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In 2014 the Detroit City Council passed and Mayor Michael Duggan approved a resolution that banned the city from selling any one of 53 closed Detroit school district school buildings to a public charter school for a period of five years. The action raises questions about the mayor's impartiality in a plan recently approved by the state Senate. The plan would give Duggan a key role in whether school choice in the form of charters keeps expanding in Detroit or becomes a dwindling remnant. The resolution was part of a deal the city made with Detroit Public Schools to forgive...

The number of Fiat Chrysler factory workers in North America will increase as the company reduces production of passenger cars and shifts toward trucks and SUVs, the company’s chief executive said Tuesday. […] He (Sergio Marchionne) said new Ram pickup truck will come out at the beginning of 2018. It will be built at two U.S. factories in suburban Detroit, so it won’t cost the company any production of the current model. A factory in Sterling Heights, Michigan, that now makes the Chrysler 200 sedan will be retooled to make pickups, he said. The company also plans to build a...

Despite new Michigan laws that begin to limit the ability of law enforcement agencies to take property from a person who has not been convicted of a crime, civil liberties activists say that the practice, known as "civil asset forfeiture," is still a problem. Their plan of action? Work at the local level to ban it. “We need to put police back in the role of being protectors of society rather than glorified armed robbers, which is what they’ve become under civil asset forfeiture,” said Shane Trejo, who is organizing petition drives in Oakland County. Trejo became involved through his...

After this cute pup named Bobby sadly lost its mother to a car accident, the Michigan Humane Society was able to pair up the dog with a new family — of cats. Bobby was just two days old when its mother was fatally struck by a vehicle, so it was important that the puppy found a new family as quickly as possible. SEE ALSO: No-nonsense dog tells over-enthused puppy to 'shh' The society just so happened to have a mother cat that was still nursing, so they decided to give it a shot and see if the cat would foster...

Three government officials were charged Wednesday in the lead-tainted water crisis that terrorized Flint, Mich. Two officials with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and Flint’s laboratory and water quality supervisor were slapped with a slew of criminal charges, the state’s attorney general announced Wednesday. Mike Glasgow, a supervisor at Flint's water plant, is charged with tampering with evidence and willful neglect of office. Prosecutors alleged he meddled with water tests so the results showed less lead than was actually present, MLive reported. Stephen Busch and Mike Prysby — a district supervisor and a district engineer respectively in the state...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder will drink Flint water at home and at work for at least a month to show to residents it is safe with the use of a faucet filter, he said Monday. The Republican governor, who has apologized for his administration's role in the city's lead-tainted water crisis, visited a house that had been confirmed to have high levels of lead and left with five gallons of filtered water. He said he understands people feel that if officials say the water is OK, then he should drink it, too. "What better way to...

The chair of the Michigan Republican Party has pledged to vote for Donald Trump at the Party's National Convention. She also happens to be the niece of one of the GOP's most prominent Trump critics -- Mitt Romney. Ronna Romney McDaniel said she hasn't spoken with the former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican nominee about her decision.

A member of the House Armed Services Committee wants an explanation for why the next Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer will be named for a politician instead of a war hero. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California and a Marine Corps veteran, sent a letter to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus Wednesday, asking him to explain his decision to name DDG-120 after former Sen. Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, who retired last January after 36 years in office. The letter was first reported by Defense News. Hunter cited July 2012 Congressional Research Service report to Congress that showed that destroyers...

Critics are nearly unanimous: The movie "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice" is a dog. That didn’t prevent the producers from grossing $193.2 million within four days of its March 25 release date, according to Box Office Mojo. The movie review website Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 29 percent rating, which is the same score given to “Dumb and Dumber To” (that's not a typo) and “Grudge Match” — a boxing movie featuring the fight between then 67-year-old Sylvester Stallone and 70-year-old Robert DeNiro. ForTheRecord says: The Michigan film office granted the production company a $35 million taxpayer subsidy in...

The Detroit News reported that the whistleblower who brought the Flint water crisis to light had earlier sent an email claiming that the city's response to the lead contamination of residents "borders on criminal neglect." The June 25, 2015, email from U.S. EPA employee Miguel Del Toral email read in part: "They have had no corrosion control treatment in place for over a year now and they have lead service lines. It’s just basic chemistry on lead solubility. You will have high lead leaching into the water where you are doing nothing to mitigate that.” “The only reason we don’t...

