Tag: michigan

FBI: Possible Halloween weekend terror attack averted, multiple suspects arrested in Michigan

A possible terrorist attack planned for Halloween weekend was thwarted by authorities, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.

Patel said Friday morning on X that multiple suspects were arrested in Michigan in connection with this plot. 

According to Patel, these suspects “were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.”

What we don’t know:

It is unclear where the suspects were planning the attack. Information being spread on social media references a possible attack at Warren’s TACOM, but that is an old story about a suspect who was arrested and charged in the spring.

The FBI in Detroit said agents were present in Dearborn and Inkster early Friday, but could not confirm if this was related to the terror attack plot referenced by Patel. 

Dearborn police also confirmed that the FBI conducted an operation in the city. Police said there is no threat to the community.

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Michigan Lawmakers Consider Bills To Change Legal Marijuana Possession Limits And Alter Industry Disciplinary Rules

Four marijuana-related bills were up for consideration before a House panel on Thursday, with one aiming to upend rules on the legal amount of regulated marijuana a person is allowed to possess, both in plant and concentrate form.

Members of the House Regulatory Reform Committee discussed but did not amend or advance House Bill House 5104, Bill 5105, House Bill 5106 and House Bill 5107.

Derek Sova, a policy and legislative assistant for the Cannabis Regulatory Agency, told the committee previously that Michigan’s legal marijuana industry faced several challenges, and that two of those big hurdles were large illicit grow operations and the agency’s inability to go after bad actors because their licenses had expired.

The series of bills before the committee would address those concerns.

House Bill 5105 and House Bill 5107 are sponsored by state Reps. Pauline Wendzel (R-Watervliet) and Mike Hoadley (R-Au Gres), respectively. The bills would in tandem create new penalties for cultivating, delivering and processing black market marijuana, but also change the amount of marijuana a person is legally allowed to possess in plant and concentrate form.

The bills are tie-barred together, meaning both would have to jointly clear the Legislature and be signed by the governor to become law.

Under Wendzel’s bill, a person would be guilty of a misdemeanor if they possess between 10 and 25 kilograms, or between 50 and 100 plants, or between one and 2.5 kilograms of marijuana concentrate. The penalty would change to up to one year in jail or a $20,000 fine, or both.

Keeping between 25 and 125 kilograms, or between 100 and 500 plants, or between 2.5 and 12.5 kilograms of marijuana concentrate would become a felony punishable by two years in prison or a $500,000 fine, or both.

It would also be a felony offense to:

  • Keep between 125 and 250 kilograms, or between 500 and 1,000 plants, or between 12.5 and 25 kilograms. That could net a person four years in prison or a $2 million fine or both; and
  • Keep 250 kilograms or more, or 1,000 plants or more, or 25 kilograms or more of marijuana concentrate. The punishment there would be up to 10 years in prison or a $10 million fine, or both.

Sponsored by state Rep. Kristian Grant (D-Grand Rapids), House Bill 5104 would allow the Cannabis Regulatory Agency to sanction a person even if they are no longer a licensee or if they are no longer operating a marijuana facility.

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OOPS! Michigan’s SOS Jocelyn Benson’s Laughable 2024 Election Audit Is Worse Than Anyone Imagined—“Random” Sampling Conveniently Excluded State’s Most Crooked City—Why?

Imagine a health inspector conducting a “random” restaurant safety audit that somehow manages to skip McDonald’s and Burger King—the two busiest establishments in town, and imagine they had the longest history of violations. Then imagine the health inspector was inspecting his own work. Then the inspector announces that all restaurants passed with flying colors.

Would you trust that audit?

Yet this scenario mirrors what happened with Michigan’s 2024 post-election audit. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office announced in October 2025—ten months after the election—that Michigan’s ballot counting achieved 99.97% accuracy. Impressive. But their “random” sample conspicuously excluded Detroit and Troy, the largest cities in Michigan’s two most populous counties, despite Detroit’s notorious election administration challenges.

When randomness becomes suspiciously convenient, trust evaporates.

The audit took ten months to complete and publish—an extraordinary delay that national election security experts Susan Greenhalgh and Dr. David Jefferson called “inadequate” and lacking “transparency” in their August 2025 analysis of swing-state audits. Michigan’s 2020 audit required only five months. Why did 2024 take twice as long?

Delays matter. 

Risk-limiting audits exist precisely to provide swift statistical assurance when public scrutiny peaks—immediately after elections. Publishing results ten months later, when news cycles have moved on and memories have faded, defeats the purpose. In a swing state with controversial election administration, such delays amplify rather than alleviate distrust.

