Sarah Hulett

The Michigan Supreme Court says a group of property owners in West Michigan will get the chance to challenge a real estate developer’s plan to build on sand dunes along Lake Michigan.

This dispute has been winding its way through the courts since 2014.

The developer is Dune Ridge. It bought 130 acres in Saugatuck. But the former church camp is located in what the state calls a critical dune area. So it’s subject to special protection and management rules to protect them.

Outgoing President Donald Trump has commuted the prison sentence of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has served about seven years of a 28-year sentence for corruption.

A White House statement said that prominent members of the Detroit community had supported Kilpatrick’s commutation and noted, “During his incarceration, Mr. Kilpatrick has taught public speaking classes and has led Bible Study groups with his fellow inmates.”

Detroit is on track to start licensing recreational marijuana businesses early next year. The city council unanimously approved new licensing rules Tuesday.

The sweeping ordinance includes what council member James Tate calls social equity priorities, “that focused on ensuring that Detroiters have not just an opportunity into the industry, but really identifying ways to make sure that they’re a success.”

Update: May 30, 2020 4:20 p.m.

Detroit Police Chief James Craig says 60 people were arrested during Friday night’s melee. Thirty-seven of them were from outside the city of Detroit.

Researchers from the University of Michigan say the risk of infection and ICU admissions for newborns, and of postpartum hemmorhage for women, are the same whether a woman gives birth in water, or out of it.

Following a months-long impasse, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Republican legislative leaders have agreed to work out a budget framework without a long-term fix for the state’s roads.

“The people of Michigan deserve leadership in Lansing that will work to continue providing them with services they depend on every day,” a joint statement released Monday morning reads.

North Lake Correctional Facility, in northern Michigan, is gearing up to accept federal inmates this fall. And one local official says the rural community is already seeing the economic benefits.

“It's incredible. I don't believe you would have any luck at all finding a house to rent within five to ten miles of the prison,” said Karl Walls, who represents Baldwin on the Lake County Commission.

The 1,700-inmate prison is owned by Geo Group, based in Florida. It has a 10-year contract to house non-U.S. citizens with federal criminal convictions.

More than 100 people showed up at Detroit’s immigration office on Thursday to protest conditions at migrant detention camps along the southern U.S. border.

Andre Williams, an R&B musician who got his commercial start in Detroit, died Sunday in Chicago. He was 82.

Williams moved from Alabama to Detroit in the 1950s,  and recorded radio hits like "Bacon Fat" with Fortune Records.

Lake Superior State University breaks ground this week on a new facility to study Great Lakes ecosystems.

Ashley Moerke is a professor at LSSU and the director of the Center for Freshwater Research and Education. She says the university has been planning this research center since about 2005, but recent funding from the state has been the key to making their vision a reality.

She says the 18,000 square foot building will be located on the banks of the St. Mary's River in Sault Ste. Marie.

At least three parents in Michigan are hoping to be reunited with their young children today, after being separated at the southern U.S. border.

Former Michigan Radio political analyst Jack Lessenberry has resigned as head of Wayne State University's journalism program in the wake of sexual harassment allegations.

Michigan State University has denied a request from the National Policy Institute to rent space on campus in September.

NPI is headed by Richard Spencer, a well-known white supremacist who self-identifies as a white nationalist.

In a statement, MSU said: 

Religious groups and the ACLU are asking Governor Rick Snyder to show "moral leadership" in the face of emboldened hate groups in Michigan. 

The eight groups say the flames of hatred are already ablaze in Michigan, and President Trump's defense of racists in Charlottesville makes it urgent for Michigan's top elected leader to do more. 

Snyder issued a statement Tuesday that hate speech and violence are not welcome in Michigan. 

Former Michigan Congressman Vernon Ehlers has died.

Melissa Morrison, funeral director at Zaagman Memorial Chapel, said Wednesday that Ehlers died late Tuesday at a Grand Rapids nursing facility. He was 83. 

Ehlers represented Michigan's Third Congressional District for 17 years from December 1993 until he retired in 2011.

The Third District covers Kent, Barry, and Ionia counties.

Ehlers was a nuclear physicist and college professor before he ran for Congress. 

He also served in the Michigan Legislature. 

Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) said in a statement, “I am saddened to learn of Congressman Ehlers’ passing. Vern was a passionate public servant that loved his constituents, our state and the Great Lakes. While we did not serve together in Congress, his reputation preceded him. Vern was a leader who valued country over party and always strived for bipartisan consensus."

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Goldsmith says, in spite of federal law that restricts judicial review of deportation proceedings, his court does have jurisdiction to block the deportation of some 1,400 Iraqis.

After cutting a deal with Iraq’s government earlier this year, the Trump administration moved quickly to deport non-citizen Iraqi-Americans with criminal records and standing removal orders. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed a removal flight in April. 

A group of housing activists hopes to organize land contract buyers in Detroit and other cities.