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Hertel elected to lead Michigan Democrats into crucial 2026 midterms

LANSING — Michigan Democrats elected former state Sen. Curtis Hertel Jr. (D-East Lansing) to lead their party as efforts begin to rebuild after President Donald Trump won the state in 2024. Hertel, who succeeds Lavora Barnes after she declined to seek another term as chair, was elected by voice vote Saturday at the party’s convention in Detroit following the decision by Al Williams, his only opponent, to drop out. The MIGOP held their convention a few blocks away, where they elected state Sen. Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) in an upset victory over Trump-endorsed candidate Meshawn ...

Appeals Court upholds MPSC permit for Line 5 tunnel project

LANSING — More than a month after attorneys for several Native American tribes and environmental advocacy groups urged the Michigan Court of Appeals to overturn one of the permits needed for Canadian energy company Enbridge to move forward with its controversial Line 5 tunnel, the Court has opted to uphold the Michigan Public Service Commission’s decision to permit the project. Environmentalists and Tribal Nations from throughout the Great Lakes Region have raised alarms on the Line 5 pipeline for years, raising particular concern about a four-mile stretch running through the ...

Lawmakers reintroduce ‘deepfake’ porn ban

LANSING — As technology advances, federal and local law enforcement officials have warned in recent years of the dangerous scenarios that arise when criminals exploit artificial intelligence to computer generate fake sexual materials of real people, known as deepfake pornography, often for extortive purposes. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Department of Homeland Security have sounded alarm bells since deepfakes started emerging in 2017, immediately being used to manufacture fake pornographic images and videos of female celebrities. As the technology has improved, ...

Michigan House Republicans vow to bar state funding for ‘sanctuary jurisdictions’

LANSING — Michigan House Republicans on Thursday proposed a rule that would deprive local governments from receiving discretionary state budget funding unless they pledge to cooperate with immigration enforcement efforts by the Trump administration. House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) introduced a resolution Thursday that would prohibit the House to vote on any budget bill for any municipality which “would subvert immigration enforcement in any way or that refuses to comply with federal immigration enforcement measures.” Revenue sharing mandated by Michigan’s ...

Bird flu spreading in state of Michigan

ALPENA — Alpena County is the latest to join the ranks of those counties that have detected cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza, according to a Monday news release from the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. The virus began sweeping through every state starting in 2022 as the COVID-19 pandemic was waning and nearly 150 million wild, commercial, hobby and backyard birds have been affected nationwide to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Counties all over Michigan have detected cases from metro Detroit to the Upper Peninsula. HPAI is a ...

State Senate committee takes up plan to trim earned sick time law

LANSING — As the clock ticks down toward a Feb. 21 deadline set by a Michigan Supreme Court ruling to implement ballot initiative reforms on the state’s minimum wage and earned sick time laws, hearings got underway Wednesday in the Michigan Senate on legislation to pare back the measures. Last year’s Michigan Supreme Court decision determined that the then-GOP-controlled Legislature acted unconstitutionally in 2018 when it adopted and then gutted citizen-led ballot initiatives to increase Michigan’s minimum wage and create sick leave requirements for employers. In January, ...