Michigan’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate decreased by one-tenth of a percentage point to 3.6% during June, according to data released by the state’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget.
Total employment increased by 26,000, while unemployment edged down by 3,000, resulting in a labor force gain of 23,000 over the month.
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Wisconsin will not see a law that keeps transgender girls out of female sports in the state.
Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday took to Twitter to promise a veto of the legislation from Republican lawmakers that would put transgender athletes in their own category in Wisconsin high schools and colleges.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a bill package expanding voting rights approved by Michigan voters in November of 2022.
The changes include installing dropboxes for voting, nine days of early voting, pre-paid postage for absentee voter applications and a website to track ballots.
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Wisconsin Republicans want to make sure churches in the state are kept open during the next emergency.
State Sen Cory Tomczyk, R-Mosinee, along with Rep. Ty Bodden, R-Hilbert, and Rep. Karen Hurd, R-Fall Creek, took a proposed constitutional amendment to a Senate committee on Tuesday. If the amendment becomes law, it would stop public health managers from closing churches.
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The University of Minnesota is ditching legacy admissions, a mechanism by which children of alumni get preferential treatment within the admissions process, following a Supreme Court ruling that blocked the use of race-based affirmative action policies, a university spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s affirmative action admissions policies were unconstitutional. In light of the ruling, the University of Minnesota decided it will no longer consider race, ethnicity, legacy or employment in its admissions process, a university spokesperson told the DCNF.
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Some Republicans have of late quipped, is it any wonder the United States is facing a deadly fentanyl epidemic when the Biden administration can’t even keep cocaine out of the White House?
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) certainly isn’t surprised.
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Michigan residents leery of manufacturing electric vehicle batteries in their respective backyards are watching two court cases filed on their behalf of in Marshall and Mecosta County.
On Monday, a legal demand letter challenged the Michigan Economic Development Corp.’s Renaissance Zone designation for the Gotion battery plant outside Big Rapids. A Calhoun County judge is expected to issue a ruling next week on whether to cease development on the Blue Oval Battery Park in Marshall during litigation related to alleged zoning violations.
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As Wisconsin businesses struggle through a worker shortage crisis, it appears Wisconsin’s public schools are failing to prepare students for the workforce.
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce’s latest employer survey finds 73 percent of responding businesses said ‘no’ when asked if students graduating from the Badger State’s K-12 education system are prepared for the workforce.
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Detroit taxpayers forked over $56 million in police settlement payouts between 2020 and four months of 2023.
Those payouts are a record amount in recent history, but public officials won’t explain why.
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A proposed amendment to the Wisconsin constitution that would clarify that state and local officials “may not order the closure of or forbid gatherings in places of worship,” in response to a state of emergency declared at any level of government during a public health emergency, will go before a state Senate committee Tuesday.
State Republican lawmakers introduced the Senate Joint Resolution 54 in June in response to the 2020 COVID-19 shutdown order that restricted worship gatherings, even though the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down that order.
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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called for impeaching U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and compared him to a house slave during a recent media interview.
Ellison recently returned to his hometown of Detroit to promote his new book, “Break the Wheel: Ending the Cycle of Police Violence.” While there, he sat down for an extended interview with the Michigan Chronicle and discussed recent Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and student loan debt.
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There’s a pitch at the Wisconsin Capitol to add watermarks to the state’s absentee ballots.
State Rep. Scott Allen, R-Waukesha, said absentee ballots in Wisconsin need to be more secure.
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The city of Detroit is targeting $95 million of federal money to take care of blight.
That’s in addition to the city’s $250 million bond that voters approved in 2020 to also address blight remediation. The city estimates it has 16,000 vacant homes in the city limits.
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Rep. Ken Borton, R-Gaylord, announced Thursday he’s planning to restore $15 million to the Pure Michigan budget.
The Michigan tourism campaign has spent $450 million since its launch in 2008. Although the bulk of that money came from Michigan residents, the state also appropriated $15 million of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds in the current budget.
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A pair of Republican Wisconsin congressmen is pitching what they are calling a “federalist solution” to elections across the country.
Republicans Bryan Steil and Derrick Van Orden this week introduced legislation that would implement some of Wisconsin’s election rules nationwide.
