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Tag: Michigan House of Representatives

  • Michigan lawmakers introduce resolutions urging Congress to block arms to Israel and aid Gaza – Detroit Metro Times

    Michigan House Democrats are calling on Congress to halt weapons transfers to Israel and increase humanitarian aid to Gaza, pointing to the increasing civilian death toll and the impact the war has had on Palestinian families in the state.

    Reps. Dylan Wegela of Garden City, Alabas Farhat of Dearborn, and Erin Byrnes of Dearborn on Wednesday introduced House Resolution 223, which urges Michigan’s congressional delegation to stop sending U.S. arms to Israel, restore revoked visas for Palestinians seeking medical travel, and support an emergency surge of humanitarian assistance.

    “For more than two years, the world has watched a livestreamed genocide,” Wegela said. “Even after repeated ceasefire deals, Israel continues their escalation of their campaign to eliminate the Palestinian people. What makes that possible is American-supplied weapons.”

    The resolution was co-sponsored by 10 other Democrats: Emily Dievendorf of Lansing, Mike McFall of Hazel Park, Jimmie Wilson Jr. of Ypsilanti, Donavan McKinney of Detroit, Reggie Miller of Van Buren Township, Laurie Pohutsky of Livonia, Tonya Myers-Phillips of Detroit, Tyrone Carter of Detroit, Betsy Coffia of Traverse City, Carrie Rheingans of Ann Arbor, and Tullio Liberati of Allen Park. 

    The resolution comes after more than two years of Israeli airstrikes, ground operations, and a blockade that international aid groups say has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in decades. More than 69,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since 2023, according to Gaza health officials, and most of the dead are women and children. UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and the United Nations have warned that widespread hunger, medical shortages, and the destruction of hospitals have left the population facing mass starvation. 

    Michigan’s large Arab American population, including the country’s highest concentration of residents with Lebanese and Palestinian heritage, has watched the war with grief and panic as relatives in Gaza and southern Lebanon have been killed or displaced. Dearborn, where Farhat and Byrnes represent major sections of the city, has held regular demonstrations calling for a ceasefire and an end to U.S. military support.

    “For many families in my district, this is not abstract, people are losing loved ones in Gaza and in South Lebanon, and they’re watching it happen with their own taxpayer dollars,” Farhat said. “Imagine knowing that your hard earned money is being used to kill your relatives. This resolution reflects our community’s moral and democratic mandate: stop funding weapons that are killing civilians. Our communities want peace, accountability, and policy that values human life and this resolution moves us in that direction.”

    Farhat also pointed to polls that have “clearly shown that most Americans want our government to stop fueling the suffering in Gaza and to take real steps toward ending this war.”

    U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib delivered a speech in Dearborn in February, 2024, urging Democrats to vote “uncommitted” in the presidential primary election to protest President Joe Biden’s support of Israel. Credit: Shutterstock

    Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who was born in Detroit to Palestinian immigrants and is the only Palestinian American member of Congress, introduced a resolution Friday that “officially recognizes that the Israeli government has committed the crime of genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” The resolution also urges the U.S. to fulfill its obligations under the Genocide Convention to intervene and seek accountability.  

    “The Israeli government’s genocide in Gaza has not ended, and it will not end until we act,” Tlaib, D-Detroit, said. “Since the so-called ‘ceasefire’ was announced, Israeli forces haven’t stopped killing Palestinians. Impunity only enables more atrocity. As our government continues to send a blank check for war crimes and ethnic cleansing, Palestinian children’s smiles are extinguished by bombs and bullets that say made in the U.S.A. To end this horror, we must reject genocide denial and follow our binding legal obligations under the Genocide Convention to take immediate action to pursue justice and accountability to prevent and punish the crime of genocide.”

    Michigan taxpayers have contributed more than $420 million toward U.S. military aid to Israel since 2023, Wegela said, noting the money could instead fund rent assistance, groceries for low-income households, teacher salaries, children’s health care, or student loan relief. 

    “Instead of using tax dollars to help improve lives here, our federal government is funding a Genocide on the other side of the world. It is our moral obligation to oppose funding the mass murder of civilians,” Wegela said.

    Byrnes condemned the high civilian casualty rate in Gaza, which is estimated to be roughly 83% of those killed, and criticized Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s move to suspend medical visas for Palestinians injured in the conflict. 

    “Michigan cannot remain silent while our tax dollars are used to fund genocide,” Byrnes said.

    The resolution also points to growing documentation from humanitarian groups and international law experts alleging that Israel’s blockade, bombing campaign, and forced displacement of civilians may violate the Genocide Convention. 

    Michigan organizers praised the lawmakers’ resolution. Layla Elabed, a well-known community organizer from Dearborn and sister of Tlaib, said the resolution represents “a multifaith, multicultural, multigenerational coalition refusing to let Michigan be complicit in genocide.”

