Whitmer announces book detailing rapid rise in Democratic politics

April 8, 2024

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will detail her rapid ascent in Democratic politics in a book out this summer, a move that will undoubtedly spark fresh speculation about her potential presidential ambitions. “True Gretch” is scheduled for release July 9 and a book announcement provided to The Associated Press promises insights into Whitmer’s five-year tenure as Michigan’s governor. It will include a behind-the-scenes look at how she navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, became the target of a kidnapping plot and continually clashed with former President Donald ...

Millions of recalled Hyundai and Kia vehicles with a dangerous defect remain on the road

April 2, 2024

DETROIT — In September, Hyundai and Kia issued a recall of 3.4 million of its vehicles in the United States with an ominous warning: The vehicles should be parked outdoors and away from buildings because they risked catching fire, whether the engines were on or off. Six months later, most ...

Trump tells Michigan’s Republican chair to ramp up outreach to Black voters in Detroit, chair says

March 27, 2024

LANSING — Former President Donald Trump is urging Republicans in Michigan to target Black voters in Detroit and other predominantly African American areas in the swing state, state GOP leaders said Monday. Michigan GOP leaders, including the state party’s new chair, traveled to Florida to strategize the Trump campaign’s approach to winning the state in 2024. Much of the discussion centered on southeast Michigan, an area with large groups of minority voters who have been critical of President Joe Biden, particularly over his handling of the Israel-Hamas war that has caused high ...

Man pleads guilty in fatal kidnapping of 2-year-old Michigan girl in 2023

March 25, 2024

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man pleaded guilty Friday to kidnapping and killing a 2-year-old girl whose disappearance last summer led to a 100-mile (161-kilometer) search that stretched from the state capital to the Detroit area. Rashad Trice, 27, admitted that he took Wynter Cole Smith from her home in Lansing as part of a dispute with a former girlfriend who was the girl’s mother. The girl was strangled with a phone cord and left in a Detroit alley last July, investigators said. Trice was charged in federal court. While the kidnapping did not cross state lines, ...

Michigan will become the last US state to decriminalize surrogacy contracts

March 21, 2024

LANSING — Rachael Lang and her husband share the same last name as their biological daughter, but are not listed on her birth certificate. Instead, it bears the name of a surrogate who carried their daughter due to Lang’s past cancer diagnosis. Michigan’s ban on paid surrogacy ...

More Muslim students in US are getting support during Ramadan

March 18, 2024

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — While Muslim students remain a rarity in many U.S. school districts, they are a major presence in some communities, prompting public schools to be more attentive to their needs during the holy month of Ramadan when dawn-to-sundown fasting is a duty of Islam. For example, in Dearborn, Michigan — where nearly half the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent — public school teachers and staff strive to make things easier for students observing Ramadan. “We allow students on their own to practice their faith as long as it’s not a disruption to the school ...