Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the GOP-dominated Legislature will soon battle over spending a $6 billion budget surplus.
Whitmer wants targeted tax breaks for retired Michiganders; family tax credits; and, perhaps most controversial, has announced a plan that would give private auto manufacturers more than a billion dollars, which many Republicans also support.
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The Michigan Senate approved a bipartisan plan to reduce prescription drug prices in the state.
House Bill 4348 aims to save patients money by regulating pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) who serve as facilitators between health plans, drug manufacturers and pharmacists.
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A lawsuit filed against Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson asserts she illegally accepted private money for the 2020 presidential election to swing the election for President Joe Biden.
The Chicago-based Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit in the Michigan Court of Claims, alleging Benson violated election law by spending private election funding on partisan purposes that denied Michigan voters’ constitutional equal access voting rights.
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Automobile industry giant Toyota said Wednesday that its manufacturing plants that were affected by the Ambassador Bridge blockade are now back to normal operations.
“Yes, as of today, we have resumed normal production operations at the three U.S. plants and two Canadian plants that were impacted by this challenge,” Toyota spokeswoman Kelly Stefanich told The Michigan Star. “We plan to make up the lost production in the coming weeks as the supply chain stabilizes.”
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The Michigan Senate approved a bill that aims to lower the personal and corporate tax rate to 3.9%.
Michigan currently taxes corporations at 6% and Michiganders at a flat 4.25% income tax.
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Ingham County will spend $56.8 million in federal funding to recover from COVID-19. The spending will be divided into two phases.
Ingham County Controller Gregg Todd said the first round of spending ranged from June 2021 through May 2022, and aims to help those hit hardest by COVID.
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In an effort led by Senator and Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-GA), several Democrat Senators in battleground states have signed on to a bill that would suspend the gas tax until 2023.
The Gas Prices Relief Act would lower prices at the pump as gas prices rise to nearly a decade high in a crucial election season.
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After a week-long blockade that shut down Ambassador Bridge connecting Michigan to Windsor, Ontario, Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) maps show that the route is clear.
The Canadian Freedom Convoy, a grassroots group of truckers who blocked the bridge in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions, was broken up thanks to police efforts, according to The Detroit Free Press.
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Eight Michigan counties will end school mask mandates on or before Feb. 28, citing lower COVID metrics.
The Health Department of Northwest Michigan, which covers Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Otsego counties, will repeal its mask mandate for schools on February 17, followed by Ingham County on February 19, and Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne County will drop their mask mandates on February 28.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed into law two bills ostensibly aimed at assisting first-time homebuyers.
House Bill 4290 and Senate Bill 145 will allow first-time homebuyers to save down payments and closing costs tax-free. The bills establish the Michigan First-Time Home Buyer Savings Program within the state’s Department of Treasury.
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After an Ontario Superior Court judge issued an injunction Freedom Convoy protestors at Ambassador Bridge to disburse, more protestors showed up in defiance of the order.
The order, handed down Friday afternoon, told protestors to clear the bridge or be arrested. Police officers from across the province reportedly swarmed to the area.
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The Ingham County Health Department will repeal its mask mandate on Feb. 19 at midnight for thousands of students.
“We are at a point in this pandemic in which public health strategies will begin to shift more towards personal responsibility as we learn to live with COVID-19 long-term,” Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail said in a statement. “As a public health agency, we will continue to support local school districts by recommending evidence-based public health measures, educating on current guidance and practices, and making recommendations for staying safe and healthy.”
The emergency orders issued on Sept. 2, 2021, require masks in schools and details quarantine and isolation rules.
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After two years of imposing heavy-handed COVID-19 restrictions resulting in the loss of thousands of jobs for Michiganders and nearly 30 percent of small businesses in the state expecting not to survive the pandemic, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is concerned about the economic ramifications of the Canadian Freedom Convoy.
“[The right-wing media is] inciting and encouraging people to break the law and to do so in a way that devastates so many hard-working people…This is five days, and it’s already taken a toll of tens of billions of dollars — that number compounds over time,” Whitmer said on CNN Friday morning.
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Thursday morning on War Room Pandemic, host Bannon welcomed The Michigan Star Report Pete D’Abrasco discuss his recent article which addresses how the Canadian freedom convoy of truckers has spread to Windsor creating standstill traffic on heavily traveled Ambassador Bridge dispelling falsehoods by left-wing media outlets.