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A popular Minneapolis-based security team for hire called “Sequeerity” is not licensed in the state of Minnesota, potentially making the business guilty of a gross misdemeanor, state officials confirmed.
Under Minnesota law, anyone who provides, for a fee or reward, “guards, private patrol or other security personnel to protect persons or their property” is considered to be a “protective agent” and must be licensed, the Minnesota Private Detective and Protective Agent Services Board (PDB) told Alpha News.
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Wisconsin doesn’t currently have any openly trans lawmakers, but there is a new trans legislative caucus at the statehouse.
State Reps. Melissa Ratcliff, D-Cottage Grove, and Ryan Clancy, D-Milwaukee, on Wednesday announced they are forming the Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus.
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Michigan Democrats are celebrating a record $82 billion budget for 2024 that Republicans say is wasteful and unsustainable without future tax hikes.
It’s the first budget crafted by a Democrat political trifecta in 40 years, which includes rollbacks of the state’s retirement tax on seniors and quintupled the Working Families Tax Credit.
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Minnesota businesses reported their experience and expectations regarding inflation and other economic indicators in a new survey.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis surveyed randomly selected 229 Minnesota firms in May and June, according to the report. The department announced the results this week.
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Two Badger State Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would keep biological males who identify as female from competing in K-12 and collegiate sports in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Legislative Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus is crying foul, asserting the legislation is discriminatory and detrimental to the youth trans community.
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Fresh off a legislative session where Steve Simon was able to check off nearly every item on his election reform “wish list,” the recently re-elected Minnesota secretary of state took some time to speak to both national and local media about how he views the landscape of the upcoming 2024 election, and as he calls it the “democracy business.”
According to Simon, those who intend to suppress the vote with election-related “disinformation” or intimidation may be tripped up by new election-reform laws recently passed by the Democrat trifecta in the Minnesota Legislature. But he told the Washington Post in an interview this week that he doesn’t believe those new voter protections in Minnesota will necessarily deter disinformation efforts come 2024.
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A Detroit resident pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $550,000 of taxpayer money with the help of a former Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency contract employee, announced U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison.
William Haynes, 26, pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith. Haynes admitted to engaging in a criminal conspiracy with Autumn Mims, a former contract UIA examiner for Michigan. Mims’s duties included reviewing, processing, and verifying the legitimacy of unemployment insurance claims.
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The Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Gov. Tim Walz on Monday in a case where a group of citizens had challenged the constitutionality of the governor’s indoor mask mandate that lasted 10 months during 2020 and 2021.
In its decision on Monday, the three-judge panel affirmed a lower court ruling from March 2021 that dismissed the case on the merits. The opinion, written by Judge Michelle Larkin, also noted that Walz was within the authority delegated to him by the legislature to declare a peacetime emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic. That order ran from March 2020 to July 2021.
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U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) re-introduced a constitutional amendment that would prevent court packing by locking in the size of the U.S. Supreme Court at the long-standing nine justices.
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) originally proposed the amendment in 2019, and it was re-introduced in 2021 after President Joe Biden announced the creation of a commission to explore expanding the nine-member court and other “reforms.”
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order establishing the Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential, or MiLEAP.
MiLEAP is meant to improve education outcomes from preschool through postsecondary by establishing clear metrics, collaborating with cross-sector leaders at the local, regional, and state level, and developing a shared action plan.
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Taxes are going up in Milwaukee.
The city’s Common Council on Tuesday approved a new 2% sales tax that is expected to bring-in $194 million next year.
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The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) runs a program to help art teachers create anti-racist curriculum.
“In this three-day long summer 2023 institute, participants will have an opportunity to deepen their understanding of culturally responsive and ant-racist curriculum development in and through the arts as it relates to Ethnic Studies,” MDE explains of an upcoming course that is an optional aspect of a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education and led by MDE’s Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center.
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Abortion and transgender hormone giant Planned Parenthood is drawing teens to its “Sex Ed Summer Camp” in late July with the promise of a $150 gift card to those who complete the program.
“Sex Ed Summer Camp is a sexual health peer education certification program,” Planned Parenthood states about its camp for 15-18 year-olds to be held July 24-28 in Mankato, Minnesota. “Participants will use knowledge they learn to educate friends and peers. Topics covered include sexual anatomy, birth control methods, sexually transmitted infections, healthy relationships and consent, and more!”
