AP-US-BENTON-HARBOR-WATER

Michigan city with lead in water ordered to fix water plant

BENTON HARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Federal regulators have delivered a tough report to a Michigan city where residents have been urged not to drink the water. The Environmental Protection Agency says Benton Harbor had failed to timely warn people about high levels of lead in the water and must make improvements at its water plant. The EPA says Benton Harbor also must consider turning the water system over to someone else in the long term. Benton Harbor is a predominantly Black community about 100 miles from Chicago. Residents have been urged for weeks to use bottled water for drinking and cooking. Lead is leaching from old pipes.

LGBT DISCRIMINATION-MICHIGAN

LGBT rights ballot drive officially dead after appeal denied

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court won't hear the appeal of an LGBTQ-rights ballot committee that contended officials wrongly disqualified tens thousands of signatures it submitted for an initiative to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The decision Tuesday comes months after the state elections board declined to certify the petitions. The proposal would have revised Michigan's civil rights law to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations. Attention next turns to the court's consideration of whether a ban against sex discrimination covers sexual orientation and gender identity.

EAST LANSING-DAMAGE

Party's over: Police seek suspects for damage after MSU game

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The fires are out. But the destruction in East Lansing on Halloween weekend could haunt college students and others. Police are asking for the public’s help in identifying people responsible for couch and mattress fires and other damage Saturday, after Michigan State won the big football game over Michigan East Lansing police shared videos and photos from postgame incidents on Facebook. They include the flipping of a parked vehicle as witnesses cheered. Police are blunt, saying, "This behavior is not acceptable." Anyone with information can call (517) 319-6834.

SCHOOLS-INDIAN MASCOTS

2 more Michigan school districts dropping Indian mascots

HARTFORD, Mich. (AP) — Two more Michigan school districts are dropping Indian nicknames and images. Saranac in Ionia County and Hartford in Van Buren County are the latest to make the change. Hartford Superintendent Kelly Millin says the district was greatly influenced by members of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi. Millin says the mascot “no longer carries the same point of pride for all that see it.” The Saranac school board last week voted to stop using the Redskin mascot. MLive.com says Camden-Frontier schools in Hillsdale County and the Sandusky district in Sanilac County still call themselves Redskins.

ELECTION 2021-DETROIT MAYOR

Duggan seeks 3rd term as Detroit mayor against lawyer Adams

DETROIT (AP) — Voters in Detroit are deciding if incumbent Mayor Mike Duggan should serve four more years or if attorney Anthony Adams should lead the Motor City. Duggan is seeking his third consecutive term after first winning in 2013 and taking over in January 2014. Adams has also spent time in City Hall. He was deputy mayor to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in the early to mid-2000s. Duggan received more than 72% of the vote in the August primary. In Detroit, the top two vote-getters in the nonpartisan primary move on to the general election.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MICHIGAN FINES

Michigan businesses could escape COVID-19 fines under bill

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Business owners who received fines for violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's COVID-19 emergency orders in Michigan would receive refunds under a bill that has passed the Legislature. The Michigan Occupational Safety & Health Administration wouldn’t be able to assess a penalty for violating an emergency order if the fine meets all of these criteria: If the emergency order addresses COVID-19, if the violation is the business’s first violation and if the business made an effort to correct the violation. Whitmer's administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MICHIGAN REDISTRICTING

Redistricting panel advances congressional, Senate maps

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s redistricting commission has overwhelmingly voted to advance proposed congressional and state Senate maps to the final stage of the process, approving lines that would be fairer to Democrats than those drawn by Republican lawmakers in the last two decades. It's the first time the panel has submitted plans for a closing 45-day comment period. It's unclear if commissioners may offer additional alternative Senate and U.S. House proposals later in the week or stand pat. They are still working on state House boundaries. They face a Friday deadline to propose maps, with votes on final maps expected by late December.

AP-US-BOOKS-HUMA-ABEDIN-INTERVIEW

Huma Abedin, loyal aide and betrayed wife, picks up the mic

NEW YORK (AP) — Huma Abedin is ready to speak. And she's doing it with gusto. The ever-loyal aide to Hillary Clinton and the ever-suffering wife of Anthony Weiner has written a 500-page memoir dissecting the three relationships that have largely defined her: Her parents, her boss, and her husband. Abedin tells tells The Associated Press she's “ready for this,” adding she's tired of letting others tell her story. “Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds" is jam-packed with anecdotes from around the globe. But it's the stunning story of her public shaming, via her husband's sordid sexting scandal, that readers will jump to. “He broke my heart,” Abedin tells AP. “He ripped it out and stomped on it.”

EX-EMU WRESTLER'S SLAYING

2 men plead guilty to charges in former EMU wrestler's death

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Two men charged in connection with the slaying of a former Eastern Michigan University wrestler have pleaded guilty to armed robbery and other charges in the fatal 2018 robbery. Twenty-one-year-old Camron Williams-Evans pleaded guilty Monday to a conspiracy to commit armed robbery and assault with intent to rob while armed in the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Christopher “Jack” Marsh, Jr. The Ann Arbor News reports that Washtenaw County court records also show 21-year-old Marquez Williams pleaded guilty last month to seven charges including second-degree murder. All six suspects in Marsh’s April 2018 death have now taken plea deals in the case.

SCHOOL VOUCHERS

Ballot drive launched to bypass Whitmer veto of voucher plan

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A ballot drive has been launched to sidestep Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s planned veto of Republican-proposed legislation that would authorize a school voucher-style system in Michigan. Let MI Kids Learn needs to gather 340,000 valid voter signatures to send each of the two initiatives to the GOP-led Legislature. Lawmakers then could enact the measures into law despite the Democratic governor’s opposition. The proposals would let Michigan students attend private schools and pay other educational expenses with scholarship accounts funded by people and corporations that would get equivalent income tax credits for their donations. Democrats and other critics say the initiatives are unconstitutional.

News from © The Associated Press, 2021