While Gov. Jennifer Granholm and other Great Lakes leaders were meeting at the White House with the leadership of the key executive agencies involved, the Obama administration released the details of a 25-point plan to prevent the destructive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes — but stopped short [...]
Attorney General Mike Cox has filed a brief, along with 13 other state attorneys general, in a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court called Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The case involves the question of whether recognized student organizations at a publicly funded university can set their own [...]
According to one Michigan resident, Phyllis Schlafly’s ultra-conservative Eagle Forum has been taking out radio ads attacking Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican running for governor, and broadcasting them on talk radio in the Detroit area. The resident posted about this on gather.com and describes the commercials:
Eagle Forum, an [...]
When the Detroit crime lab was shut down in the fall of 2008 after a report found a “shocking level of incompetence” in handling and analyzing evidence, the already underfunded and overworked state police crime labs had to try to pick up the slack on the extra work. Somewhere along [...]
The Michigan Senate overwhelmingly approved the sale of $250 million in bonds by the city of Detroit, which will be used to pay down the city’s already existing $300 million in debt. The House already approved the legislation and Gov. Granholm is expected to sign it. The bonds will [...]
One of the things Gov. Granholm proposed in her State of the State speech was to restore the funding for the award winning Pure Michigan ad campaign. As if on cue, a new study commissioned by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has concluded that the campaign drove half a billion [...]
Synagro, the Houston sludge hauling company, seems to be angling for a spot in the chutzpah hall of fame. They got caught bribing city council member Monica Conyers, who will soon be going to jail for it along with Synagro VP James Rosendall and Rayford Jackson, the middleman in the [...]
The ongoing saga continues in the wake of the FBI’s killing of Detroit Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah. On Tuesday, members of Abdullah’s family — and Rep. John Conyers — demanded a second autopsy on the African-American Muslim leader as well as the release of any other evidence in the case. [...]
As Sam Riddle’s federal prosecution for bribery and corruption continues with all its lurid testimony, his state prosecution for assault got off to a bizarre start on Wednesday as the victim of that assault — his (former?) girlfriend Mary Waters, a retired state representative — objected to a no contact [...]
Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop delivered the GOP’s response to Gov. Granholm’s State of the State speech Wednesday night, and where Granholm’s speech made virtually no mention of taxes or state revenues, Bishop left no doubt that the Republican leadership in Congress still adamantly refuses to even consider any measures [...]
Gov. Jennifer Granholm delivered her last State of the State speech on Wednesday night to a joint session of the state legislature and to all Michigan residents, a speech that declared that this was a time of unique crisis requiring that we put aside the old ways of doing things [...]
The protests of Gov. Granholm’s State of the State speech began on MSU’s campus, where a group of about 65 students and others protesting education cuts began a long, slow march to the capitol building. They are currently marching down Michigan avenue, snarling up rush hour traffic while being escorted [...]
Frank Luntz has become nearly legendary in the political world for his strategic advice to Republicans on how to sell their ideas to the public and undermine the agenda of Democrats, but his latest advice memo to Republicans — instructing them on how to stop Obama’s push for new financial [...]
Here’s a new twist in the Chrysler bankruptcy that may provide a bit of good news for the Michigan economy. The newly restructured company is working on a plan to buy back a plant in metro Detroit from its own bankrupt self and put the workers from the plant back [...]
The Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill to end the lifetime health insurance benefits that state legislators currently become eligible for after six years in office. Gov. Jennifer Granholm called for an end to those benefits in a speech last week and urged the Republican-led [...]
Continuing the trend of the last few months, domestic auto sales for Ford and General Motors showed strong improvement in January. Ford sold 116,534 vehicles, a 25 percent jump over the first month of 2009, while General Motors jumped 14 percent on sales of 146,825 vehicles. Chrysler bucked the [...]
Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee, opened hearings on the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy by calling for the repeal of that policy and for gay and lesbian soldiers to be allowed to serve openly. The Lansing State Journal reports:
Opening a hearing [...]
First term U.S. Reps. Mark Schauer and Gary Peters, both Democrats who unseated Republican incumbents in 2008, have been targeted by national Republican officials as seats they could regain in 2010. But so far, the two freshman legislators are enjoying a significant lead in fundraising over their Republican challengers. The [...]