But timing represents only one problem. The audit examined whether Michigan counts ballots accurately—it did—while ignoring whether those ballots came from eligible voters at legitimate addresses, whether signatures on 2,081,265 mail-in ballots matched registration records, and whether Michigan’s voter databases comply with federal maintenance requirements.

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Former Archdiocese of Detroit Superintendent of Schools Blasts MI Department of Education for Its Latest Ploy to Force Young Children to Learn Sick Sex Agenda Without Parental Consent

Last week, several groups focused on the well-being of Michigan’s youth sent an SOS to parents and grandparents of children attending public schools in the state about a radical proposed change in sex education for young students in the Great Lakes state.

Citizens for Traditional Values warned: Currently Michigan public schools’ health standards for Sex-Ed curriculum INCLUDES a provision to allow parents the right to make the decision whether their child takes the class or not.

Public schools require all students to take a health class for graduation. This is separate from Sex-Ed curriculum. The health class curriculum covers things such as healthy eating habits, sleeping habits, the benefits of physical activity, mental and emotional health, healthy relationships, time management, etc.

Regarding Sex-Ed, Michigan legislators passed a law in 2004 to protect parents’ rights and specifically made it elective and not a requirement for graduation. The law protects parents’ rights to opt-out their children from the class, if desired.

In addition, they provided a safeguard that IF a school was to teach Sex-Ed, it would require an advisory board that included local clergy, parents and members of the community on it.

The Michigan State Board of Education (SBOE) is in current negotiations to change this:
They want Sex-Ed curriculum to become a required part of health education in Michigan public schools. This not only violates the current law that keeps Sex-Ed classes separate, but it also eliminates a parent right to opt-out their child. Why? Because Health Class – would then include Sex-Ed – is required for graduation.

Kevin Kijewski, a Republican candidate for Michigan Attorney General and former superintendent of the Archdiocese of Detroit, blasted the proposed change, calling it unlawful and “reckless.”

Kijewski will testify in front of the Michigan Department of Education today, where he plans to stand up for parents whose voices are being ignored.

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New Michigan Marijuana Tax Could Shutter Businesses And Actually Reduce The State’s Cannabis Revenue, Industry Says

As state budget negotiations drew to a close last week, members of the Democratic-led Senate and the Republican-led House were able to reach a deal to bring in additional funding for road repairs through a plan that drew much debate: levying additional taxes on marijuana.

Hundreds of individuals from the cannabis industry came out in opposition to the proposal last week, gathering on the Capitol lawn and lining the halls of the building as lawmakers worked to finalize the state budget.

While the policy won support from both sides of the aisle, its detractors were similarly bipartisan as some lawmakers warned that an additional 24 percent tax on wholesale marijuana could carry a host of issues, from smothering small businesses to expanding the black market, and even opening the state up to a potential constitutional challenge.

Although Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) put her pen to the new tax law on Tuesday, the future of the law has already been challenged, with the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association filing a complaint the same day, arguing the law improperly alters the law initiated by voters when they agreed to legalize marijuana in 2018.

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Lawsuit: The Dead Still Live On Michigan’s Dirty Voter Rolls

n elections integrity watchdog is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on leftist-led Michigan’s dirty voter rolls, apparently filled with tens of thousands of dead registrants. 

The Public Interest Legal Foundation (PILF) has filed a petition seeking review of the landmark Public Interest Legal Foundation v. Jocelyn Benson, which challenges the Wolverine State’s refusal to clean up its voter rolls — a requirement under the National Voter Registration Act. 

‘Reasonable Effort’

PILF argues that the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals erred in its ruling last year affirming a lower court opinion that found the Secretary of State’s office has made “reasonable efforts” to properly remove the names of deceased individuals from Michigan’s voter rolls. The case aims to clarify what a “reasonable effort” in the face of evidence that Michigan’s limited list-maintenance program’s design “virtually guarantees that thousands of deceased voters remain on the rolls.”

“Michigan’s refusal to act on overwhelming evidence of deceased registrants violates federal law,” said Kaylan Phillips, PILF’s legal counsel for the case. “The NVRA requires states to make efforts that keep the rolls accurate.”

PILF’s analysis of Michigan’s voter list identified more than 27,000 likely deceased individuals registered to vote. Some of those former citizens of the living have been dead for decades, according to the complaint. Of the suspect registrants, nearly 4,000 have been dead for at least 20 years, PILF found. Throughout the legal challenges, the foundation sent Michigan’s far-left secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, obituaries and gravestones of many of the deceased registrants. 

