Michigan Advance

16/12/2025

WASHINGTON — School cafeterias got a step closer to seeing whole milk again after the U.S. House passed a measure Monday to restore the dairy staple to school lunches. The bill unanimously passed the Senate back in November, and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk.

The bipartisan effort — which passed the House by voice vote — came after whole milk was barred from school meal programs for more than a decade amid a broader push to curb childhood obesity.

Under the bill, schools that participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program would be allowed to offer “flavored and unflavored organic or nonorganic whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free fluid milk and lactose free fluid milk” as well as “nondairy beverages that are nutritionally equivalent to fluid milk and meet the nutritional standards established by the Secretary.”

WASHINGTON — School cafeterias got a step closer to seeing whole milk again after the U.S. House passed a measure Monday to restore the dairy staple to school lunches. The bill unanimously passed the Senate back in November, and now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk. The bipartisan effort ....

15/12/2025

Republicans could gain nearly 200 state legislative seats across the South if the U.S. Supreme Court guts a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Act, a new analysis finds.

The bulk of the gains would be concentrated in 10 GOP-controlled state legislatures in Southern states, according to the analysis, produced by Fair Fight Action, a Georgia-based progressive voting rights group, in partnership with Black Voters Matter Fund, which advocates on behalf of Black voters.

The analysis, featured in a report released by the groups on Monday, underscores the alarm among progressives over the potential consequences of the Supreme Court’s looming decision in a case known as Louisiana v. Callais. While the case centers on the constitutionality of Louisiana’s congressional map, the effects of the decision could extend into statehouses across the country.

From Stateline

Republicans could gain nearly 200 state legislative seats across the South if the U.S. Supreme Court guts a key provision of the federal Voting Rights Acts, a new analysis finds.

15/12/2025

President Donald Trump said Monday his administration is looking “very strongly” at reclassifying cannabis from the strictest category of controlled substances, confirming he is considering a reclassification of ma*****na to unlock research funding.

“A lot of people want to see it — the reclassification — because it leads to tremendous amounts of research that can’t be done unless you reclassify,” Trump said. “So we are looking at that very strongly.”

Ma*****na is considered a Schedule I drug under the Food and Drug Administration’s classification of controlled substances. The FDA defines drugs on the list, such as he**in and co***ne, as lacking any medicinal value and carrying a high likelihood of abuse.

President Donald Trump’s administration is looking “very strongly” at reclassifying cannabis from the strictest category of controlled substances, Trump said Monday. In a brief affirmative response to a reporter’s question in the Oval Office, the president confirmed he is considering a recla...

15/12/2025

Immigration arrests under the Trump administration continued to increase through mid-October, reaching rates of more than 30,000 a month. But, rather than the convicted criminals the administration has said it’s focused on, an ever-larger share of those arrests were for solely immigration violations.

In 45 states, immigration arrests more than doubled compared with the same period last year, during the Biden administration. The largest increases: There were 1,190 arrests in the District of Columbia compared with just seven last year under the Biden administration. Arrests were also more than five times higher in New Mexico, Idaho, Oregon and Virginia.

“The result stands in contrast to the administration’s objective of arresting the ‘worst of the worst,’” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a senior policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. Heightened enforcement is likely increasing “collateral” arrests of people found during searches for convicted criminals, he said.

From Stateline

Immigration arrests under the Trump administration continued to increase through mid-October, reaching rates of more than 30,000 a month. But, rather than the convicted criminals the administration has said it's focused on, an ever-larger share of those arrests were for solely immigration violations...

15/12/2025

On Monday, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer gave the keynote address at the Michigan Literacy Summit held at the Detroit Science Center.

15/12/2025

Carrying forward an effort that began in 2018, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Monday released the latest report in a series detailing her office’s investigations into the seven dioceses of Michigan’s Catholic Church.

The latest report centers on the Grand Rapids Diocese, and examines allegations of sexual misconduct against children or adults brought after Jan. 1, 1950.

Of the 51 priests in the report, 38 were incardinated by the Diocese of Grand Rapids. Thirty seven of the priests in the report are known and presumed to be dead, while the other 14 who are living are not in active ministry within the Grand Rapids Diocese.

https://michiganadvance.com/2025/12/15/nessel-releases-report-investigating-sexual-misconduct-by-clergy-in-the-grand-rapids-diocese/

15/12/2025

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-Holland Township) has brought clarity to a question that has lingered for several months, announcing Monday that he will indeed seek reelection to his 4th Congressional District seat.

