Michigan News

A federal judge in Detroit has ordered the government to provide immigration files to Iraqis being detained while they fight deportation. The detainees have been held for months in facilities all across the country while they wait on records needed to go to immigration court.

Miriam Aukerman is an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. She says hundreds of detainees were being held with no end in sight while the federal government slow-walked their records.

“People are literally in jail because there’s a line at the photocopier,” she said.

The Trump administration recently announced new guidance for how college campuses should handle sexual assault complaints. But Michigan universities won’t be changing their policies right away.

The Trump administration rescinded the Obama-era guidance on campus sexual assault last week.

The new guidance isn’t mandatory, and officials say it’s temporary until they come up with new rules.

Daniel Hurley is the CEO of the Michigan Association of State Universities. He said Michigan campuses will keep their current policies for now.

The state is going to allow all-in-one medical marijuana facilities. The state’s licensing department today said it plans to let one person grow, process and sell marijuana – and do it all in one facility.

Andrew Brisbo is Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Bureau director. He says the plan isn’t set in stone yet. But Brisbo says the bureau wants to make sure people are aware of the intent.

Attorneys spent hours Thursday battling over what the state’s chief health official knew about a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak, and when. 

Between 2014 and 2015, a dozen people died and dozens more were hospitalized for the respiratory illness.  

In January 2015, state health department officials started circulating an email raising concerns about a rising number of Legionnaires' cases in Genesee County. But it was another year before state officials publicly announced the outbreak.

Ten undocumented immigrants were rounded up Tuesday in what immigrant advocates say is the first major farm labor camp raid in Michigan since President Trump took office.

The ten workers were arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcment officials Tuesday night at their labor camp near Hart, roughly 40 miles north of Muskegon.

The nine male farm workers are currently in ICE custody in Youngstown, Ohio. The lone female farm worker arrested in is Calhoun County, Michigan. It's unclear whether the workers will be deported.

Just like last year, racist messages have been found scrawled on campus at the University of Michigan.

And just like last year, angry students confronted UM President Mark Schlissel at a meeting in the Michigan Union, with a frustrated Schlissel assuring them he was on their side, and everything possible was being done to find the perpetrators.

Police are "looking at video, they're interviewing people," he said.

But so far, just like last year, no one's been caught spreading the hate.  Schlissel asked the students for ideas on how to do more and how to actually prevent the incidents, as many of the students are demanding.

Some students, like senior Stephen Wallace, think video cameras should be installed in the residence halls and other places on campus to catch the perpetrators.

Tomorrow, a judge will begin hearing the prosecution’s case against State Health Department Director Nick Lyon.  

It’s the first preliminary exam in the ongoing criminal investigation of the Flint water crisis.

Nick Lyon is charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with a deadly Legionnaires' Disease outbreak in Genesee County in 2014 and 2015. The outbreak killed at least 12 people.

The ACLU is challenging Michigan’s policy of allowing faith-based adoption agencies that accept public funds to turn away same-sex couples.

The lawsuit says the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is violating its own contracts with those agencies, which prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. It also says the department’s policy violates First Amendment and equal protection rights in the U.S. constitution.

Kristy Dumont and her wife say they were turned away by two Catholic adoption agencies when they tried to adopt.

The Michigan Civil Service Commission voted to limit the collective bargaining powers of 35,000 state employees Wednesday.

It got rid of an individual union's ability to bargain for things like seniority, overtime pay, and scheduling.

Voters might have the chance to decide a pair of workers’ rights questions next year.

A petition campaign to require businesses to offer employees paid sick and family leave has launched its signature-gathering drive. On the same day, a state elections board approved the form of a campaign to increase the state minimum wage to $12 an hour, which plans to start gathering names next month.

The minimum wage campaign would also require employers pay the $12 an hour even to workers who count tips as part of their earnings.

Republicans in Lansing worked at a breakneck speed Tuesday to pass legislation that would allow politicians in Michigan to solicit campaign contributions on behalf of political action committees.

An unlikely alliance has formed to overhaul Michigan’s auto no-fault system. Speaker of the House Tom Leonard, R-DeWitt, and Detroit’s mayor Mike Duggan met Tuesday.

Michigan’s gubernatorial election is still 14 months away, but the field of candidates is growing quickly.

A whopping 20 people have filed with the Secretary of State so far: six Republicans, seven Democrats and seven third-party candidates. And that number is expected to grow before the April 2018 filing deadline.

Several Democratic state representatives are planning to introduce legislation Tuesday that would require Michigan schools to be more energy efficient, and develop standards for air and water testing.

The seven-bill package is aimed at improving the health and wellness of students and teachers in schools across the state. Dubbed the “ABC Education Plan," state Rep. Stephanie Chang, D-Detroit, says the requirements outlined in the bills would also improve student achievement.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a public meeting in Muskegon last night on its $275.4 million plan to keep invasive fish species out of the Great Lakes.

A recent study found that electric barriers and complex noises, like the sound of boat motors, are the most effective ways to keep certain fish away. So the plan to keep Asian carp out of Lake Michigan includes both.