Michigan News

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A liberal group has filed a third challenge to portions of Michigan’s election laws, contesting rules governing how people can register to vote in the two weeks before an election.

The suit brought Friday is related to a 2018 ballot initiative that expanded voting options.

Priorities USA says the Republican-led Legislature last year imposed “onerous restrictions” on those registering in person and was wrong to not let voters register at polling places on Election Day.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s attorney general plans a crackdown on illegal robocalls.

Dana Nessel on Friday announced a dozen initiatives aimed at putting a halt to the calls, many of which she says are scams.

Her office plans to educate residents so they can protect themselves, step up enforcement, work with the Legislature to update state laws and be a model that other states can follow. Nessel is urging people to hang up if they get an illegal robocall and to report it to her office.

ST. JOSEPH, Mich. (AP) — Health officials in a southwestern Michigan county say cold weather has ended this year’s mosquito season and with it the threat of a deadly mosquito-borne virus.

Berrien County Health Department spokeswoman Gillian Conrad says recent cold, snowy weather wiped out mosquitoes that were spreading the eastern equine encephalitis virus.

Health officials say there were 10 confirmed human cases of that rare virus this year in southwest Michigan. Five of those people died.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed legislation to prohibit the sale of an over-the-counter cough suppressant to minors unless they have a prescription.

The restriction on dextromethorphan will take effect next July. Dextromethorphan, or DXM, is found in many cough and cold medicines but has been abused by teenagers seeking a hallucinogenic high.

Retailers selling the over-the-counter drug will be required to ask for ID unless a customer appears to be at least 25 years old.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Thousands of hunters will trek into Michigan woods and fields Friday as firearms deer season opens.

The season runs through Nov. 30.

The Department of Natural Resources’ annual forecast says overall deer numbers are low in the Upper Peninsula and buck sightings have been limited.

Buck numbers appear on the upswing in the northern Lower Peninsula. They are abundant in many parts of southern Michigan, where bachelor herds have been spotted.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan drivers who want unlimited lifetime coverage for crash injuries will pay $100 per vehicle starting in July — a reduction from record $220 they are assessed now.

The Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association announced the 55% fee cut Wednesday, months after the passage of a new law making the mandatory benefit optional beginning next summer.

BANGOR, Mich. (AP) — Southwestern Michigan police say a man using heavy machinery to clear snow died after he became trapped beneath part of the machinery.

The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office says the 40-year-old man was using a skid-steer loader to move snow Tuesday morning at a business near Bangor when he became trapped beneath its bucket.

Police say the man was working under the bucket area to clean snow from near machinery pedals when the bucket lowered onto him.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Democratic group is challenging Michigan’s restrictions on transporting voters to the polls and helping people apply for absentee ballots, asking a federal judge to block enforcement of the laws.

The lawsuit was filed late Tuesday. It is the second voting-related suit brought in two weeks by Priorities USA, a super PAC that plans to spend millions of dollars to mobilize and turn out voters in Michigan.

JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A museum at a former southern Michigan prison is closing at the end of December.

Cell Block 7 in Jackson allows visitors to step into the cells and walk the corridors of what was once the largest walled institution in the world. The museum’s website invites people to “spend some time on the inside” during a self-guided tour.

The museum opened five years ago under an agreement between the state of Michigan and the Ella Sharp Museum, also in Jackson. Ella Sharp director Diane Gutenkauf says the costs are too high.

DETROIT (AP) — A double lung transplant recipient who severely damaged those internal organs by vaping has been identified as a Michigan teenager.

Doctors at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit described to reporters Tuesday the procedure that saved the 17-year-old's life and pleaded for the public to understand the dangers of vaping.

The teen was admitted in early September to a Detroit-area hospital with what appeared to be pneumonia. He was eventually taken to Henry Ford Hospital and the transplant was performed Oct. 15.

McDonald's got tough on its former CEO, who was fired last week for having a consensual relationship with an employee.

Now, some workers say, the company needs to get tougher on sexual harassment in its restaurants.

On Tuesday, former McDonald's employee Jenna Ries filed a class-action lawsuit against the company and one of its Michigan franchisees. Ries says she and female colleagues were subjected to repeated physical and verbal harassment.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan Republican legislative leader is drawing criticism from state Democrats for likening abortion to the "scourge" of slavery.

State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey told Hillsdale College's radio station last week that allowing abortion is comparable to "the scourge we endured when we still had slavery in this country."

Democratic state Sen. Erika Geiss says Shirkey's remarks were "incredibly insensitive." Geiss, who is black, said Tuesday it is wrong to compare anything to the "atrocities of slavery" and what it did to black families.

DETROIT (AP) — It was a snowfall for the record books in Detroit and Flint.

The National Weather Service forecast office for Detroit/Pontiac says a record daily maximum snowfall of 8.5 inches at Detroit Metro Airport on Monday broke a record that had stood for nearly 94 years. It was the highest November daily snowfall, topping the previous high mark of 6.2 inches set on Nov. 15, 1925. It also broke the old record for Nov. 11 of 4.1 inches set in 1984.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Hunting wildlife has long been ingrained in Michigan's culture, but it is currently on a decline across the state.

The decline is partly due to more baby boomers aging out. Young adults, urbanites and others are also far less likely to participate in hunting.

Michigan had as many as 1.2 million hunters in the 1970s, '80s and into the '90s. But by 2018, less than 675,000 people had at least one hunting license in the state.