Michigan

Re-Lighting The Night After The City Repossessed Their Streetlights

July 8, 2021 Tia Graham, Next City. Create! Infrastructure, Internet, Michigan, Solar

The City of Highland Park, a predominantly Black city surrounded by Detroit, Michigan, has had most of its residential streets in the dark for the last 10 years. In 2011, the city owed $4 million to utility company DTE Energy. An agreement was made between DTE and city officials to remove roughly 1,200 streetlights to settle the debt. Reports suggest the repossessed lights were sold for scrap. Since then, Highland Park remained in the dark figuratively and literally. Residents had no clue what happened. “And it was just really a sad day actually seeing the poles, the trucks came to take the poles out, and it just left these stumps,” says Shamayin Harris, a lifelong Highland Park resident. “So they’re basically all around our city right now. It just looks like a graveyard of cement stubs where lights used to be on the residential street.

Michigan Marches Unite Palestine Solidarity And BLM

May 25, 2021 Tristan Taylor, Left Voice. Strategize! Black Lives Matter (BLM), Israel, Michigan, Palestine

On Tuesday, May 18, roughly 200 people gathered to march in front of the Ford Motor Company plant in Dearborn, Michigan where Joe Biden was speaking. Dearborn is home to the largest Arab American and Palestinian populations in the United States. Speaker Jae Bass, a Black Detroiter and a leader of Detroit Will Breathe (DWB) --- a militant, politically independent organization created last year in the midst of the uprising against police brutality --- connected the experiences of the daily fight against police brutality here with the brutality of the Israeli military in Palestine. Noting that both struggles are linked, he asked those present to continue fighting to free Palestine and make sure Black and Brown lives matter in Detroit.

Judge’s Ruling Deprives Community Of Their Voice In Water Decisions

January 23, 2021 Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation, Popular Resistance. Resist! Legal System, Michigan, Nestle, Water

Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) has filed a Petition for Judicial Review of the Final Decision and Order issued by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) and its Director Liesl Clark in which the Department illegally dismissed a Contested Case challenging the highly controversial permit granted to Nestle Waters North America in 2018. The petition for review was filed in the Circuit Court for Ingham County, and in it, MCWC requests that the Court reverse Director Clark’s inaccurate determination that her Department didn’t actually have legal authority to hold a contested case related to the Nestle permit.

Former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Charged In Flint Water Crisis

January 14, 2021 Doha Madani and Erin Einhorn, NBC News. Educate! Accountability, Flint Water Crisis, Legal System, Michigan

Former Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who ran the state at the time of the devastating 2014 Flint water scandal, has been charged in the crisis that led to the Legionnaires' disease outbreak that killed 12 people. Snyder pleaded not guilty Thursday morning to two counts of willful neglect of duty, before a judge set bond at $10,000. The former governor was ordered to not leave the state ahead of his next date on Tuesday. He faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. "We believe there is no evidence to support any criminal charges against Governor Snyder," defense attorney Brian Lennon told The Associated Press on Wednesday night, adding that state prosecutors hadn't provided him with any details.

FBI Raids Neo-Nazi Camp In Michigan

November 1, 2020 Eric London, WSWS. Educate! FBI, Michigan, right wing militia, Violence

On Thursday, with five days remaining before the US election, the FBI conducted two additional raids in Michigan and arrested Justen Watkins and Alfred Gorman, leaders of a neo-Nazi group called The Base. Watkins was arrested when agents raided a farm in the town of Bad Axe, in the Michigan “thumb,” which members of The Base used as a training grounds and “hate camp.” Gorman was arrested in the Detroit suburb of Taylor. The two neo-Nazis, aged 25 and 35 respectively, are charged with threatening to murder a left-wing blogger in late 2019, though the timing of the raids indicates the FBI believed The Base’s training camp was related to preparations for election violence.

COVID19 Rips Through Michigan K-12 Schools

October 29, 2020 Zac Corrigan, WSWS. Educate! COVID-19, Michigan, Pandemic, School reopening

The spread of COVID-19 through Michigan’s K-12 schools is rapidly accelerating, with the number of new outbreaks rising for the third week in a row, according to data released by the state yesterday. Last week, there were 29 separate outbreaks affecting 107 students, teachers and school workers, making it the most infectious week in Michigan since the school year began. The 29 new outbreaks last week are in addition to 70 other “ongoing” outbreaks, defined as outbreaks that have been reported more than a week ago, but which have at least one new associated case in the last 28 days.

Anti-Racist Activists Brutally Arrested In Michigan

October 26, 2020 Left Voice. Educate! Arrests, Michigan, Police violence, Rebellion2020

On Saturday, an anti-racist demonstration in Shelby Township, Michigan was brutally repressed by the police. According to a video posted online several dozen police turned out in full riot gear and riot shields and beat and assaulted protesters before arresting several of them. Many of those arrested were thrown to the ground and there are reports that officers reportedly kneeled on their necks while they were being restrained. One woman, a photographer, was stripped down to her underwear in the middle of the street before being searched and arrested.

