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Michigan House approves Republicans’ tax cut

LANSING — Members of the Michigan House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a 0.2% reduction to the state income tax rate, as Republicans continue to blame Democrats for increased rates in 2024. In 2023, Michigan Treasurer Rachel Eubanks announced the state’s income tax rate would fall from 4.25% to 4.05% due to a 2015 law signed by GOP former Gov. Rick Snyder which reduces the income tax rate when revenues outpace inflation, though Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel determined the reduction would only apply for the 2023 tax year, drawing the ire of Republicans. While the ...

Metro Detroit youth “hockey doc” pleads no contest to serial sexual abuse

By ANNA LIZ NICHOLS Michigan Advance DETROIT — Former urologist Zvi Levran, 68, entered a no contest plea to more than two dozen sexual abuse charges in Oakland County Circuit Court. March 18, 2025. Photo by Anna Liz Nichols. After several former youth hockey players came forward with the sexual abuse they endured by Metro Detroit urologist Zvi Levran, 68, he entered a “no contest” plea Tuesday and will not dispute the 28 criminal charges related to the abuse. For more than two decades since the early 2000’s, Levran performed multiple roles within youth hockey in the ...

Medicaid recipients struggle to find mental health care; Looming cuts could make it harder

LANSING — Charmeka Newton, a psychologist who has her own practice in Lansing, Michigan, is passionate about serving Black and Hispanic patients. They’re often looking for therapists who will understand how their race, ethnicity and culture may affect them, she said, and she helps provide that care. Medicaid is a major source of health care for people of color. But Newton can only afford to see a small number of Medicaid patients, because the program pays her so much less than commercial insurance. Republicans in Congress are aiming to make extensive cuts to Medicaid, the joint ...

Explorers discover wreckage of cargo ship that sank in Lake Superior storm more than 130 years ago

MADISON — Twenty years before the Titanic changed maritime history, another ship touted as the next great technological feat set sail on the Great Lakes. The Western Reserve was one of the first all-steel cargo ships to traverse the lakes. Built to break speed records, the 300-foot-long freighter dubbed “the inland greyhound” by newspapers was supposed to be one of the safest ships afloat. Owner Peter Minch was so proud of her that he brought his wife and young children aboard for a summer joyride in August 1892. As the ship entered Lake Superior’s Whitefish Bay between ...

Hundreds gather in Lansing to protest Trump actions against reproductive rights, trans women

LANSING — Several hundred people gathered Saturday outside the Michigan Capitol in Lansing as they protested a myriad of actions and policies by the Trump administration, most especially the assault on reproductive rights. Held on International Women’s Day, the protest was one of at least five taking place in Michigan, including in Detroit, Grand Rapids and Flint, as well as in cities around the world. “We are watching as our reproductive rights continue to be stripped away, forcing countless people into impossible and dangerous choices,” state Rep. Emily Dievendorf ...