Sarah Hulett

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.

The state is giving 38 of Michigan’s worst-performing schools 60 days to come up with a turnaround plan, and avoid closure – at least for now.

Under the so-called "partnership model," schools would get support from the state, district and outside groups to help them address weak areas. 

The schools would have to meet benchmarks at 18-month intervals, or they could still face closure after three years.

The plans would have to be approved by the state Department of Education and the School Reform Office.

A couple of stunts from open-carry activists, and a threat targeting Muslims have Dearborn's police chief concerned.

Over the weekend a group carrying guns marched down Schaefer Road in Dearborn,  apparently in support of two armed men who were arrested earlier this month. That pair walked into the Dearborn police station carrying guns and wearing body armor.

A federal judge says the state must start weekly deliveries of bottled water to Flint residents who do not have properly installed or maintained filters.

More than 360 Michigan inmates have been dealt a setback.

The prisoners were all sentenced to automatic life without parole as teenagers. The U.S. Supreme Court says that's unconstitutional.

So local prosecutors were set to re-sentence those Michigan inmates. 

Attorneys for those prisoners objected. They worried local prosecutors would routinely seek life without parole during re-sentencing, and argued the Supreme Court decision should prevent that.

But Judge John Corbett O'Meara disagreed.

Rates could be going up next year for people who buy health insurance on Michigan's public exchange.

More than a dozen companies have submitted requests for rate changes to the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services (you can see the requests here). The companies that sell to the largest share of the individual market are Blue Care Network with a 14.8% requested increase, Blue Cross Blue Shield at 18.7%, and Priority Health at 13.9%.

The average increase is 17.2%.

Money for the Detroit Zoo is one of the issues voters in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties will decide tomorrow.

Voters OK'd the initial tax in 2008.

Since then the zoo has overhauled a lot of its facilities and expanded its offerings – and attendance is way up.

That levy expires at the end of next year, and the zoo hopes voters will continue to agree to the 0.1 mill property tax for another decade.

An owner of a $200,000 house would pay about $10 a year.

Michigan’s largest county has formed a special unit focused on solving and prosecuting crimes against LGBT people.

The unit in Wayne County will focus first on prosecuting a dozen current cases – including six murders -- and re-opening three unsolved “cold cases” in Detroit.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says crimes against LGBT people often go unreported, and can be more difficult than other cases to solve. 

The U.S. Department of Justice will make $40 million available to victims of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.

That's according to U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.

“Every victim deserves an advocate," Bishop said in a press release. "It’s been nearly four long years for these victims and their families, and now we’re finally getting some positive news,”

The meningitis outbreak was tied to tainted steroid injections administered at clinics in several states. Hundreds of people were sickened, and 64 died – including 19 in Michigan.

Legislation in the state Senate would relax Michigan's "zero tolerance" approach to discipline in public schools.

State Rep. Andy Schor, D-Lansing, introduced the bills. He says he has personal experience with the current policies.

"The pencil sharpener was broken in my son's classroom when he was in second grade, so he took my Swiss Army knife, which he shouldn't have done, but he brought it in to sharpen his pencil and another student said, you know, 'Ms. So-and-so, Ryan's got a knife,’ and he got suspended for it," Schor said.

Yet another Detroit Public Schools administrator is accused of stealing from the district.

This time the alleged scam steered at least $1,275,000 to a former grants manager for tutoring services that were never delivered.

Carolyn StarkeyDarden worked for the district from 1968 to 2005. She went on to set up a series of companies that got tutoring contracts with the district.