Tag: michigan

MSU students are suing a professor after she required them to subscribe to a website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood

An adjunct professor at Michigan State University, Amy Wisner, is being sued by two of her students after requiring her business communications class to purchase a $99 subscription to an activist website she founded that funds Planned Parenthood.

The website, The Rebellion Community, was described in the class syllabus as “a global social learning community.”

Several students looked into the website and found posts from their professor on social media which detailed the leftwing causes that their membership fees were going to, most notably, Planned Parenthood.

MLive News reported,

Though Wisner initially told students that she would reap no benefit from the subscriptions, the lawsuit said, students found out that Wisner operated the site and had said in different contexts that its proceeds would be donated to Planned Parenthood or used to fund “an RV roadtrip around the United States to co-create communities of rebels.”

The university says that Wisner is no longer employed and the school has offered to refund the students the cost of their subscriptions.

Keep reading

MI House Democrats seek to imprison kids for having BB guns

Michigan may have a hunting and gun culture, but legislative Democrats are doing everything in their power to change that.

The latest example comes as House Democrats have proposed HB 4184, a bill to ban those 18 and under from “using or possessing certain BB guns outside of their property,” according to the summary.

State Rep. Julie Rogers, a Democrat from crime-riddled Kalamazoo, filed the bill earlier this session.

The bill is to “regulate the possession or use of pneumatic guns,” that is, those that are designed to use air pressure to propel the projectile. The bill bans kids from having guns “that will expel a BB or pellet by spring, gas, or air.”

“An individual less than 18 years of age shall not use or possess a pneumatic gun outside the curtilage of the individual’s dwelling unless the individual is accompanied by another individual over 18 years of age,” it states.

A child who breaks the proposed law “is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for not more than 90 days or a fine of not more than $500.00, or both.”

“Please get your kids outside this summer to make some epic memories before the leftists who have never engaged in such fun ban it,” state Rep. Angela Rigas (R) said in response.

“Allowing kids to use BB guns unsupervised can have life-threatening consequences,” Rogers claimed. “All too often, these guns are treated as toys, without regard to the dangers they pose. As with all types of guns, adult supervision for children to ensure they are following safety precautions is necessary for everyone’s well-being.”

During Rogers’s first term in office (2021), Kalamazoo was one of the most dangerous cities in the state.

Keep reading

Former police oversight commissioner’s death investigated as homicide after she’s found dead in her Michigan home

Foul play is suspected after a former police oversight commissioner was found dead in her Ann Arbor, Michigan, home by officers conducting a welfare check, the department said Thursday.

The death of Jude Walton, 51, is being investigated as a homicide. A police spokesman said there was evidence of forced entry to the home’s backdoor and “obvious signs of trauma on her body.”

No arrests have been made. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday to determine the cause of death, spokesman Chris Page said.

Police were called to the home on Chapin Street around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday after her employer said she had not shown up for work. She was last seen by a neighbor around 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Page said.

“Once officers arrived and entered the home, they discovered the body of a 51-year-old Ann Arbor woman,” a police news release states.

Keep reading

Michigan Republican admits to taking bribes while overseeing state medical cannabis board

A former Michigan House speaker was indicted along with two lobbyists and a medical marijuana business owner as part of a bribery scheme.

Rick Johnson, the Republican former House speaker and chairman of the state medical marijuana licensing board from 2017 to 2019, was charged with accepting bribes, while registered lobbyists Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown were charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and John Dalaly, who had sought a business license, was charged with payment of bribes, reported the Detroit Free Press.

“Unfortunately, a small percentage (of public officials) abuse the public trust,” said James Tarasca, special agent in charge of the FBI in Michigan. “Public corruption is a top criminal priority for the FBI. Public corruption erodes confidence and undermines the strength of our democracy.”

James Totten, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, said a five-year investigation determined that Johnson was the “heart” of the bribery scheme that involved more than $100,000 in cash payments from companies and lobbyists seeking licenses from the board he led.

Keep reading

Whitmer Concedes Her COVID Rules Didn’t Make Sense

Nowhere did the COVID hysteria blight the land as remorselessly as it did in Gretchen Whitmer’s Michigan, and now that the Left’s lockdown narrative has thoroughly unraveled, the embattled governor will need a new fake FBI kidnapping plot to divert attention from how she drove her once-thriving state into a ditch and revealed a disturbing taste for authoritarianism. Now, Whitmer is backpedaling furiously, even admitting on CNN Sunday night that many of her COVID measures “in retrospect, don’t make a lot of sense.” Uh, yeah. We could have told you that several years ago, Governor, but you would have dismissed us as purveyors of “disinformation.”

Even in the midst of making this concession, however, Whitmer tried to cover her tracks and justify her COVID measures. Michigan Capitol Confidential ( “Michigan’s Watchdog,” a publication of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy) noted Tuesday that during her conversation with Chris Wallace, Whitmer “misrepresented her COVID-19 record and used a false talking point to question Florida’s COVID data.” Wallace asked her what she would do differently if the COVID insanity began today. He pressed the governor — who forced people to remain in their homes, forcibly closed businesses and schools, and even prohibited people from buying seeds for their gardens and toys for their children — for specifics on how she might handle the same situation now.

Keep reading

Michigan may soon enact red flag laws. Implementation could make all the difference.

