SEVERE WEATHER-MIDWEST

Storms, rain and excessive heat roll across parts of Midwest

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Heat and humidity broiled parts of Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and other midwestern states Wednesday while storms accompanied by heavy rain bowled over trees and flooded roads. Thousands of homes and businesses in western and northern parts of Michigan’s lower peninsula remained without power following damage to power lines. Wind gusts reached about 70 mph in some areas, including the Dorr area south of Grand Rapids, toppling trees, limbs and power lines. Winds of between 30 and 50 mph were reported across a larger area. The National Weather Service has issued heat advisories for the Chicago area, much of Indiana and the Detroit area where heat indices up to 100 degrees

WHITE SUPREMACISTS CHARGED-MICHIGAN

Authorities: Sites assessed by hate group as training areas

CARO, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says two former state Corrections sites allegedly were being assessed by a white supremacist group called The Base as potential training areas for “hate camps.” Three men, including one arrested last year after an Ann Arbor-area family was intimidated, have been charged in connection with a state police and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation. The vacant properties are in Tuscola County’s Caro, about 100 miles northwest of Detroit. Nessel said Wednesday in a release that “hate camps” are what The Base calls paramilitary firearms training exercises. The Anti-Defamation League says The Base is a small, militant neo-Nazi organization.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MICHIGAN SCHOOLS

Michigan panel OKs leaving masking up to school districts

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s Board of Education has approved a resolution that supports allowing local school districts to make “scientifically informed decisions” about whether to mandate COVID-19 masks for all students, teachers and visitors. The Democratic-majority board signed off on the resolution in a 5-2 vote Tuesday that members stressed “supports the right of local control to mask and not to mask.” Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she will not require masks in school, like she did last academic year. But her administration has endorsed a recommendation from the state health department for universal masking in school buildings.

MICHIGAN ELECTION-ATTORNEY GENERAL

Michigan GOP lawmaker announces bid for attorney general

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Oakland County state Rep. Ryan Berman has announced he will seek the Republican nomination for Michigan attorney general. In a letter Wednesday from his campaign, Berman said he will use his background in law as an attorney and reserve police officer to build trust and accountability in Michigan’s leadership, criticizing Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. He said both Whitmer and Nessel have misused their positions and backed each other as political allies rather than putting the law first. Nessel has not said whether she will seek reelection to a second four-year term.

HOTEL ROOM-OVERDOSE DEATHS

Man, 21, enters plea in overdose deaths at suburban hotel

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — A 21-year-old man faces up to 15 years in prison in the deaths of three people who fatally overdosed in a suburban Detroit hotel room. The Detroit Free Press reports that Lorenzo Brabo of Lake Orion pleaded guilty Tuesday to involuntary manslaughter. He had been charged with three counts of delivery of a controlled substance causing death. Police in Auburn Hills found the bodies of a 17-year-old girl, and two brothers, ages 19 and 18, at the hotel, about 33 miles northwest of Detroit in July 2020. Authorities have said fentanyl-laced pain relievers were given to the victims. Brabo had overdosed and was found unconscious in the hotel room. He will be sentenced in September.

MICHIGAN GOVERNOR-DEVOS

GOP's DeVos says she will not seek Michigan governorship

Former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she will not run for Michigan governor in 2022, putting an end to speculation about the onetime Trump administration Cabinet member and partner in one of the state’s most influential Republican couples. The 63-year-old DeVos made the announcement Tuesday. She said she never weighed a campaign to challenge Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, despite weeks of chatter in Michigan’s political class. Though a billionaire able to finance a campaign and former state party chairwoman with key connections, DeVos would have faced complications in a Republican primary and the general election. DeVos is married to Dick DeVos, Michigan’s losing candidate for governor in 2006.

AP-US-EX-DETROIT-COUNCILMAN-PAROLE

Ex-Detroit councilman Pugh gets parole in sex case with teen

DETROIT (AP) — The former president of the Detroit City Council has been granted parole about five years after his conviction for having sex with a teenage boy when he previously worked as a TV journalist. Michigan's Department of Corrections says Charles Pugh is expected to be released from prison sometime in December. His parole first was reported by Deadline Detroit. The 50-year-old Pugh will have to register as a sex offender, spend two years on parole and be required to wear a GPS tether for at least six months. He was sentenced in November 2016 to at least 5 1/2 years in prison. The teen was younger than 16 when they illegally engaged in sex acts in 2003 and 2004.

MARIJUANA-UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

Nessel: Don't deny unemployment for pot use outside work

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says in a filing before the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Commission that people fired from their jobs for using marijuana outside the workplace still should be eligible for unemployment benefits. The brief was filed Monday and focuses on three cases currently consolidated before the board. It says the commission’s ruling will “directly impact many law-abiding Michigan workers who may be terminated for the use of marijuana.” Nessel points to Michigan voters’ approval in 2018 for making recreational marijuana use legal in the state.

WWII PILOT-REMAINS BURIED

Remains buried of WWII pilot from Lansing who died in 1943

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The remains of a World War II pilot from Lansing who died in 1943 when the military aircraft he was flying crashed during combat over New Guinea have been laid to rest next to his parents. U.S. Army Air Force First Lt. Robert Parker’s remains were buried Monday at Deepdale Memorial Cemetery. The Detroit News reports that Parker was 23 when the P-40N Warhawk he was flying on a patrol mission crashed in November 1943, when Japanese aircraft swarmed his plane and others over New Guinea. In May 2019, staff with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency obtained human remains from a crash site and identified those as belonging to Parker.

REDISTRICTING-IMBALANCE OF POWER

Census data spurred GOP's largest partisan edge in decades

An Associated Press analysis shows that Republicans have benefited from the biggest political advantage in decades because of potential gerrymandering in U.S. House districts and state legislative boundaries. The analysis shows that U.S. House districts drawn after the 2010 census produced a consistent edge for Republicans all the way through the 2020 elections in more states than for either party during the past 50 years. That Republican advantage will be put to the test when new census data is released Thursday. That will kick off a new round of redistricting that will take effect with the 2022 elections.

News from © The Associated Press, 2021