that nobody can be required to pay dues or fees to a union to hold a job. “The ability to speak ...
Michigan lawmakers on Wednesday pressed DTE Energy and Consumer’s Energy officials and others about recent storms that left some without power for up to seven days. House Energy, Communications, and Technology Chairwoman Helena Scott, D-Detroit, said Michiganders demand a reliable grid. “We cannot and will not accept this as the new normal,” Scott said at the beginning of the hearing. “The power grid and associated infrastructure must be reinforced, it must be updated and improved so that Michig...
Three years after COVID struck Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer now admits that many of her early lockdown rules, in retrospect, “don’t make a lot of sense.” “We had to make some decisions, that in retrospect, don’t make a lot of sense,” Whitmer said in a CNN interview clip posted by the Twitter account @Breaking911. When COVID struck, Whitmer shuttered much of the state’s economy. Her rules deemed which careers were “essential” and ordered “nonessential” workers to stay home. Whitmer banned stor...
The Michigan House approved adding LGBTQ protections to the state’s civil rights law while the Senate repealed a 1931 abortion ban, which already was disarmed by Proposal 3. The House voted 65-45 on House Bill 4003 to expand the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. The act prohibits discriminatory practices, policies, and customs based on religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, height, weight, familial status, or marital status. The Michigan House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a m...
One decade after then-Republicans in the legislative majority and governor’s mansion instated it as the law in Michigan, the current Democrat legislative majority and governor have kicked it to the curb. On Wednesday night, the Michigan House voted 56-53 along party lines to repeal the state’s right-to-work law. That vote tally was echoed on reinstating Michigan’s prevailing wage law. The bills now travel to the Democrat-majority Senate, which could send them to the governor’s desk as early as n...
As two train derailments – one in Ohio and one in Michigan – remain national news, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel continue their crusade to shut down the Line 5 pipeline. If successful in their efforts, moving the petroleum products would transition from pipelines to tanker truck and rail transportation, according to experts interviewed by The Center Square. This transition would likely drive up prices for consumers, increase carbon emissions, and prove less safe, they sa...
Should Michigan taxpayers foot $700,000 per job created for 2,500 jobs at the new Ford factory that will pay an average wage of $45,136? That’s the question Michigan lawmakers will soon decide for the BlueOval Battery Park in Marshall. The $3.5 billion factory aims to drop the cost of electric vehicles via lithium iron phosphate batteries and pump out 2 million vehicles globally by 2026. The factory will be funded by at least $1 billion in taxpayer funds. The state asked for another $750 million...
Lansing Democrat Elissa Slotkin, representing Michigan’s 7th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, says she plans to run for a U.S. Senate seat in 2024. Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow has announced she will not run for reelection in 2024. Slotkin defeated Republican state Sen. Tom Barrett last November in the nation’s most expensive U.S. congressional race. The former state congresswoman raised a reported $9.3 million on her way to defeat Barrett, who raised only $2.5 million. Slo...
Michigan taxpayers might have to foot the bill for the state’s clean energy goals if DTE Energy is permitted to impose a $622 million rate hike. The utility's request seeks to hike residential rates by 13.9%, commercial rates by 11.5%, and industrial rates by 7%. DTE asked for the new rate hike effective as of Dec. 10 to recover costs of increased investments, carbon reduction plans, and attempting to comply with the state’s clean energy goals. Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walk...
The battle over whether a state of Michigan or federal court will determine the fate of the Line 5 dual pipelines remains in legal limbo for the time being. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan on Wednesday ruled in favor of granting Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's request to certify the court's August 2022 decision for interlocutory appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Join The Center Square's Bruce Walker and Tom Gantert on this episode of Michigan i...
The city of Flint's public schools have been the biggest benefactor in Michigan from the federal pandemic funding. The district received $49,996 per pupil in federal pandemic funding and that has allowed it to increase employee pay on average by 35% from 2019 to 2022. By comparison, Goodrich Area School District is within the same county as Flint, but that district received $1,662 per pupil in federal pandemic money. The Flint district received so much federal aid primarily because 96% of its st...
