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Republicans’ $3.1B road funding plan clears the Michigan House

LANSING — The Michigan House gave the greenlight to Republicans’ $3.1 billion road funding plan Wednesday, voting it through the chamber with the support of several Democrats. But there are potholes in House Republicans’ path to getting a longterm solution to road funding into law, an endeavor highly desired and long sought after in Michigan, where infrastructure has long been underfunded as the years bring their wear. Republicans are praising the plan as a means to use existing state dollars towards a roads solution, without levying new taxes, while Democrats are widely ...

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 ...