News

Dana Nessel is part of a coalition of nearly two dozen attorneys general calling on the Postal Regulatory Commission to oppose Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s efforts to increase delivery times for First-Class Mail and other essential postal services.

Effective Tuesday, a Warren police officer was fired for making racist comments on social media.

The Warren Police Department confirmed that Anwar Khan's Facebook comments reflected racist stereotypes about Black people. Khan also wrote, "Glad I wasn't born b&@ck, I would kill myself."

Khan was put on administrative leave last week after another Facebook commenter filed a complaint with the police department.

Prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement should have more clarity about how to enforce Michigan’s Sexual Offender Registration Act (SORA) after an opinion and order today from a district court judge.

Michigan recently enacted a new version of SORA in response to litigation challenging the constitutionality of parts of the law, and a February 2020 order from Judge Robert Cleland finding aspects of the old version of SORA unconstitutional.

For the second year in a row, northern Michigan’s tart cherry farmers are expecting a small harvest — less than half as much as 2019’s crop.

Allen Steimel is the general manager at Leelanau Fruit Company. He says low rainfall Up North is stunting the cherries’ growth.

“The drought, it’s gonna affect the size of the individual fruit. What we’re seeing right now is the cherries look fairly small.”

Detroit is the most segregated city in America, according to a new study from the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California-Berkeley. The study also ranks the Detroit-Warren-Livonia metropolitan area as the fourth most segregated metro area in the country.

The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission wants more time to do its job.

Attorneys for the commission made their case Monday before the Michigan Supreme Court. They say the problem is the court won’t get all the U.S. Census data it needs in time to meet its deadlines, because the COVID-19 crisis has delayed sharing those numbers.

Update: 12:32 p.m.

The National Weather Service says it investigated an area near Kinderhook, about ten miles south of Coldwater, near the border with Indiana, for tornadoes. The NWS found evidence of straight-line wind damage, but no evidence for a tornado.

The state of Michigan will take a major step toward normal as most state COVID-19 restrictions are lifted on Tuesday. 

But many businesses continue to struggle with one lingering effect of the pandemic: a labor shortage.

At a legislative committee hearing Thursday, state lawmakers heard from representatives from different industries. Tony Daoud operates gas stations in the Flint area. He blames pandemic jobless benefits that pay more than he does for his business’ struggle to recruit and retain hourly workers.

Despite hopes otherwise, the international border with Canada will remain closed for nonessential travel for another month, until July 21.

Canadian Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair announced via Twitter Friday morning that this decision was in coordination with the United States, and that the government would provide more details about fully vaccinated Canadians travelling.

Almost all COVID-19 restrictions in Michigan will be lifted Tuesday, but that won’t put an end to arguments in Lansing about how the crisis was handled and what should happen next.

Republican lawmakers say the decision is overdue and that the Legislature will continue its inquiries into the administration’s handling of COVID, including restrictions on gatherings and businesses.

The Grand Haven Board of Light and Power has approved building a new natural gas powered plant to supplement buying power from the grid.

The west Michigan municipal utility is asking City Council to approve bonds for up to $50 million. The money would also be used to clean up pollution from a now demolished coal-burning power plant and to build an office complex.

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The University of Michigan will be extending its Go Blue Guarantee to in-state students on its Flint and Dearborn campuses beginning fall semester. It guarantees free tuition to Michigan residents from families with less than $65,000 in income and less than $55,000 in assets.

This week saw further developments in the sex abuse tragedy in which a former doctor, Robert Anderson, allegedly sexually assaulted athletes and students over the 36 years he worked for the University of Michigan. Survivors have now stepped forward to urge the University of Michigan and its Board of Regents to take accountability for its failure to protect students.

In a surprise announcement Thursday, the state says it’s lifting all broad COVID restrictions on June 22, just over a week earlier than planned. Citing some of the lowest case rates since the pandemic began and 60% of residents having had at least one dose of the vaccine, health officials say broad mask and gathering mandates are no longer needed. 

A series of parades, concerts, and other celebrations will take place this weekend to honor Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating freedom for enslaved people following the Civil War. 

The local commemorations coincide with national recognition of the holiday, which marks the day Union troops freed people who were kept in bondage in Texas two years after the end of the Civil War. President Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth the most recent federal holiday on Thursday. 

A federal judge finds Detroit’s effort to reserve half of recreational marijuana retail licenses for city residents is likely “unconstitutional.”   

The legacy provision in Detroit’s ordinance gives an advantage to people who’ve lived ten to 15 years out of the past 30 in the city. Other factors like low incomes or past marijuana convictions would give legacy applicants an advantage in obtaining adult-use licenses.

Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health say they plan to merge into a single system with 22 hospitals and 64,000 employees. It's a massive shakeup for two of the state's largest health providers.

A group of news organizations called for the release of recordings of one of the men accused of plotting to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in federal court on Wednesday. 

The recordings, made by the FBI,  feature Barry Croft Jr., one of 14 men charged in the alleged kidnapping scheme. They were entered into evidence and referenced in a detention hearing earlier this year, but not released.