As many as 676,280 customers in Michigan were without power as of 7:45 a.m. Thursday due to an ice storm that swept through the southern part of the state. Consumers Energy and DTE warned customers on Twitter that downed wires could delay restoration efforts. "Crews are actively working in the field. They are assessing damage and making the public safe due to down wires. Restore efforts will be made when it is safe to do so," DTE tweeted at 4:57 a.m. Thursday. Join The Center Square's Bruce Walk...
Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walker, Managing Editor Tom Gantert, and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss Citizens Research Council of Michigan challenging the conclusions of a toll road feasibility study commissioned by the Michigan Department of Transportation. One day after announcing it would use $1 billion in taxpayer subsidies to build a new electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan, Ford Motor Company on Tuesday halted production of its F-150 Lightning EV ...
Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walker, Managing Editor Tom Gantert and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss Michigan's online charter public schools have a 20% decrease in spending in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's 2023-24 budget proposal. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed $79 billion budget for fiscal year 2024 aims to require taxpayers subsidize electric vehicles and chargers with $318 million. --- Listen to Other ATN Productions: America in Focus: A weekly feature of the ...
Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walker and Managing Editor Tom Gantert as they discuss the lack of transparency in Michigan government and toll roads in the state of Michigan. --- Listen to Other ATN Productions: America in Focus: A weekly feature of the top TheCenterSquare.com stories of the week out of Washington D.C. with commentary from The Center Square editors and more! America's Talking : An interview podcast hosted by Austin Berg. Guests include professors, journalists, ar...
Join The Center Square's Managing Editor Tom Gantert and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in her State of the State address Wednesday evening proposed seven permanent government expansions. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for “immediate” relief to some Michiganders from rising prices in her State of the State address Wednesday evening. The Michigan Court of Claims has entered an order certifying the $20 million class-action settlement against the Unemployment ...
Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walker, Managing Editor Tom Gantert and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss that as the number of electric vehicles grows in Michigan, so does the revenue hole from missing gas taxes that fix the damn roads. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday heard testimony related to Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools. Michigan schools are beefing up security with 195 school resource officers, one each for the state's 195 school districts, intermediate...
Join The Center Square's Managing Editor Tom Gantert and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss that Michigan Democrats while holding a political trifecta aim to regulate charter schools, data from the graduating class of 2021 show that the top eight open-enrollment high schools for college enrollment in Detroit are all charter schools. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer touted a CNBC report Monday naming Michigan a state poised to “dominate” EV battery manufacturing in the United States ...
Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walker, Managing Editor Tom Gantert, and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss that after the FBI declared the popular Chinese video app TikTok a national security threat, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer continues to post on the platform. Approximately twice as many Michiganders approve of a right-to-work law than oppose it, according to a statewide poll released Thursday by TargetPoint Consulting on behalf of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy...
Join The Center Square's Regional Editor Bruce Walker, Managing Editor Tom Gantert, and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss the top news stories in the state of Michigan in the year 2022. The alleged ringleader of the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 has been sentenced to 16 years in prison and five years of supervision in federal court. A second alleged ringleader of the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 has been sentenced to 19.5 years in prison and five ye...
Join The Center Square's Editor Tom Gantert and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss Carhartt to expand in Dearborn with nearly $1M of taxpayer help. Michigan taxpayers footing $57M in private business subsidies. Mom, denied ethnicity and gender class course materials, will appeal judge's FOIA ruling. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michigan-in-focus/support
Join The Center Square's Editor Tom Gantert and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss the idea that there is a teacher shortage in Michigan, what a ‘shortage’ really means, and how unions impact the industry. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michigan-in-focus/support
Join The Center Square's Managing Editor Tom Gantert and Michigan Reporter Scott McClallen as they discuss a Novi man sentenced for $423,435 unemployment fraud scheme. Businesses Fear Michigan Democrats Repealing Right-To-Work. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michigan-in-focus/support