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s office finally released the autopsy of Luqman Ameen Abdullah, the Detroit area Imam who was gunned down during an FBI raid in October on a warehouse in Dearborn. The Michigan Messenger and several other news outlets had filed a Freedom of Information Act request [...]
The House Judiciary Committee, led by Rep. John Conyers of Detroit, is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an independent and complete investigation of the FBI raid that resulted in the gunning down of Detroit area Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah at a warehouse in Dearborn in October.
[...]
A new Epic/MRA poll has some very interesting information about the race for governor in Michigan.
The poll, which was of 400 likely Democratic voters and 400 likely Republican voters, showed that Attorney General Mike Cox is leading the Republican candidates with 26 percent. U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra is [...]
Dennis Lennox, the young conservative activist who sparked so much controversy with his hounding of Rep. Gary Peters when the legislator was running for office and teaching at CMU and now the Cheboygan County Drain Commissioner, is now facing charges of misusing public funds to send out a mailing [...]
Gov. Jennifer Granholm, in her last year in office, has come out strongly in favor of a very controversial idea: Holding a constitutional convention to rewrite Michigan’s constitution. The Detroit News reports:
“The state of Michigan is dramatically different than it was in 1961, and we need a foundation [...]
The Detroit Free Press reports that the Wayne County medical examiner’s office is expected to release the results of the autopsy performed on Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah by Monday. Abdullah was gunned down during a raid by the FBI and the Dearborn Police Department in October.
The autopsy has [...]
In the first test of new recusal rules put in place by the Michigan Supreme Court, the four more liberal and moderate justices denied a request by Geoffrey Feiger to force the court’s three most conservative to disqualify themselves in a case where he was representing a client because of [...]
The White House has set a date of Feb. 8 for the Asian carp summit requested by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin and Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois. Attorney General Mike Cox, who requested a place at the table for that meeting along with four other [...]
In the wake of Toyota being forced to recall more than five million vehicles due to a problem with the accelerator pedals sticking to the floor — and having to cease new car sales of several of their most popular models — Ford and GM are moving quickly to entice [...]
The Detroit News has an article assessing how the policies of the Obama administration have affected the state of Michigan, particularly on economic questions. The opinion of the experts they cite suggests that without those policies, the auto bailout in particular, Michigan’s economic situation would be infinitely worse:
Looking [...]
U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, a Republican who represents Michigan’s 10th district in the thumb, has submitted a bill to allow the president to detain terrorism suspects arrested in the United States as “enemy combatants” and have them tried in military courts rather than civilian courts.
The bill is entirely superfluous. [...]
Former math teacher Madeline Weishuhn has lost another appeal in her long-running lawsuit against against the Catholic Diocese of Lansing. Weishuhn taught math and religion classes at a Catholic elementary school in Mt. Morris, Michigan, from 1999 to 2005, when she was fired by the school after what the court [...]
After nearly two years of on-again, off-again negotiations and dealmaking, General Motors has finally reached a final agreement to sell its Saab brand to Spyker Cars NV, a Dutch luxury automobile maker. The Detroit News reports that the deal is worth about $400 million overall, $74 million in cash [...]
The federal corruption trial of longtime Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle began on Monday and the fireworks are already going off. On the first day of the trial, prosecutors began playing portions of untold hours of phone calls recorded by legal wiretap, recordings that included Riddle questioning the sanity of [...]
The Huffington Post has a very interesting article that says that medical marijuana users in the 14 states that currently allow the use of the otherwise illegal substance to treat medical conditions — presumably including Michigan — are routinely being denied the right to get organ transplants at hospitals [...]
Only a few weeks after firing Fritz Henderson and taking over as CEO of General Motors, with the promise that he would then start a search for a permanent leader for the company, former Chairman of the Board Ed Whitacre will now be staying in the CEO job permanently. The [...]
As the federal bribery and corruption trial for longtime Detroit political consultant Sam Riddle begins this week, Riddle’s own words — uttered before and after indictment — will provide a good deal of the evidence against him. The Detroit Free Press reports:
The star witness against Sam Riddle in [...]