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The Mackinac Center for Public Policy sued Michigan State University, alleging it violated the Freedom of Information Act by redacting and blacking out key documents and information related to a potential Eagle Township mega site.
The free-market policy research group filed a public records request after reports on a potential government-funded mega site in Eagle Township indicated that some of the land involved might have been sold by Michigan State University. The parcel in question was donated to the university and a tip suggested that the donation agreement possibly prohibits MSU from selling the land for non-agricultural use.
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A federal judge in Wisconsin ordered a Milwaukee-area school district to allow biological male students who identify as female to use the girls’ bathroom and locker room facilities.
Eastern District of Wisconsin Judge Lynn Adelman, a Clinton appointee, in a ruling last week prohibited the Mukwonago Area School District from enforcing its policy requiring students to use the restrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
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Democrat Governor Tony Evers’ “creative” partial veto that boosts public education spending for the next four centuries “proves he’s a liar,” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said during a Sunday morning interview.
The Rochester Republican said the governor’s “unprecedented” veto trick leaves Republicans — and taxpayers who would be on the hook for 400-plus years of spending increases — with “little option” but to take the governor to court.
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Minnesota lawmakers say a $352 million mistake in a recently passed tax bill shouldn’t affect residents, as long as they update the tax bill in the 2024 legislative session.
In 2019, lawmakers doubled the standard deduction and set the amount for a married joint filer at $24,400 and a single filer at $12,200. The law directs the commissioner for each subsequent year to adjust those amounts for inflation. After four years of inflation adjustments, the 2023 standard deduction for a married joint filer is $27,650 and $13,825 for a single filer.
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When Allie Herkenroder applied for the digital equity director position of Michigan’s High-Speed Internet Office (MIHI), she admitted no experience working in state government, broadband, or as an ombudsman.
She still got the job.
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Despite the vibe you may be getting from the national media, the presidential election is still more than a year away. But that doesn’t mean voters won’t have a ballot to fill out this November.
The 2023 election cycle in Minnesota won’t be eventful for most voters. There are no legislative seats or congressional or statewide offices on the ballot. But school district communities representing about 1.7 million residents across the state — which combined, steward well over $4 billion in tax dollars — will be holding elections this fall.
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The CDC’s explanation for leaving certain diagnosis codes off Minnesota death certificates that cite COVID-19 vaccines as a cause of death, allegedly hiding vaccine injuries in federal records, shows “intent to deceive,” according to a person who helped analyze the death certificates for the Brownstone Institute, a think tank that challenges the scientific basis for COVID conventional wisdom and policy.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Growing Michigan Together Council includes one person under 40 and no one from the Upper Peninsula.
The Council will advise Whitmer on policies to reach a population goal for 2050 and prepare Michigan’s workforce for in-demand jobs and emerging industries. The council will develop long-term, sustainable transportation, and water infrastructure funding solutions.
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Dane County’s public health managers have agreed to drop the COVID-era tickets against a local dance studio over its Nutcracker production.
Public Health Madison & Dane County fined A Leap Above dance studio in Oregon, Wisc., $24,000 for 119 counts of violating local pandemic protocols for its 2020 Christmas time performance.
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After a 15-month pursuit, Michigan failed to persuade Micron Technology to build its semiconductor manufacturing plant in Eagle Township.
The Detroit News first reported the story, saying the company picked New York after the Empire State offered nearly $6 billion in incentives for Micron to create nearly 50,000 jobs over 20 years, a press release says.
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Former interim Golden Valley Police Chief Scott Nadeau, a white male, claims in a federal lawsuit filed last week that he was effectively fired because of his race.
The lawsuit, which seeks at least $75,000 in damages, accuses city leaders of violating the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against Nadeau based on race. It also accuses Mayor Shep Harris of defamation because of comments he made during a March 2022 City Council meeting.
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Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is vowing Republicans will move to end race-based scholarship programs across the state in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court moving to erase race as a factor in college admissions.
Soon after conservatives on the high court used their 6-3 advantage to impose the new standard, Vos took to social media to tweet “we are reviewing the decision and will introduce legislation to correct the discriminatory laws on the books and pass repeals in the fall.”