One individual registered to vote was apparently born in 1823 — some 14 years before Michigan became a state. The person was registered to vote in 2008. It’s either an invalid registration or state elections officials have some trouble entering basic data, the foundation’s investigation mused. 

The Foundation said its findings were consistent with state audits showing similar problems, but Benson has “repeatedly declined to investigate or release records explaining how the state maintains its voter rolls.”

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24% Michigan marijuana tax, a key piece of the legislative budget deal, has passed

After much hand wringing and consternation from lawmakers who feared detrimental effects to Michigan’s cannabis industry, the Michigan Senate voted early Friday morning by a thin margin to pass a 24% wholesale tax on marijuana products sold in the state.

The measure is estimated to raise $420 million in new revenue to fund road repairs and construction in the new fiscal year, a key component of the budget deal reached by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) and Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids).

If the vote had failed, the entire deal would more than likely fall apart, sending the respective chambers and the governor’s office back to the negotiating table. Such a development would have also sent the state into a full government shutdown. House leadership said Thursday that it would not entertain another continuation budget after the one passed Wednesday expired after Oct. 8.

Although many members of the cannabis industry rallied at the Capitol and lobbied lawmakers against passing the legislation, the implications of the entire deal falling through weighed heavily on the Legislature’s mind.

The House and Senate on late Thursday and early Friday morning passed their respective conference budgets to fund the whole of government, K-12 schools and higher education, but all of that hinged on passage of the marijuana tax.

The bill passed by a slim 19-17 vote, which had nearly as much bipartisan dissent as it did support.

Brinks and the following senators voted in favor of the bill: Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), Rosemary Bayer (D-West Bloomfield), Darrin Camilleri (D-Trenton), Mary Cavanagh (D-Redford Township), Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), John Cherry (D-Flint), Kevin Daley (R-Lum), Erika Geiss (D-Taylor), Veronica Klinefelt (D-Eastpointe), Dan Lauwers (R-Brockway), Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan), Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo), Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Township), Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia), Sam Singh (D-East Lansing), Roger Victory (R-Georgetown Township) and Paul Wojno (D-Warren).

Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor) voted no against the bill. He was one of the legislation’s strongest opponents. 

Irwin was joined by Sens. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), Joseph Bellino (R-Monroe), Jon Bumstead (R-North Muskegon), John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs), Roger Hauck (R-Mount Pleasant), Kevin Hertel (D-Saint Clair Shores), Michele Hoitenga (R-Manton), Mark Huizenga (R-Walker), Ruth Johnson (R-Groveland Township), Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater), Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Township), Jim Runestad (R-White Lake), Sylvia Santana (D-Detroit), Sue Shink (D-Northfield Township), Lana Theis (R-Brighton) and Michael Webber (R-Rochester Hills).

A large portion of the day was spent debating the measure in caucus meetings and whipping votes to ensure the tax did not go up in smoke.

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Michigan Marijuana Industry Rallies Against Tax Hike Proposal That’s Advancing In The Legislature

The proposed new wholesale tax on marijuana products to fund road repairs in the next state budget and years down the road is much too high and would result in job losses for a booming Michigan cannabis industry, advocates and lawmakers said Tuesday as they rallied for a lower tax rate.

At least two Democratic lawmakers who attended the rally—state Reps. Donavan McKinney of Detroit and Mike McFall of Hazel Park—also signaled that they were working behind the scenes to get that rate much lower before a final vote is taken.

At present, both McFall and McKinney said they would vote no on the final budget if the rate remained.

Michigan lawmakers reached a loose framework to fund the government last week, but it included a new 24 percent wholesale tax on products sold at dispensaries across the state. That sent the cannabis industry and their allies into a frenzy as they warned that such a tax would hamstring the industry’s growth and result in fewer jobs.

On Tuesday afternoon, lawmakers were still in the throes of hammering out a final budget plan, with no clear end in sight despite signals that the government would stay open and not shut down on Wednesday when the new fiscal year begins (though by the end of the day lawmakers passed a temporary budget extension through October 8).

Still, the money for the Legislature’s road funding plan had to come from somewhere, whether that was from schools—which advocates rallied against Tuesday—or from the new proposed tax on pot for potholes.