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A bridge linking a major international shipping route between the U.S. and Canada is blocked, thanks to a a weeks-long protest by truckers in that country who are against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“Cameras over the highway on I-94 depicted a massive traffic jam building up near Port Huron, where the only bridge port of entry linking Canada to the U.S. that remained open became overwhelmed with diverted truck traffic,” according to WJBK.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer pitched a $74.1 billion budget that would increase state spending by $4.1 billion over the prior year.
Sen. Jim Stamas, R-Midland, said Michigan’s 2009 budget was $48 billion and has grown in 13 years by $26.1 billion.
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Why is insulin, invented more than 100 years ago, still unaffordable for many of America’s 10 million diabetics who rely on it?
Politicians reflexively blame pharmaceutical manufacturers. Sen. Bernie Sanders asked rhetorically in November, “What possible reason, other than greed, could there be for the pharmaceutical industry to raise the price of insulin by more than 1,400%?”
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel recently announced plans to investigate rising insulin prices as a pretext for increased government regulation of the market. “While drug companies profit off of people’s health, they also benefit from a current market in which they control the pricing,” she proclaimed. “Enough is enough.”
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A federal plea deal filed Monday says Kaleb Franks, 27, will plead guilty to the March 2020 plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Franks also will testify against four others in a March 8 trial.
Franks signed a plea deal that he was “not entrapped or induced to commit any crimes” by undercover agents or confidential informants, contrary to the defense’s claims.
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The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) granted Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s request to expand the eligibility for waivers for Michiganders who wrongly received Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) because of the state jobless agency’s mistake.
“Michiganders should not be penalized for doing what was right at the time they applied for federal pandemic benefits,” Whitmer said in a statement. “Coupled with the waivers we applied earlier, we are looking to help Michiganders who needed unemployment benefits to pay their bills, keep food on the table, and continue supporting small businesses. I look forward to working with our legislative partners to continue putting Michiganders first and keeping more money in their pockets.”
The USDOL updated its waiver guidance to approve five new scenarios for consideration of a waiver may apply blanket waivers for recovery of overpayments:
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Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-13) has awarded approximately $170,000 to an anti-Israel political consulting firm, according to financial disclosures filed with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC).
According to the filings, Tlaib’s campaign and leadership PAC have dished out the funds to Unbought Power LLC, a political consulting firm. The firm is run by activist Rasha Mubarak.
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Parents of a Michigan school district are threatening a lawsuit if officials continue to force their children to wear masks.
Attorneys from the Thomas More Society presented a demand letter February 3 on behalf of the Walled Lake Citizens for Parental Rights to the city’s Consolidated School District Board of Education.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to pitch spending $500 million of additional federal taxpayer money on private companies that produce electric vehicles (EV). The governor will discuss her proposal on Wednesday at 11 a.m.
However, it’s unclear if general economic development is an approved use of federal COVID dollars under U.S. Treasury guidelines.
The Detroit News first reported the story.
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A Detroit lawmaker is pitching up to a 20-year, additional 0.4 mill tax hike to Wayne and Oakland County residents to fund museums – similar to the Detroit Institute of Art tax.
Sen. Marshall Bullock, D-Detroit, sponsored Senate Bill 653 that would apply only to counties with a population over one million – narrowing to the above two counties to fund the Detroit Historical Society and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
Bullock’s office hasn’t responded to multiple requests by The Center Square for comment.
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A Detroit lawmaker is pitching up to a 20-year, additional 0.4 mill tax hike to Wayne and Oakland County residents to fund museums – similar to the Detroit Institute of Art tax.
Sen. Marshall Bullock, D-Detroit, sponsored Senate Bill 653 that would apply only to counties with a population over one million – narrowing to the above two counties to fund the Detroit Historical Society and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History.
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Flint Public School staff members got a $22,500 COVID bonus with federal money intended “to safely reopen” schools before the school in January shifted indefinitely to online learning, citing COVID.
The move forced more than 3,500 students – a majority of them Black kids – back into virtual learning, despite bleak past results and at least $99 million of federal money the U.S. Department of Education expressly designated “to reopen K-12 schools safely.”
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Michigan Senator Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) questioned Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s gift to the Michigan Democratic Party.
