Michigan’s United Methodist Church gets ready to discuss same-sex marriage at a meeting in Traverse City. The state attorney general awards millions of dollars in wrongful-conviction claims. A Grand Rapids-area congressman’s stance on President Trump’s impeachability is unusual for a Republican. Storms produced heavy rain, hail and a tornado in Michigan on Sunday. Thousands of Michigan students might fail the third grade under a new law. A dam will come out of a park in Kalamazoo. Many of Michigan’s bridges are falling apart. A Detroit developer aims to get no-fault insurance on the ballot in 2020. A very lost dog is about to go home.
(Interlochen Public Radio) Leaders of the United Methodist Church in Michigan will discuss their stance on gay marriage in two weeks. The discussion could result in a split in the church. In February the General Conference affirmed a view of marriage as only between a man and a woman. And now the Michigan Conference will also debate the issue. Mark Doyal is the Director of Communications for the Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church.
He says some churches have expressed the desire to leave the denomination, depending on how the issue is discussed.
“The decisions in February were very painful to the LGBTQ community. And I think everyone is at point where they’re looking for some kind of clarity for where the church is going to stand so they can make their own decisions,” he said.
Doyal says the event will likely sever the orthodox and progressive sides of the church in Michigan.
(Michigan Radio) Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has awarded more than $2.3 million dollars to three wrongfully convicted men. Richard Phillips alone is set to get more than $1.5 million. Phillips served more than 45 years for a murder he did not commit. David Moran is with the University of Michigan’s Innocence Clinic. He led the team that got Phillips exonerated. He says Nessel’s move signals a welcome change from former Attorney General Bill Schuette. Moran says Schuette’s office fought most wrongful conviction compensation claims “tooth and nail.”
“I’m hopeful that a new attitude has permeated the attorney general’s office, and that they will try and do justice in these cases. And most importantly, try and do justice quickly,” he said.
But the state legislature needs to replenish the state’s wrongful conviction fund before the three men can get paid.
(The Detroit News) A Grand Rapids-area Republican Congressman has called Donald Trump’s conduct during the Russia investigation “impeachable.” Over the weekend, US Representative Justin Amash said it’s clear in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report that Trump obstructed justice as Mueller investigated the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia in the 2016 election. Amash says the evidence presented in Mueller’s report is strong enough to get anyone besides the president indicted. The Detroit News reports that Trump called Amash a “lightweight” and a “loser” on Twitter after his comments.
(The Detroit News) Severe weather produced at least one tornado in Michigan yesterday. The Detroit News reports that an EF-0 tornado touched down in Barry County for a few minutes around 6:25 Sunday evening. No one’s been reported hurt but 80-mile winds in the tornado damaged barns near Dowling and Maple Grove. The storms led to heavy rain on the east side of the state, as well as quarter-inch hail in Berrien Springs and 64-mile-an-hour winds in South Haven.
(Bridge Magazine) Thousands of Michigan third-graders might have to stay in the third grade at the end of the next school year. That’s under the so-called “read or flunk” law that takes effect this fall. Bridge Magazine reports that under the law, third-graders will have to read at a second-grade level or higher to go on to fourth grade. About five percent of Michigan third-graders would have failed if the law were in effect last school year. That’s more than six times the number that were actually held back.
(Kalamazoo Gazette) Fish and other wildlife are getting a boost at a park in Kalamazoo. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says it’s giving about $350,000 to the City of Kalamazoo to remove a dam on Portage Creek where it passes through Milham Park. The Kalamazoo Gazette reports the dam built close to 100 years ago, with a pedestrian bridge nearby is an attraction for visitors. But the DNR says removing it will make the creek a better place for fish and for fishing.
(Detroit Free Press) Michigan’s bridges are in bad shape and they’re rapidly getting worse. That’s the finding from the Detroit Free Press, which reports that last year, more than 1 in 10 bridges in the state was in poor or beyond-poor condition. Without a fix, that number is likely to rise to 15 percent with a decade. Transportation officials have put weight restrictions on hundreds of bridges to try to prolong their life. Michigan’s transportation budget did rise under former Governor Rick Snyder. But the Free Press reports that at the current rate of spending, it would take almost a hundred years to get the state’s bridges back into good shape. Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s plan for fixing the roads involves a 45-cent increase to the gas tax, a plan the Republican-led legislature has indicated it won’t support. But Whitmer says she won’t approve a budget that doesn’t come with road funding.
(The Detroit News) Michigan voters could decide the future of the state’s no-fault insurance program in 2020 if a Detroit developer gets his way. The Detroit News reports that Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert plans to gather signatures for a ballot issue on car insurance. Gilbert’s proposal would likely resemble recent bills from Republican lawmakers. They would let drivers pay less for insurance if they opt for less medical coverage in the event of an accident. Governor Gretchen Whitmer has said she’ll veto any bills with a full opt-out. But if Gilbert’s proposal gets enough signatures, lawmakers could pass it without the governor’s approval.
(WCMU) A dog lost 2000 miles from home and found in mid-Michigan is getting ready to see his family again - in California. Benny is a two and a half year old black lab pitbull mix, his caretakers say he’s a real goofball. A goofball, who somehow wandered over two thousand miles from California to Michigan. Jo Bollman is the office manager at the Bay City animal shelter, she’s helped to take care of Benny. She says he was brought in about a month ago.
“We had the police bring Benny in, he was found running loose, my kennel attendant brought him up, and we scanned him for a microchip, and sure enough Mr. Benny had a chip!”
Bollman says this wasn’t a straightforward case. She found out Benny’s original owners were in Kentucky, but those owners had given him to another family. That the family had moved from Kentucky to Tennessee, then to California, all in about two years. Shortly after the family got to California, Benny decided to hit the road.
“And Benny ended up in Michigan, do not ask me how Benny got here.”
It’s not clear whether Benny wanted to come to Michigan or if he was trying to return to Kentucky and has a bad sense of direction. Next week he gets a long-awaited welcome home when he flies back to California.