Those working for or on behalf of the cannabis industry gathered for a rally on the Capitol steps in Lansing to send lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who had earlier in the year proposed a more than 30 percent tax, a clear message: Keep off their grass.

“Our industry is not their piggy bank. Our wallets are not their budget overruns,” said Mike DiLaura, CCO and general counsel for House of Dank, one of many cannabis companies operating in Michigan. “It is our time, not just as an industry, but as citizens of this great state, to put our feet down and say, ‘enough is enough.’”

DiLaura continued by saying that the industry has, since recreational cannabis was legalized in 2020, raised nearly $2 billion in taxes for Michigan over the last five years.

“But they say it’s not enough,” DiLaura said. “When will it ever be enough?”

Several other advocates and industry leaders spoke at the rally, all mentioning that even if they lost the battle to either stop the tax hike or reduce it, they would continue the fight in court or seek a full repeal of the law down the pike.

The rally also featured two allies in McKinney and McFall.

Both said they voted against the proposal in House Bill 4951 when it passed the House last week, noting that their communities have greatly benefited from recreational cannabis shops and associated businesses like grow operations.

“Hazel Park was all in on marijuana from the very beginning. As some of you might know, we even gave Tommy Chong the key to the city at one point,” McFall said. “But what a lot of people don’t realize is how this is going to impact local municipalities. They’re talking about cutting revenue sharing, which is the money that goes back from the state. This is also going to impact that.”

McFall said Hazel Park got half a million in tax dollars last year, and that money helped pay for emergency services and other amenities.

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FBI Suspects Michigan Church Shooter Hated People of the Mormon Faith

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Sept. 29 that the man accused of killing at least four people and injuring eight more at a church in Michigan hated Mormons.

“From what I understand, based on my conversations with the FBI director, all they know right now is this was an individual who hated people of the Mormon faith, and they are trying to understand more about this, how premeditated it was, how much planning went into it, whether he left a note, all of those questions have yet to be answered but certainly will be answered by the FBI,” she told Fox News in an interview on Sept. 29.

Leavitt said that search warrants are being executed at the home of the suspect, Thomas Jacob Sanford, to “get to the bottom of why he would commit such an act of evil.”

Sanford’s family is cooperating with the FBI, according to Leavitt. She did not provide more details about the suspect, who was killed by police during the incident.

Sanford, 40, allegedly drove a truck into a chapel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) in Grand Blanc before opening fire and setting the structure on fire during a Sunday service, officials said. The attacker allegedly used gasoline to start the fire and also had explosive devices, but it wasn’t clear whether he used them, according to James Dier of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives.

Investigators were searching Sanford’s residence. Authorities did not say what they found or provide any additional details, including whether he was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church.

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GUESS WHO’S NOT ABOVE THE LAW? MI SOS Benson In The Hot Seat After DOJ Sues Her For Blocking Access to Michigan’s Dirty Voter Rolls

On Thursday, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced the filing of federal lawsuits against six states — California, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania for failure to produce their statewide voter registration lists upon request. The lawsuit against Benson was filed in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, charging that she is violating federal law by stonewalling investigators and demanding that she be compelled to turn over the records.

Michigan residents have watched Secretary of State Benson mock efforts by state lawmakers and threaten citizens who ask for transparency in elections since 2020, all in an effort to shield her dirty rolls from scrutiny.

The statement from the DOJ reminds Americans about the importance of well-maintained voter rolls: “Clean voter rolls are the foundation of free and fair elections,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi. “Every state has a responsibility to ensure that voter registration records are accurate, accessible, and secure — states that don’t fulfill that obligation will see this Department of Justice in court.”

“States are required to safeguard American elections by complying with our federal elections laws,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Clean voter rolls protect American citizens from voting fraud and abuse, and restore their confidence that their states’ elections are conducted properly, with integrity, and in compliance with the law.”

Yesterday, in response to the lawsuit against her, the defiant Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, mocked the DOJ’s demand for transparency, saying, “It’s important for every Michigander to understand what’s at stake here – the U.S. Justice Department is trying to get us to turn over the private, personal information of more than 8 million state residents. That includes people’s driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, and other personally identifiable information.” Benson called it an”  illegal and unconstitutional power grab,” adding, “I told them they can’t have it.”

Perhaps someone should inform Jocelyn Benson that the government has access to the Social Security numbers of all American citizens. It’s not the American citizens who are legally registered to vote in Michigan that the DOJ is concerned about; it’s the ILLEGAL aliens and fake voters created during her 7 years in office that the DOJ is interested in reviewing.

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