After a mass shooting on Michigan State University’s campus that left three students dead and another five wounded, Democratic lawmakers set their sights on altering gun ownership practices in Michigan.

The bills, introduced days after the shooting, fall into three categories: Requiring universal background checks for the sale of all firearms; establishing penalties for failing to safely store a gun when around a minor under the age of 18; and creating a process to implement extreme risk protection orders – otherwise known as red flag laws – in the state of Michigan.

These specific laws are frequently touted from anti-gun violence groups as being the start of true reform in curbing firearm-related deaths. But opponents of the bills say that the better solution comes from focusing on mental health supports instead of penalizing all gun owners for the actions of a specific few.

Legislative Republicans have pointed toward work done by the Bipartisan School Safety Task force as being a better solution to curbing firearm violence, especially in Michigan schools. The package, born in the wake of a 2021 shooting at Oxford High School which left four students dead, deals primarily with K-12 school safety while installing more security and mental health coordinators.

But to researchers like Shannon Frattaroli, a professor and course faculty member with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions, it’s not a question of which is better – mental health or gun safety supports – but how best to combine the two with preventing community violence.

“Implementation is really a key component to gun policy and the potential to realize an effect,” she said. “It’s critically important to focus on guns … but there’s also a lot of progress to be made on some sort of community violence prevention interventions, thinking about how it is that we can really start to address the root causes of violence.”

That’s especially true of implementing red flag laws, Frattaroli added. As of 2022, 19 states including Florida, Maryland, Colorado, Illinois and Oregon – as well as Washington D.C. – possess a form of risk-based gun removal laws.

Keep reading

Michigan Middle School Threatens to Sue After Official Releases Photos of Grade School Children Pole Dancing at Club During School Outing

Michigan grade schoolers enjoy the local adult club’s pole dancing facility in recent class outing.

Michigan School District Superintendent Robert Shaner threatened to sue a local official for releasing a photo of grade schoolers pole dancing at a local night club during a recent school outing.

The school says the kids were having lunch at the club when the dancing took place.

FOX News reported:

A trip from a Michigan school district brought students to a restaurant with an attached lounge that included stripper poles, according to a trustee on the school board, who called the incident an example of “poor judgment.”

Keep reading

Missing Michigan physician found dead in frozen pond

A Michigan physician who went missing last week was found dead in a frozen pond near his home Tuesday afternoon.

Divers pulled the body of Bolek Payan from the icy pond in Jackson County around 12:30 p.m. after investigators on Monday retrieved security footage from the doctor’s home showing him leave the residence on foot Thursday afternoon, the Blackman-Leoni Township Department of Public Safety said.

Police dogs, drones and officers searched the woods around Payan’s home before authorities cut holes in the ice covering the pond, the public safety department said.

“Detectives believe Dr. Payan would have been deceased, prior to when he was reported missing, due to the weather conditions on the day that he left his residence and the fact that he was in the water,” the department said.

Keep reading

Michigan Judge In Hot Water After Allegedly Making False Assault Claim

A Michigan judge is in hot water after her alleged misconduct in a bike shop.

The Judicial Tenure Commission filed a public complaint against Wayne County Judge Demetria Brue after an incident that began when she rented bikes at Mackinac Island Bike Shop in August 2019, The Detroit Free Press reported.

When Brue and her colleague returned the bicycles, she told employees there was an issue with the bike and they should not have to pay full price, the complaint states. Brue also spoke to the owner of the shop, but they were unable to come to an agreement. Brue told the owner, Ira Green, multiple times that she was a judge, the complaint states.

Brue did not respond to a request for comment.

At some point during the 20-minute discussion, Brue allegedly reached over the cash register, took the receipt out of Green’s hands, and ripped it.

After ripping the receipt, she then allegedly falsely claimed that the store owner assaulted her and appeared to play every card she had.

“You assaulted me,” she said. “Did you just assault me? You took my receipt and tore it up. I want the police. Now we need the police. I am going to call them. You snatched my receipt and threw it away and grabbed my hand and you hurt me. You touched my hand with force and violence. I am a female. I am a judge. I am here for a conference and you … I am an African American female. That was racist, and it was disrespectful and it was violent.”

When police arrived she claimed to them that she was assaulted until the officers reviewed the security footage.

She admitted that she was not assaulted and the officers assisted in reaching an agreement where the judge did not have to pay for the bike rental.

She has been accused of breaking 10 rules, including making a false statement to a police officer.

Keep reading

Michigan Department Of Education Provided Educators With Materials On How To Create A ‘Gay Straight Alliance’ Club

The Michigan Department of Education (MDOE) promoted resources for educators on how to start a “Gay Straight Alliance” (GSA) club in their schools, according to training materials.

The MDOE’s LGBTQ Students Project includes trainings and resources for LGBTQ students as well as educators on getting a GSA club “up and running,” according to the materials. For starting a GSA club, the department promoted a GSA resource list and brainstorming activity for educators to teach them how to advertise the club and insure student confidentiality.

An activity titled “what are some best practices to help your GSA be successful?” encourages educators to find a “safe space” for a club by reaching out to a school counselor or band director. To advertise the club, the activity suggests school announcements and putting the information in school newsletters.

Keep reading