Michigan in Focus

Developers want taxpayers to pony up to 82% of the cost of a proposed mixed-use facility in Grand Rapids called Factory Yards, located at Godfrey Avenue SW south of Market Avenue SW. The project could qualify for $103 million in Transformational Brownfield Credits and $20 million in traditional brownfield credits out of the estimated $150 million total development cost for the project, which would...

A new report from the Education Law Center and the Michigan Education Association says Michigan needs $4.5 billion annually so students can achieve state academic standards. School funding adequacy refers to the funding necessary to provide students with reasonable opportunities to achieve state standards. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/michigan-in-focus/support Host...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced new proposed federal vehicle emissions standards critics claim will “effectively ban gasoline and diesel vehicles” while making the U.S. dependent on China. The EPA proposal of light and heavy-duty vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards is for model years 2027-2032. The EPA projects that its proposal could reduce greenhouse gas emis...

The city of Detroit plans to spend $45 million of one-time money to bridge the digital divide in the Motor City while employing more residents in technology work through training, internship, and certification. Within her first 45 days at work, Christine Burkette, Detroit's new digital equity director, plans to use data-driven numbers and community engagement to connect many of the 635,000 Detroit...

Big Rapids’ residents were undeterred after Gotion changed a town hall style meeting to online. Instead, protestors took to the streets in front of the Ferris State University building where the meeting was to take place, showing opposition to the proposed electric vehicle battery plant the company with Chinese ties plans to build. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mich...

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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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...

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 construct...

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 i...

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 v...

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 int...

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, plann...

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 s...

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 g...

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...

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, weigh...

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 no...

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...

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 facto...

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 congress...

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 attemptin...

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 C...

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 fed...

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 ma...

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 b...