SAGINAW, MI — A transgender adjunct professor at Saginaw Valley State University has filed a federal lawsuit against the school that alleges she was fired from her administrative position because of her gender transition. . . . Davenport, who began presenting as a female in March 2014, still remains an adjunct English professor at the university in Saginaw County, she also served as the assistant to the director of Academic Programs Support until December 2013, when university officials eliminated that position, "allegedly for budgetary reasons," the lawsuit claims. . . . Davenport, a Hazel Park resident, alleges violations of Title...

While the tactics of chief Donald Trump rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)97% to win delegates without voters come under intense scrutiny, a quiet, thus-far-little-focused-on development has occurred that could provide a ray of hope for the Trump team fighting political insiders on their home turf. Paul Manafort, Trump’s new Republican National Convention manager, just delivered not only a big win in Michigan’s delegate game: He undercut Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) by throwing a separate victory to Ohio Gov. John Kasich. CNN reported on Saturday evening: Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald...

Over the weekend, Kasich’s campaign teamed up with Trump’s operation in Michigan to help Trump delegates gobble up convention committee posts that would otherwise have gone to Cruz. While the effects of the Michigan deal may be marginal, it was the best evidence yet that Team Kasich is more comfortable with a Trump nomination than a Cruz one. The Kasich campaign defended aiding Trump on the grounds that Cruz deserved it as a punishment for trying to scoop up too many delegates. But whether it was bad blood, pique or part of a larger strategy, Kasich’s part in any anti-Trump...

ESCANABA, Mich. — An Upper Peninsula cake decorator is in hot water with several Facebook users as a controversial post slowly catching viral waves makes its way through the social network. A recent status update by Bake It U.P. Cakes explains that the business denied services to a same-sex couple after it was commissioned to decorate a cake for an upcoming wedding. The decorator was unaware it was for a same-sex couple, and as soon as she found out, the business backed out of the transaction. The post states, "This has nothing to do with the person, or the lifestyle...

GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, with the help of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, prevented Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) from slating his preferred delegates in Michigan over the weekend. “The Texas senator’s campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was “double-crossed” by Kasich supporters,” CNN reports. “The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee. The Cruz campaign lost votes for both seats.” This maneuvering becomes important if no candidate reaches the 1,237 delegate threshold to clinch the nomination on...

It looks like Ted is getting a taste of his own medicine. CNN reports from Lansing, Michigan; Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald Trump boxed him out of key positions in the Michigan delegation. The Texas senator’s campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was “double-crossed” by Kasich supporters. The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee. The Cruz campaign lost votes for both seats. The rules committee...

<p>Ted Cruz suffered a rare convention loss Saturday after delegates backing John Kasich and Donald Trump boxed him out of key positions in the Michigan delegation.</p> <p>The Texas senator's campaign ran eight delegates for eight committee spots and lost every one, alleging it was "double-crossed" by Kasich supporters.</p>

About 400 years ago, a throng of dusty workmen laid down their shovels and huddled around an ancient painted wall -- a fresco, technically -- unearthed in a tunnel near Italy's Bay of Naples. The men were at work on a massive construction project, burrowing through a hill to build a canal for a local armament factory and mill. No one expected to find fine art. But as the workmen dug deeper into the hill, they encountered wonder upon wonder -- house walls painted blood red and sunflower yellow, fragments of carved inscriptions, pieces of Roman statues. The architect supervising...

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced he is filing a lawsuit in Wayne County to shut down the Summit Women’s Center, an abortion clinic located at 15801 W. McNichols Rd. in Detroit, for illegally operating. To protect the public, state law requires that medical and other professional services be provided through corporations owned by licensed professionals. Regarding the practice of medicine, this ensures that doctors direct care and supervise medical services. The law also mandates that the corporation is liable for negligence or misconduct in professional services it provides. Summit Women’s Center provides medical services through Summit of Detroit,...

Tumbling sales of Fiat Chrysler’s main midsize car have driven the company to indefinitely lay off 1,300 employees at a Detroit-area factory. Workers on the second shift at Fiat Chrysler’s assembly plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, will be furloughed starting July 5 as the slow-selling Chrysler 200 has started to stack up on dealer lots. Sales of the cars were down 61 percent through March, and inventory grew to a 150-day supply, according to Ward’s Automotive. Automakers consider 60 days to be optimal to give dealers enough of a selection for customers. Fiat Chrysler sold only 7,500 of the cars...