Michigan Judge Allows Restart of Disputed Oil Pipeline

A Michigan judge Wednesday allowed Enbridge to resume pumping oil through a Midwestern pipeline, nearly a week after shutting it down because of damage to a structure that anchors a section of the line running through a Great Lakes channel.

Enbridge’s Line 5 moves crude oil and liquids used in propane from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, passing through parts of Michigan’s upper and lower peninsulas. A four-mile-long (6.4-kilometers-long) segment divides into two pipes that cross the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lakes Huron and Michigan.

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U.S Republicans Ask Nessel to Investigate Whitmer’s COVID-19 Policy; Whitmer Creates Nursing Home Task Force

Congressional Republicans intensified their questioning of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s nursing home policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Members of the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis sent a letter asking Attorney General Dana Nessel to investigate the impact of Whitmer’s executive orders that placed COVID-19 patients into the same buildings, but different units, as elderly nursing home residents.

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Michigan AG Bans Trump for Not Wearing a Mask, Calls POTUS a ‘Petulant Child Who Refuses to Follow the Rules’

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said she is following through on a threat to keep President Donald Trump out of her state after he did not wear a face mask for part of a tour at a Michigan car plant.

The president is no longer welcome in Michigan, Nessel told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday after saying earlier in the day on CNN that Trump would be asked “not to return” if he did not follow the state’s guidelines. Not following the guidelines on social distancing and mask wearing cannot be tolerated, she added.

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AG Nessel: Capitol Commission Holds Legal Authority to Ban Firearms in State Buildings

In a letter sent to the chair of the Michigan State Capitol Commission, Attorney General Dana Nessel asserted the commission holds the legal authority to ban firearms in the State Capitol Building.

The MSCC’s authority includes ensuring the “safety of the visiting public, as well as those who carry out the People’s work by prohibiting firearms within the Capitol building,” Nessel wrote.

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Whitmer Orders All Bars, Restaurants, Theaters and More to Close

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a sweeping executive order Monday that orders the closure of several public places in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Under the executive order, the following places of public accommodation were required to close: restaurants, cafes, coffee houses, bars, taverns, brewpubs, distilleries, clubs, movie theaters, indoor and outdoor performance venues, gymnasiums, fitness centers, recreation centers, indoor sports facilities, indoor exercise facilities, exercise studios, spas, and casinos.

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Michigan A.G. Nessel Joined Two Legal Actions Against Trump Immigration Rules in December

  Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel joined legal actions against two immigration-related rules from President Donald Trump’s administration in December. According to a statement from Nessel’s office, Michigan’s chief law enforcement officer has joined Democratic attorneys general from around the country in challenging Trump’s effort to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian nationals and a rule that will divert asylum-seekers to different countries. In regards to the latter, Nessel said the rule will send asylum-seekers to South American countries that have signed asylum cooperative agreements with the U.S., such as Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras. “This interim final rule ignores the vital economic contributions of immigrants throughout our state and this country and blatantly disregards the fact that asylum-seekers are already seeking protection from dangerous circumstances,” Attorney General Nessel said in a statement. “Forcing them into countries with some of the highest homicide rates in the world and providing no safeguards against family separation is not only counterproductive but pushes asylum-seekers further into the danger they’ve fought so hard to flee.” Her office joined 19 other state attorneys general in submitting a comment letter to the Department of Homeland Security to oppose the new rule. She also expressed concern…

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