Though Michigan voters approved a referendum legalizing the medical use of marijuana by a wide margin in 2008, the administrative and legal rules developed to implement that referendum have left a great many questions unanswered and put many medical marijuana users in legal jeopardy. The Kalamazoo Gazette reports:
Some [...]
With signs of a recovery for the auto industry and a new model of light truck planned for production, Flint area UAW members are anticipating the addition of a third shift and hundreds of new jobs at the Flint Truck Assembly Plant by the end of the year. The Flint [...]
With the Michigan Supreme Court currently considering the question of whether the Grand Traverse County Prosecutor can bring criminal charges against Meijer for violating the election laws, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision yesterday striking down limits on corporate spending eliminates the most serious criminal charge that could be brought [...]
The Michigan Department of Corrections is objecting to new rules placed on disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick by Judge Groner in his restitution appeal earlier this week. As part of that ruling, the judge transferred Kilpatrick’s probation from Texas to Michigan, making the DOC responsible for overseeing his probation [...]
Trijicon, the Wixom, Michigan based company that has generated an enormous amount of controversy this week as it was revealed that they have inscribed Bible verses on scopes that they sell the military for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, is backing down from its defense of those inscriptions and will [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its highly anticipated decision in Citizens United v Federal Elections Commission this morning. To almost no one’s surprise, the court struck down Austin v Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a 1990 ruling that forbid corporations from spending money from their general treasury to support or [...]
Disgraced former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick lost badly on Wednesday when Judge David Groner handed down his ruling in the appeal he filed to have his restitution payments reduced. Groner saw through Kilpatrick’s pleas of poverty, bluntly calling him a liar and ordering him to pay more than $300,000 within [...]
Back in October, Detroit political activist Agnes Hitchcock asked Attorney General Mike Cox to rule that state law prohibited Charles Beckham from serving as one of Mayor Dave Bing’s top aides because he has a prior conviction for bribery in public office. When Cox refused to do so, Hitchcock filed [...]
Last week Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin wrote to the White House requesting a summit of Great Lakes governors to discuss the threat posed to the world’s largest freshwater resource by the Asian carp. On Wednesday, Nancy Sutley, chair of the president’s Council on Environmental Quality, [...]
Spencer Ackerman at our sister site the Washington Independent is liveblogging hearings being held today by the Senate Homeland Security Committee on the attempted bombing of Northwest flight 253 on Christmas Day on its way to Detroit. You can see those posts as they are published on the site by [...]
Democratic leaders in the Michigan House and Senate called Tuesday for the elimination of lifetime health care for legislators. Currently, state legislators who are in office for six years are eligible to free lifetime health insurance funded by taxpayers, which costs the state about $5 million a year. In a [...]
With another deficit of $1.7 billion projected for the fiscal year 2011 budget that begins in October, Republican leaders in the state legislature are proposing the same thing they proposed last year – deep cuts, including salary reductions for teachers and other public employees, and no new revenues to help [...]
After it was revealed by ABC News that a Wixom, Michigan-based defense contractor had long been putting Bible verses on scopes purchased by the military for use in Iraq and Afghanistan, both predominately Muslim nations, military officials want to meet with representatives of that company to discuss the matter. [...]
The Detroit Free Press poured over state records and found that the problem of raw sewage being discharged into Michigan’s rivers and lakes continues to occur at record levels despite having been known and understood for decades. Some of the numbers are absolutely staggering:
In the last two years, [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied a motion filed by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox for a preliminary injunction ordering the closure of the locks that separate the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal from Lake Michigan in order to prevent the Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. They did [...]
ABC News has a disturbing report about a Michigan-based defense contractor, Trijicon, that supplies rifle scopes to the U.S. Army and the Marine Corps with inscriptions of Bible verses on them. The company, whose website makes clear the Christian viewpoint of its owners, has a contract to supply [...]
Here’s some very much needed good news for the economy, especially in Michigan: Domestic automakers plan to boost production by a whopping 69 percent in the first quarter of 2010. The Detroit Free Press reports:
Collectively, the industry plans to make 2.93 million cars and trucks in North America [...]