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by Benjamin Rothove Illegal immigrants in Minnesota will soon get free college tuition if their families are below a certain household income level. The “North Star Promise” program “will create a tuition and fee-free pathway to higher education for eligible Minnesota residents at eligible institutions as a ‘last-dollar’ program by covering the balance of tuition and fees remaining after other scholarships, grants, stipends and tuition waivers have been applied,” according to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education summary. That includes illegal immigrants who meet certain criteria, according to the education department. The legislation goes into effect for the fall 2024 semester. The “Adjusted Gross Income” must be “below $80,000,” according to the Office of Higher Education. The College Fix emailed state senator Omer Fateh, one of the bill’s sponsors, twice in the past four weeks to ask for comment on the legislation. Fateh did not respond to questions about potential violation of federal law, concerns about pulling resources away from other students and potential incentivization of illegal immigration. “We’ve been seeing declining enrollment on all campuses,” Fateh said during debate over the legislation. “If we don’t do something quick, we’re at risk of shutting down some campuses. … I see this bill as an enrollment driver.”…
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One of the Democratic members of the Wisconsin Elections Commission is calling a possible Senate vote on the state’s election administrator a “sideshow.”
Commissioner Ann Jacobs was on UPFRONT over the weekend, where she said there’s no reason for the Senate to vote on Meagan Wolfe’s job with the Commission.
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Democrats in Michigan have “pleaded” with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to run for president in 2024, citing concerns about President Joe Biden, according to Politico’s Jonathan Martin.
State lawmakers are encouraging Whitmer, Michigan’s two-term Democratic governor, to seek the party’s nomination in 2024 despite her previously ruling out a White House bid, sources familiar told Martin. Several Democratic colleagues from other states have pushed the Michigan lawmakers to plead with the governor to reconsider, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus, citing concerns over the president’s low approval ratings.
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In signing Wisconsin’s new two-year spending plan Wednesday, Democrat Governor Tony Evers liberally applied his veto pen to the Republican-crafted biennial budget, gutting a $3.5 billion tax cut proposal that had reduced the state’s tax brackets and delivered relief for all taxpayers.
Republicans blasted the governor for his 51 partial vetoes, including a particularly sneaky one that changed the meaning of funding for schools to a four-century commitment.
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Dewan Williams, 47, of Detroit, turned himself into the custody of the Michigan Department of Corrections last week to begin serving up to a 20-year sentence for scamming taxpayers out of $11 million via a benefits phone scheme.
Williams was sentenced in February in the 3rd Circuit Court on one count of conducting a criminal enterprise, a 20-year felony, and one count of identity theft, a 5-year felony, for using personal information stolen from thousands of identity theft victims to defraud the State and financially benefit himself.
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Abortions in Minnesota experienced a significant increase of 20% in 2022, as revealed in a report released by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH).
This sharp rise comes on the heels of new abortion laws passed by lawmakers during the 2023 session, removing restrictions on abortion throughout pregnancy and repealing long-standing abortion laws, including portions of the reporting law that governs the release of the MDH data.
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When government grows, taxpayers should ask why and what they’re getting from it.
A Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency report shows in fiscal year 2017-18, adjusted total appropriations equaled $55.8 billion. From fiscal year 2017-24, spending ballooned to $82 billion – a spending increase of $26 billion, or 47%.
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Wisconsin is the only Great Lakes state that hasn’t adopted Medicaid expansion, according to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
KFF has tracked states’ expansion of Medicaid. It found that Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota have adopted and implemented Medicaid expansion. Iowa and Michigan implemented expansion in 2014, while Minnesota expanded it at the beginning of 2015, the report found. Iowa and Michigan are among seven states that have approved Section 1115 waivers from federal laws to operate their expanded Medicaid expansion programs. The other states are Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana and Utah.
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Scarlett Johnson says she has never seen anything like it.
The parental rights activist has gotten used to nasty language and overheated rhetoric from the left. But she said the hatred she experienced last week in the City of Brotherly Love was “insane.”
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The University of Wisconsin says it doesn’t yet know what the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling to end affirmative action university admissions will mean for UW schools.
UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin on Thursday said she will need some time to examine the university’s admission policy, and determine if any changes are needed.
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