MICHIGAN REDISTRICTING

Michigan redistricting panel OKs US House, legislative maps

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s new redistricting commission has approved congressional and legislative maps, ones that is fairer to Democrats than when the process was controlled by the Republican-led Legislature for two decades. In landmark votes Tuesday, the panel created by a voter-approved constitutional amendment passed the plans that will last a decade, barring likely court challenges. The state is losing a congressional seat following the 2020 census. Republicans have controlled the Legislature for years due to partisan gerrymandering. Voters in 2018 turned the process over to the independent commission.

TWO SLAIN-DETROIT

Man sought in deaths of wife, her daughter slain by police

DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit man wanted in connection with the Christmas Day slayings of his 57-year-old wife and her 13-year-old daughter has been fatally shot by police searching for him. Police Chief James White told reporters that 62-year-old Dwayne McDonald was killed Tuesday in an apartment a few miles north of downtown. White says officers knocked on the apartment’s door and announced themselves before forcibly entering in. He said a shot was fired, and police then fired on McDonald who died at the scene. McDonald was believed to have been in hiding since Saturday’s shooting. The bodies of his wife and her adoptive daughter were found at their home by relatives arriving for Christmas dinner.

CONTROLLED DETONATIONS-BOMB SQUAD

City bomb squad to hold controlled detonation of explosives

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Controlled detonations are planned in Grand Rapids as the police department’s bomb squad disposes of explosives and other hazardous materials. The Grand Rapids Police Department says intermittent detonations will be held between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Thursday at the city’s Compost and Yard Waste Site. Area residents may hear the explosions, which also could affect pets that are sensitive to loud noises. The department said the explosives and other materials being destroyed were seized during investigations or are expiring.

REDEVELOPMENT INCENTIVES

Whitmer OKs extending development tax incentives by 5 years

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan developers with “transformational” plans to redevelop brownfield sites can continue to seek tax incentives after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Legislature extended the program for an additional five years. The state’s economic development board can approve new projects through 2027, instead of 2022, under a bill signed last week. The law, which was enacted in 2017, lets developers keep income and withholding taxes from people who live and work at the sites along with sales taxes associated with construction. Brownfields are contaminated, blighted, functionally obsolete or are historic properties.

STATE POLICE-DIVERSITY

Judge dismisses lawsuits over state police diversity policy

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected claims by two white men who said they were the victims of illegal retaliation after objecting to how the Michigan State Police was trying to diversify its workforce. The Detroit Free Press reports that Chief U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids dismissed the case Monday. Michael Caldwell and Robert Hahn filed lawsuits in May 2020. Caldwell, a captain, was demoted and Hahn, an inspector, was fired in March 2020 after the state police determined they improperly interfered in the handling of a transfer request. Both claimed that was only a pretext and they were really singled out for discipline because they spoke out against the agency’s diversity initiatives.

FATAL UP CABIN SHOOTING

Man charged after Christmas Eve killing at Michigan cabin

MARENISCO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has been charged with murder in the fatal Christmas Eve shooting of a man at a cabin in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Thirty-year-old Nicholas Millard of Spring Mills, Pennsylvania, was arraigned Sunday in Gogebic County’s 98th District Court on charges of first-degree premediated murder, assault with intent to murder and felony firearm. Gogebic County sheriff’s deputies were called to a cabin in Marenisco Township early last Friday after a reported shooting. Police say one victim, 49-year-old Thomas Fletcher of Marenisco Township, was pronounced dead at the scene. A second victim, 22-year-old Austin Fletcher of Irvine, California, was treated for a gunshot wound at hospitals and released.

MAN BURNED-OXYGEN TANK

Detroit-area man with oxygen tank burned over 80% of body

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) — A 75-year-old Detroit-area man has been burned over more than 80% of his body after a fire started in his apartment. The Oakland County sheriff's office says Monday that firefighters were called to a Pontiac apartment building late Sunday night on a report of a man burning. A neighbor told investigators that she heard the man yelling “fire” and tried to put the flames out with a blanket and fire extinguisher. Firefighters arrived and put out the flames. The man’s daughter said she was speaking with him on the phone when his oxygen tank fell over in the apartment where he had several candles burning. He suffered second-degree burns and was listed in critical condition at a hospital.

REDISTRICTING COMMISSION-MEETINGS

Whitmer limits redistricting panel's use of closed meetings

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed legislation to prohibit Michigan’s new redistricting commission from citing exceptions under the Open Meetings Act to hold closed sessions. Her signature last week came days after the state Supreme Court ruled against the panel in a test of a constitutional requirement that it conduct all of its business at open meetings. The bill sponsor, Republican Sen. Ed McBroom of Vulcan, has said the commission — which was created by a 2018 voter-approved constitutional amendment — should not be able to justify a closed meeting by pointing to the 1976 law.

SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS

Whitmer signs bill so non-teaching staff can work as subs

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan public schools can use non-teaching staff as substitute teachers the rest of the academic year under a law designed to address a shortage during the coronavirus pandemic. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Monday that she signed the bill last week, calling it a “temporary stopgap." It lets secretaries, paraprofessionals and other school employees without a teaching certificate work as subs if they have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate. The Republican-sponsored legislation was approved by lawmakers on largely party lines. Michigan generally requires subs to have an associate’s degree or at least 60 hours of college credit.

FATAL SHOOTINGS-MICHIGAN

Police: Man kills twin, wounds father before shooting self

TROY, Mich. (AP) — Police say they believe a 23-year-old man fatally shot his twin brother and shot and wounded their father before apparently taking his own life in suburban Detroit. Police say a 64-year-old woman was also in the home in Troy during the shooting Monday but was not harmed. Officers responding to 911 calls about shots fired found one of the twins shot and killed in the basement and the other twin dead inside a vehicle from what police believe was a self-inflicted gunshot. A family dog was also found shot to death. Police found the twins' father wounded upstairs. Police say a 62-year-old man had called 911 and said his 23-year-old son had shot him.

News from © The Associated Press, 2021