The money was funded by excessive campaign donations from individuals collected by Whitmer through a campaign finance loophole, which allowed the governor to cite the threat of a recall to raise unlimited funds.
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A Republican legislator has introduced a bill intended to curtail Michigan’s alleged teacher shortage.
The House Education Committee heard testimony related to House Bill 5685 on Monday. The bill, introduced by Rep. Pamela Hornberger, R-Chesterfield Twp., if passed, would allow public schools to hire college education majors prior to their certification as teachers.
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Judge Michael Warren, who serves on the Oakland County Circuit Court, on Wednesday launched a campaign for a position on the Michigan Supreme Court.
Warren is seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for one of the two openings on the Court, according to an emailed release from the member of the judiciary branch.
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In the high profile case against alleged plotters of a kidnapping of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), the state plans to introduce evidence that defendants use encrypted chat applications in the planning stages of their scheme.
“The government disagrees, saying the defendants did more than talk, but took actions to carry out their plan: they cased Whitmer’s house twice; drew maps; bought night vision goggles; secretly communicated in encrypted chat rooms so as not to get caught; and held training exercises,” according to The Detroit Free Press.
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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson allegedly accepted a donation in excess of $10,000 over the state’s legal campaign finance limits.
The purported discrepancy is the basis for a lawsuit filed with Attorney General Dana Nessel Tuesday by Michigan Rising Action. According to an MRA news release, Benson accepted four separate contributions from the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights totaling $81,500. The state-imposed limit is $71,500.
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A prominent former professor at the University of Michigan (UM) has been accused by eight former students of sexual misconduct, ranging from groping to rape, according to reports.
University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald told The Michigan Star that Professor Bruce Conforth’s tenure at the school ended in 2017, when he admitted to allegations of sexual misconduct. Conforth resigned, and agreed to “a separation agreement outlined his permanent removal from the university, no contact with students and other requirements.”
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Two-time Senate candidate and Army Veteran John James Monday announced that he is jumping into the congressional race in Michigan’s 10th district.
“I fought on the battlefield for American lives and in business for good-paying jobs that fuel livelihoods. I will continue to fight for the hardworking families in Michigan’s 10th district as today I announce my run for Congress,” James said in a Twitter post.
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The Michigan Freedom Fund is seeking answers from Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson related to her decision to allow Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to disburse questionable campaign donations to other Democratic candidates.
The conservative MFF filed a formal request Friday for a declaratory judgment from Benson – who, like Whitmer, is a Democrat – over $3.4 million collected from 119 large donors. Michigan Campaign Finance law limits individual donations to $7,150, but allows an exemption to accept unlimited contributions if a governor is facing a recall attempt.
At the time Whitmer accepted the contributions, there was no active recall effort.
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Julianne Pastula, the general counsel of record for Michigan’s Independent Citizen’s Redistricting Committee (MICRC) resigned Wednesday night amid lawsuits over proposed maps.
The Detroit Free Press first reported the story, which was overshadowed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s 2022 State of the State address.
“The purpose of this letter is to provide official notice of my resignation as General Counsel,” Pastula wrote. “Pursuant to Section 2 of my Employment Contract 30-day written notice is required. This makes my resignation effective February 25, 2022.”
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Former Tennessee Titans head coach Jeff Fisher will have the opportunity to control a new football franchise, as he was named the coach and general manager of the Michigan Panthers in the United States Football League (USFL).
Fisher coached in the NFL for more than two decades for multiple teams. He made six playoff appearances, losing Super Bowl 34 as the leader of the Titans. Most recently, Fisher served as an advisor to Eddie George at Tennessee State for the 2021 season.
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The Michigan House approved a range of bills that aim to reform the embattled Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) that has mishandled at least $8.5 billion since March 2020.
When the UIA acknowledged losing $4 billion of taxpayer money, it admitted: “mistakes were made.”
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A militia member who is described as a leader of a surveillance operation in the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) is a paid informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to several reports.
In September 2020, 12 men involved in the alleged plot traveled to Whitmer’s vacation cottage on Birch Lake in Antrim County. Their goal was to surveil the property, and figure out whether they could blow it up or kidnap the governor.
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A new ad campaign from the Michigan Freedom Fund blasts the Michigan Democratic Party over a now-deleted, controversial social media post.
Earlier this year, the political party published a Facebook post that contended parents should not have an input on what their children are taught in school.