Huizenga had been mentioned as a possible contender for the GOP nomination in the 2026 U.S. Senate race, after incumbent Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) announced his retirement. And while Huizenga ended that speculation in July, essentially ceding the nomination to former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-White Lake), until Monday his future intentions remained speculative.

State Sen. Sean McCann (D-Kalamazoo) is the leading contender for the Democratic nomination, having recently secured the endorsement of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Also in the running is Kalamazoo attorney Jessica Swartz, IT and cybersecurity professional Richard Aaron and former Congressional staffer Diop Harris.

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga has brought clarity to a question that has lingered for several months, announcing Monday that he will indeed seek reelection to his 4th Congressional District seat. In a social media post, the incumbent Republican from Holland Township said he planned to seek another term, n...

15/12/2025

State lawmakers of both parties said they plan to keep passing laws regulating artificial intelligence despite President Donald Trump’s signing of an executive order Thursday evening that aims to override state artificial intelligence laws.

He said his administration must work with Congress to develop a national AI policy, but that in the meantime, it will crack down on state laws.

The order comes after several other Trump administration efforts to rein in state AI laws and loosen restrictions for developers and technology companies.

State lawmakers of both parties say they plan to keep passing laws regulating artificial intelligence despite President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop them.

15/12/2025

As President Donald Trump takes steps to establish cryptocurrency as a mainstream part of the nation’s financial system, Michigan House Republicans are following suit, forging ahead on policies to incorporate the digital currency into the state’s economy.

Members of the committee voted along party lines last week to refer Rep. Bill G. Schuette’s House Bill 4510 to the House floor for further consideration. State Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Okemos) represented the Democrats’ sole no vote as her three colleagues on the panel opted instead to pass on voting.

The bill would allow administrators of the state’s public employee retirement system to invest up to 5% of those funds into cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $250 billion.

As President Donald Trump takes steps to establish cryptocurrency as a mainstream part of the nation’s financial system, Michigan House Republicans are following suit, forging ahead on policies to incorporate the digital currency into the state’s economy. Members of the committee voted along par...

15/12/2025

When gunfire rips through some Detroit neighborhoods, ShotSpotter hears it first — but where exactly that signal comes from is a secret kept even from police.

Critics of Detroit’s gunshot detection system have pointed to a lack of transparency as a concern since the city first signed a $1.5 million contract for the audio surveillance program in 2020.

Many of those concerns have centered on transparency to the public — but some parts of the program are not even transparent to the Detroit Police Department, as officials admit they don’t know where the sensors for ShotSpotter are located.

Regardless, Deputy Chief Mark Bliss insists that fact does not impact the department’s oversight of the program.

But some aren’t convinced by Bliss’s argument, saying that without knowing where the sensors are, it’s hard to know how well the city knows what’s going on within its own program.

When gunfire rips through some Detroit neighborhoods, ShotSpotter hears it first — but where exactly that signal comes from is a secret kept even from police. Critics of Detroit’s gunshot detection system have pointed to a lack of transparency as a concern since the city first signed a $1.5 mill...

15/12/2025

What if Detroit was asked to revive tiny cars & ‘70s station wagons?

Well it was and in this commentary by Rick Haglund for Michigan Advance, he dives into the Trump admin’s fuel-economy rollback & what it could mean for automakers, EVs, prices and the future of driving.

Now that his boss has proposed rolling back stringent, Biden-era fuel economy targets, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy says Detroit automakers should reintroduce cars they built half a century ago. “This rule will actually allow you to bring back the 1970s station wagon—maybe a little woo...

14/12/2025

Arrests in the United States have fallen to levels not seen in decades, according to a new report that reconstructs national arrest trends in the absence of federal data.

The Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank, on Thursday released the first comprehensive national analysis of arrests since federal authorities stopped publishing detailed arrest statistics in 2020.

Arrests plunged during the first year of the pandemic and have remained low, according to the analysis. The national arrest rate in 2024 was 30% below the 2019 level and 71% lower than the peak in 1994.

From Stateline

Arrests in the United States have fallen to levels not seen in decades, according to a new report that reconstructs national arrest trends in the absence of federal data.