This story is a few days old but still worth noting and commenting on. A retired GM worker who was born in Canada but has lived in the United States since he was a year old has been deported to Canada and forbidden from ever entering the United States again, [...]
Today is Martin Luther King Day, so we will be celebrating the life of this great American and posting will be light. It is a day to reflect on the astounding but still unfinished progress in justice and equality made by the civil rights movement in this country, led by [...]
At a time when it seems like every prominent Democrat in the state is considering jumping into the race for the party’s nomination for governor, one declared candidate — State. Sen. Hansen Clarke — is taking his name out of consideration only ten days after throwing his hat [...]
In an opinion piece for the Oakland Press, Tim Skubick looks at the question of whether Andy Dillon might be forced by his fellow Democrats to give up his position as Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives if he chooses to run for governor.
Macomb County Democrat Miller, [...]
The question of the moment in Michigan politics seems to be: Who’s in and who’s out of the 2010 race for governor? The Republican lineup of Hoekstra, Cox, Snyder and Bouchard has been set for a while now, but in the wake of Lt. Gov. John Cherry’s withdrawal the Democrats [...]
This could be a rather frightening statistic. The number of gun permits issued in the state of Michigan in 2010 was twice as high as the number issued in 2009. This echoes reports nationwide that gun and ammo sales had skyrocketed following the election of President Barack Obama. The Detroit [...]
After applying for $290 million in federal funds to help local land banks deal with unprecedented numbers of foreclosed and abandoned properties, the state is going to receive $224 million for those projects. The Detroit News reports:
Michigan is set to receive $224 million under the American Recovery [...]
Rep. John Conyers (D-Detroit) is calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Detroit area Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, who was gunned down in a raid by the FBI and local police in October. The Detroit Free Press reports:
Conyers, a Democrat who serves as [...]
Things may have gone from bad to worse for disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. In addition to wanting a judge to order Kilpatrick to immediately pay $225,000 in back restitution pay, now the Wayne County Prosecutor wants the judge to declare him in violation of his probation for failing [...]
After sources at the White House revealed that Denise Illitch, daughter of Little Caesar’s Pizza founder and Detroit Red Wings owner Mike Illitch, had met with President Obama about a possible run for the Democratic nomination to be Michigan’s next governor, the potential candidate was in Grand Rapids last night [...]
Here’s an interesting twist in the ongoing saga of the 2010 Michigan gubernatorial race: The Detroit Free Press reports that the White House is courting Denise Illitch, daughter of Little Ceasar’s founder Mike Illitch and current University of Michigan regent, to jump in to the race for the Democratic [...]
Throughout the hearings on his restitution claims, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has pleaded poverty as the reason why he has to have his $6,000 a month restitution payment reduced. As the Detroit Free Press reports, prosecutors in court showed bank transactions for Kilpatrick in the hundreds of thousands [...]
The state legislature spent most of the last few weeks of the 2009 session hurriedly fashioning a series of major school reforms in order to make Michigan eligible for about $400 million in federal funds under the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program, but state and local education officials [...]
The Michigan Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on Wednesday in a lawsuit filed against a megachurch in Lansing by a congregant who was injured after being “slain in the spirit” during a ceremony at the church. In April, the Michigan Court of Appeals overturned most of [...]
I’m sure a little good news for the economy is welcome during times like these, so here are a couple of hopeful tidbits. The Detroit News reports that the Big Three automakers are all looking at recalling laid off workers in order to boost production as domestic auto sales [...]
Politico reports that Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Menominee) is seriously considering throwing his hat into the ring for the Democratic nomination for governor now that Lt. Gov. John Cherry’s withdrawal from the race has thrown the nomination up for grabs.
Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) seems one step closer to running [...]
In perhaps the most anti-climactic news of the day, former state Rep. John Freeman withdrew from the race for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010. The campaign sent out a press release announcing that withdrawal. It might well have been easier just to notify the six people who knew [...]
Gov. Jennifer Granholm officially rescinded the additional $127 per pupil cut in K-12 funding that she imposed in anticipation of flagging revenues after the annual January revenue estimating conference concluded that revenues should be stable for the rest of FY 2010. This move was expected after state budget [...]
