Michigan in Focus

Candidates in Michigan's U.S. Senate race disagree on issues ranging from electric vehicles to crime, but most recently, they've clashed over foreign policy. U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich, is facing former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers. Republicans hope to flip the seat as incumbent Democrat Debbie Stabenow is not running for reelection. Slotkin criticized Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent address to Congress, saying he “continues to play politics.”

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Michigan has a new way to address its EMT shortage. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a law that would extend temporary EMT and paramedic licenses from 120 days to a year. House Bills 4613 and 4614 were sponsored by state Rep. Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River.

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Nearly six months after the Michigan Legislature repealed Right to Work laws, more groups of workers are taking action against what they say are coercive measures of some unions to collect fees. Mechanics from Brown Motors in Petoskey and drivers from MV Transportation in Ypsilanti successfully voted recently to remove their union officials' powers to collect union dues from nonunion members. The Brown Motors mechanics voted by 75% against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, National Right to Work Foundation Legal Defense Foundation said. The Teamsters also faces a new lawsuit filed by nurses at Ascension Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc Township, who say union bosses threatened to fire them if they didn’t pay union fees.

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Trump supporters in Michigan expressed varied but mostly positive opinions about his vice-presidential pick from Ohio, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, during street interviews with The Center Square.  At the Saturday Trump rally in Grand Rapids, the first featuring Vance, many people interviewed knew little about him, but those who did expressed positive opinions. Katie from Grand Rapids, who works in finance and declined to give her last name, said she thinks Vance is a great pick, especially because of his youth.

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Michigan's governor, secretary of state and three other officials are facing a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign this week over granting some government offices the power to conduct voter registration. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued an executive order in December meant to designate certain state offices, including the Small Business Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs, to act as voter registration agencies. The governor said this would make it easier for Michiganders to obtain election information and register to vote and provide a much-needed update to the list of Michigan’s voter registration agencies after 30 years.

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A recent report on Michigan’s Child Protection Agency shows organizational issues that have been going on for at least six years. An audit completed in 2018 revealed a failure to conduct background checks, major delays in abuse investigations, failure to meet with some victims, and a lack of safety plans for identified victims. The updated report, conducted by the nonpartisan Office of the Auditor General, reveals these issues have not been addressed.

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Michigan politicians from both sides of the aisle took to social media this weekend to show support for former President Donald Trump following an attempted assassination at a campaign rally. Trump’s upper ear was pierced by a rifle’s bullet during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday, narrowly missing his forehead. Since then, many voices have come forward to condemn the murder attempt, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra.

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Four weeks out from Michigan’s Primary Election Day, more than 1.5 million of the state’s voters have requested or received an absentee ballot, breaking records set in 2020. More than 178,000 of those voters have already submitted a completed ballot.

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For multiple years, the deer population in southern Michigan has been out of control. Cars and crops have suffered alike from a deer surplus, but local conservationists say relaxed hunting regulations could solve the issue. Last year alone, deer were involved in 58,000 car wrecks, killing 19 people. Herds cause millions in crop damage per year. The problem is only exacerbated by declining hunting rates, which were down by 10% last year according to the state Department of Natural Resources.

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 Consumers Energy, the largest Michigan utility company, made a commitment Monday to install 1,500 public electric vehicle chargers by 2030 across the state. The decision would make transportation history yet again in the home of the automobile. Consumer’s goal, as a part of the new Transportation Electrification  Plan, would nearly double the number of publicly accessible electric charging stations in the state. The plan builds on DTE Energy’s goal to create 620 public fast chargers by 2028.

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