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MSP to step up enforcement through Labor Day weekend

While impaired driving — whether due to alcohol, drugs or both — is a year-round danger on the roadways, late summer and the Labor Day holiday period are among the deadliest times of the year for crashes and fatalities involving impaired drivers, the Michigan State Police warned. From 2021 to 2025, the state had a total of 46 drivers killed in traffic crashes over the Labor Day holiday weekends. In those crashes, 39.1% of the drivers killed were alcohol- and/or drug-impaired, according to the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center. Of the 1,002 fatal crashes that ...

Time to check trees for invasive Asian beetle

Residents in the region need only look at what likely is a dead ash tree — perhaps already a stump — in their yard or neighborhood to know the devastation that can be done by an invasive species. Since first being discovered in the U.S. in 2002 in Michigan, the emerald ash borer has all but wiped out ash trees across the Midwest and northeastern states, spreading as far as Colorado and Texas. Now, another invasive insect threatens to do the same to at least 12 varieties of hardwood trees, most notably our beloved maples. So Michigan’s Invasive Species Program and the U.S. ...

Trump ignores the toll of rising prices on average Americans

With his approval ratings hovering at near record lows, President Donald Trump took a rare trip to the West Coast to convince voters not to trust their own wallets, because the economy is better than ever. Never mind that since he took office last year, Americans have been forced to spend more on food and rent. That utility prices are soaring while Trump slashed renewable energy alternatives. Or that thanks to his tariffs, the average price of a new car jumped 10%, while his failed war in Iran boosted gas prices by more than 30%. To borrow a phrase from the last inept White House ...

U.S. must exert real pressure for relief in Gaza

At the end of July, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that a “monumental” U.S.-backed deal had been struck on Gaza, securing the phased disarmament of Hamas in parallel with Israeli military withdrawal. Three days later it was reported that another 18 people had died in Israeli airstrikes. Not for the first time, it appeared that Mr. Trump’s rhetoric had only a distant relationship with the reality it purported to describe. Such suspicions were duly confirmed (on Sunday). Under pressure from far-right members of his coalition, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, ...

Highlighting emergency management in August

As Michigan continues to face increasingly frequent and complex disasters that require coordinated response efforts across all levels of government, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared August as Emergency Management Awareness Month. The Michigan State Police, Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division is recognizing the dedicated emergency management professionals who work year-round to help communities prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate disasters. Throughout August, the MSP/EMHSD will highlight the critical work of emergency managers and the partnerships that ...

FDA finally streamlining bureaucracy

Good news strikes from an unlikely source. On Aug. 6, the Food and Drug Administration approved Replimune’s immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma, a day after it green-lighted mFlusiva, Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine. The shame is that both might have been available sooner but for regulatory delays, which hurt both patients and American innovation. Replimune has been working on its RP1 immunotherapy for a decade but got caught in the FDA cross-hairs at the last stretch. FDA review staff recommended approval after its late-stage trial showed that a third of patients whose disease had ...