University Of Michigan Asks Court To Halt Graduate Student Strike

September 15, 2020 Leah Graham, Barbara Collins, Emma Stein and Liat Weinsten, Michigan Daily. Resist! COVID-19, Graduate School, Higher Education, Michigan, Worker Rights

A day after the Graduate Employees’ Organization voted to extend its strike, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel is seeking an injunction to get graduate students off the picket lines and back to teaching. Schlissel is asking Washtenaw County Circuit Court to require GEO members to return to work by issuing a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. In a video released Monday afternoon, he described the request as a necessary step. “Following the announcement that GEO will continue to strike and not teach for at least five more days, I made the very difficult decision to seek help from the courts so we can resume all of our remote and in-person classes,” Schlissel said in the video.

600 Million Dollar Settlement In Flint Water Case

August 21, 2020 Amanda Mills, Nation of Change. Resist! Flint, Lead Poisoning, Legal System, Michigan, Water

The state of Michigan has reached a settlement agreeing to pay $600 million to the victims of the Flint water crisis. Most of this money will be allocated to children in the city who were exposed to lead-contaminated water in their household pipes. The details of this settlement will be officially announced on Friday, but according to EcoWatch, it is expected that tens of thousands of residents will be eligible for compensation, which is subject to approval by a federal judge in Michigan. The settlement will be one of the largest in the state’s history, reports The Detroit News.

Detroit Students Sued For Literacy And Won

May 22, 2020 By N. Jamiyla Chiscolm, Color Lines. Create! Detroit, Education, Michigan, Racism

The hard-fought, four-year Gary B. literacy case, in which seven Black students in Detroit sued the state of Michigan in 2016 to improve the school system and literacy access, was settled on May 14 in favor of the students, Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s office announced. In the complaint, students shared a laundry list of educational and literacy issues in the public schools, such as predominantly having books with pictures instead of words in primary school when students are first taught to read. The landmark settlement means that $94.4 million will support literacy-related programs and initiatives throughout the Detroit Public School Community District (DPSCD), for which Whitmer will propose legislation during her first term and the seven students will share a $280,000 payout.

Michiganians Demand Earned Credits For Prisoners At Criminal Justice Reform Town Hall

January 4, 2020 Amani Sawari, Sawarimi.org Resist! Criminal Justice, Michigan, Reform

Like many states across the country, Michigan has reached a critical point in the status of its Corrections Department and citizens are fed up. The Department’s failures expand across the spectrum of corrections from financially and operatively to their regularly inadequate programming and continually degrading prison conditions. These mounting issues incite the need for deep reforms along with increasingly long average sentence lengths, from 2-4yrs, contributing to massive overcrowding.

A Growing Citizens’ Coalition Brings Environmental Justice Fight To Urban Michigan

April 27, 2019 By Simon Albaugh, Occupy.com Resist! Class Struggle, Environment, Michigan

Hundreds of worried people filled the gym of an elementary school bordering Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan. The ones already in their seats were the first to sign their names for the chance to speak. But the sign-up line near the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality table was still growing. It was stretching closer and closer to the door. At the front of the room, an official took the microphone to apologize. Technical issues meant information couldn’t be provided and they would have to re-work the schedule. “That’s not good enough!” someone yelled from the back of the crowd.

A Michigan College-Bound Student Was Among The 35 Beheaded By Saudi Arabia

April 26, 2019 Tyler Huckabee, Relevantmagazine.com Educate! Higher Education, Michigan, Saudi Arabia, State Violence, Students

Mujtaba al-Sweikat was only 17 years old when he was detained by the Saudi Arabian government in 2012 for the alleged crime of attending a pro-democracy rally. He’d been planning on leaving the country to attend Western Michigan University, where he’d been accepted as a student, and was in fact detained at the airport as he was preparing to board an international flight to the United States. But al-Sweikat was convicted based on a confession extracted via torture and beheaded on Tuesday along with more than 35 other men who were executed for various crimes — most having to do with pro-democracy demonstrations and denouncing the authoritarian regime, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

University Of Michigan Faces Criticism After Reprimanding Pro-BDS Professor

October 26, 2018 Staff, Telesurtv.net Resist! BDS, Higher Education, Michigan, Solidarity

The University of Michigan has faced an eruption of protests in recent days after reprimanding a professor, who refused to write a recommendation letter for a student wanting to study in Israel. The professor had cited the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction (BDS) movement for the refusal. John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor of American culture, had been reprimanded by the university for refusing to write the letter of recommendation earlier this month. Since then, he has received support and messages of solidarity from students of the university, according to Middle East Eye. Students hand-delivered a letter to the office of Mark Schlissel, the president of the university, condemning the institution for its action against the professor.

Top Ranking Michigan Official Ordered To Go To Trial Over Flint Water Crisis

August 24, 2018 By Ashley Curtin, Nationofchange.org Educate! Flint, Michigan, Water

Nick Lyon will stand trial for involuntary manslaughter after a Legionnaires' disease outbreak reportedly killed 12 and sickened close to 90 people in 2014 and 2015. An investigation into the Flint, Michigan water crisis pins the state’s Department of Health and Human Services director, Nick Lyon, for involuntary manslaughter after a Legionnaires’ disease outbreak reportedly killed 12 and sickened close to 90 people in 2014 and 2015. Judge David Goggins ordered Lyon stand trial for the deaths of two of the 12 victims. He is also being charged with misconduct in office. The investigation is ongoing and looks at what happened when the Flint River was used for drinking water in Flint for 18 months in 2014 and 2015. According to the Associated Press, the water was corrosive from leached lead from pipes, which ended up in the water supply and was never treated.

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