Rep. Pete Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a campaign for governor, appeared on Meet the Press Sunday morning, as he often does. I didn’t watch the show and I’d missed the transcript of it until our friends at Michigan Liberal pointed out a [...]
After the furor that erupted last month over passage of a set of concessions between the Detroit Public Schools and the Detroit Federation of Teachers — including an attempt to oust the DFT president — it should not be surprising that a group of teachers is now suing the union [...]
James Brady and Richard Rossman, former U.S. Attorneys for the Western and Eastern Districts of Michigan respectively, penned an op-ed piece in the Detroit Free Press on Monday defending the prosecution of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab — the infamous underwear bomber — in federal civilian court in Detroit. That choice, [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court delayed taking action on a request by all of the Great Lakes states except Illinois to reconsider an 80 year old ruling and shut down the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal that links the Mississippi River and Lake Michigan, action they say is necessary to prevent [...]
The annual January Consensus Revenue Estimating Conference (CREC) in Lansing is over and the news is as bleak as expected. The bottom line projection is a $1.725 billion deficit — at least — for the state government in FY 2011, which begins in October. That’s not a surprise, of course; [...]
A chapter of the newly reformed Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), one of the most influential left wing groups in the 1960s, has formed at Michigan State University. The SDS was reformed as a national organization in 2006 and chapters have been growing in number ever since. In a [...]
A journalist who spent time with a group of tea party activists from across Southeast Michigan reports that one of the issues they expressed concern about — like so many conservative groups have over the last few years — is election fraud.
C.J. Schuman, Wayne County coordinator of the [...]
At least one candidate for governor is not running into the fundraising problems that forced Lt. Gov. John Cherry out of the race. Though not required to do so, Attorney General Mike Cox announced that he has raised nearly $2 million in his race for governor and has most of [...]
Separate groups of Muslims and Nigerians of different faiths gathered outside the federal courthouse in Detroit today as Umar Farouk Abdullmutallab — the now-infamous underwear bomber — was arraigned inside. They were there to send a message to the world and take a strong stand against terrorism and for the [...]
It’s revenue projection time again for the state, a time when the House Fiscal Agency and the Senate Fiscal Agency — both ostensibly non-partisan advisory offices — attempt to predict the amount of money the state will take in over the next year in taxes and fees. And while neither [...]
This is a very interesting twist to the story of the Christmas day attempted underwear bombing. The Detroit News reports that government officials were planning to meet Umar Farouk Addulmutallab at the Detroit airport when his flight landed that day to question him about his connections to terrorists.
“As [...]
With the exit of Lt. Gov. John Cherry from the race for the Democratic nomination for governor, many names have surfaced as possible candidates. Several times over the course of the last few days I’ve heard former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer’s name mentioned, but the Detroit News reports that [...]
With Congress questioning their choice of which dealers were terminated during bankruptcy restructuring last summer and putting pressure on the company to withdraw many of those terminations, General Motors now says they will likely reinstate at least 100 dealerships. The Detroit News reports:
Congress last month ordered GM to [...]
In the mad rush to fill the void left by Lt. Gov. John Cherry’s exit from the race for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2010, at least one possible candidate — Rep. Gary Peters — is making clear that he will not be throwing his hat into the ring. [...]
With the White House opposing his call for closing the Chicago Sanitary and Shipping Canal to prevent the Asian carp from reaching Lake Michigan, Attorney General Mike Cox says he wants to meet with Obama to discuss the issue and the enormous economic and environmental threat to the Great [...]
Pending criminal prosecutions for executives of Michigan retail giant Meijer are on hold while the company appeals the latest ruling in a case that has gone on seemingly forever to the Michigan Supreme Court. The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports:
A local prosecutor won’t be able to proceed with a [...]
The American domestic auto sales numbers are out for December and, once again, Ford leads the way in sales growth while GM and Chrysler show modest losses. Automotive News reports the numbers, which show overall domestic auto sales up 15 percent over December, 2008.
Ford leads all the major companies [...]
The new Detroit City Council, with five newly elected members, had its first official meeting on Tuesday, making assignments to several key city boards on which councilors sit and considering a measure that would cut their own pay — and that of Mayor Bing and the city clerk. The Detroit [...]