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A federal judge refused to dismiss charges against five men accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said defendants who claim government entrapment “have a heavy burden to carry.”
The accused men must show that the government lured them into the plot and have a “patently clear absence of predisposition as a matter of law,” Jonker wrote. “Defendants fail to carry their burden because the evidence on both issues is decidedly disputed as it almost inevitably is at this stage of the case.”
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Automobile maker General Motors on Tuesday announced a new, $7 billion investment in Michigan to expand manufacturing capacity for electric vehicles and batteries.
According to projections released by the company, the investment will create 4,000 new jobs, while retaining an additional 1,000.
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Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Saturday touted her record for “delivering for older Michiganders,” ahead of her State of the State address.
Seemingly, the governor ignored a recent report that demonstrated thousands of additional deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities that were not reported by her administration’s Department of Health and Human Services.
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Michigan may never know the actual number of deaths resulting from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive order to place COVID-19 patients in long-term care (LTC) facilities.
That conclusion was the only verifiable takeaway from Thursday’s Senate and House Joint Oversight Committee meeting, where state senators and representatives grilled Michigan Auditor General Doug Ringler, Deputy Auditor General and Director of Audit Operations Laura Hirst, and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Elizabeth Hertel.
The committee meeting spotlighted sharp differences between the Democratic Whitmer administration and the nonpartisan Auditor General (AG). It also brought into stark view thepartisan divisions between Senate and House legislators; namely, Democrats who either disparaged the AG’s methodology or defended Whitmer’s EO 2020-50; and Republicans, who argued the governor erred when she issued the order, and depicted the administration’s underreporting of the number of LTC deaths as a cover-up for her failed policy.
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The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) ordered nursing homes statewide to provide on-site COVID-19 vaccines to residents within 30 days.
“With the Omicron variant rapidly spreading across our state and cases of COVID-19 continuing to remain high, we want to make sure our most vulnerable Michiganders are protected from the virus,” MDHHS Director Elizabeth Hertel said in a statement. “The COVID-19 vaccine is our best defense against the virus, and we want to ensure everyone has the opportunity to get up to date.”
Under the order, nursing homes must offer on-site doses of COVID-19 vaccines to residents who are not up to date as of Jan. 20, 2022. The order doesn’t force residents to get vaccinated.
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Michigan Senator Wayne Schmidt (R-Traverse City) on Wednesday introduced a bill with the goal of easing the financial burden placed on first responders throughout the state.
Senate Bill 821 amends a current law to allow local governments to purchase real or personal property, like fire trucks or ambulances, under an installment purchase agreement.
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The University of Michigan has agreed to pay $490 million to more than 1,000 athletes who were sexually assaulted by a former football team doctor.
The school will pay the victims of the late Dr. Robert Anderson, according to several reports. The agreement was reached Tuesday.
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Multiple Michigan lawmakers are demanding answers to a report from the Michigan Office of the Auditor General that detailed thousands of additional COVID-related deaths in long-term care facilities across the state.
The analysis discovered more than 2,000 additional deaths than reported by Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s Department of Health and Human Services.
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The Republican Governors Association on Monday blasted Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, after a new analysis detailed thousands of additional deaths in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
The Michigan Auditor General explained in a report that roughly 2,400 more individuals died from the virus than previously reported by state agencies.
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Clothing brand Carhartt, which primarily makes outdoor work clothes, caused a firestorm when a leaked email from its CEO saying that the company’s vaccine mandate would remain in place was circulated online.
Carhartt CEO Matt Valade’s email, sent Friday, said
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The Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) is scrambling to walk back the messaging of a now-deleted post on its Facebook page.
“Not sure where this ‘parents-should-control-what-is-taught-in-schools-because-they-are-our-kids’ is originating, but parents do have the option to send their kids to a hand-selected private school at their own expense if this is what they desire,” the post, which appeared to be an image with text on it, said.
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The University of Michigan fired President Mark Schlissel for an improper relationship with a subordinate – a mistake that cost him his job and part of a contract initially valued up to $10 million over the next 10 years.
A Detroit News report previously estimated the contract payout total.
Last month, an anonymous complaint alerted University of Michigan officials of alleged misconduct. It hired Jenner & Block to investigate, which found “over the years” Schlissel used his work email to “communicate with that subordinate in a manner inconsistent with the dignity and reputation of the university.”
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