    Barbara Weinberg Barefield of Jewish Voice for Peace–Detroit said the suffering in Gaza contradicts the core Jewish teaching that “whoever saves a single life is considered to have saved the whole world.”

    “The fact that a genocide is being perpetrated by the government of Israel on the Palestinian people is horrifying to me as a human being and as a Jew who was taught the intrinsic value of every life,” she said. “I will not stand by and let thousands of lives extinguished in my name go unchallenged.”

    The resolution is nonbinding but adds pressure to Michigan members of Congress, several of whom have faced protests over U.S. military aid. It cites longstanding federal laws prohibiting arms transfers to countries committing human rights violations and calls on Washington to “use every tool available” to stop the killing and ensure aid reaches civilians.

    Wegela, Farhat, and Byrnes said they plan to continue working with local advocacy groups, including those representing Palestinian, Arab American, Jewish, and peace coalitions, as the measure moves through the House.


    Steve Neavling

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  • DiZoglio blasts legislative leaders in audit

    DiZoglio blasts legislative leaders in audit

    BOSTON — The state Legislature lacks transparency and accountability in its dealings, according to a new state audit, which blasts legislative leaders for refusing to open up their books for the performance review.

    The audit, released Monday by Auditor Diana DiZoglio, faults the state House of Representatives and Senate for failing to conduct timely financial reviews of its spending, a lack of transparency in its procurement policies and a website that makes it difficult for the public to navigate, among other criticisms.

    But DiZoglio also leaned into House and Senate leaders for refusing to provide information her office requested for the audit, including tracking year-end budget spending, how they decide which major bills are brought up for a vote and whether the two chambers are following their own rules regarding non-disclosure agreements.

    “It is deeply concerning that legislative leaders have refused to cooperate with our office to help promote transparency and identify ways to improve service to the people of Massachusetts,” the Democrat said in a statement. “Transparency and accountability are cornerstones of our democracy and enable the people to participate in government as intended in our Constitution, in a system of checks and balances.”

    The audit comes as DiZoglio urges voters to approve Question 1, which if approved would force legislative leaders to open up their books for an independent review.

    Under current laws, the auditor has the power to examine “all departments, offices, commissions, institutions and activities of the commonwealth” but the ballot question would expand those powers to specifically include the Legislature.

    The referendum was proposed by DiZoglio, a Methuen Democrat and former state lawmaker, whose high-profile efforts to audit the House and Senate have been blocked by legislative leaders who argue the move is unconstitutional.

    The partial audit released on Monday found that the Senate and House didn’t ensure annual financial audits were completed, filed with required recipients, or made available to the public in a timely way, in an apparent violation of their own rules.

    The review also found that the Legislature’s procurement policies lack transparency, which auditors said limit the public’s ability to hold the Legislature accountable.

    The Massachusetts Legislature’s website also lacks content and is hard to navigate, compared to other state’s legislative bodies, which auditors said “hinders the public’s ability to understand and engage in the legislative process and hold the Legislature accountable for ensuring an equitable mode of making laws.”

    Other concerns flagged by auditors included a lack of details about how legislative leaders appoint committee chairpersons and other posts that bump up lawmaker’s prestige and compensation.

    Legislative leaders were asked to respond to the findings of the audit, but DiZoglio’s office said they declined.

    “The purported audit of the Legislature released by the Auditor today confirms only one thing: the Auditor has abandoned all pretext of faithfully performing her statutory responsibilities in favor of using her office for pure political self-promotion and electioneering,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said in a statement on Monday in response to the report.

    “The Auditor should instead be focusing on her statutorily mandated reviews, as she continues to underperform her predecessors in the completion of that important work,” he added.

    DiZoglio launched her review of the Legislature more than a year ago but said she hasn’t been able to get access to individuals and records her office needs for a forensic investigation.

    Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, and Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Ashland, have so far blocked her efforts to conduct the investigation into the House and Senate’s inner workings, calling the proposed audit “unconstitutional” and claiming it would violate the separation of powers.

    DiZoglio has framed the plan as part of a broader effort to improve transparency and accountability in Legislature, which is continuously ranked as one of the least effective and least transparent legislative bodies in the country. It is also one of only four state Legislatures that exempts itself from public records laws, DiZoglio points out.

    The effort was dealt a blow last year when Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office rejected DiZoglio’s request to file a lawsuit to force the audit, saying a review of state laws, judicial rulings and the historical record, suggests she doesn’t have standing to file the legal challenge.

    A panel of six lawmakers who reviewed the proposal issued a report concluding that passage of Question 1 would “undermine the separation of powers between the branches of government.” The report included testimony from constitutional scholars and civics educators who oppose the move.

    Despite that, recent polls have shown voters strongly support Question 1 — one of five referendums on the Nov. 5 ballot — which hasn’t drawn any organized opposition.

    Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.

    By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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  • Michigan lawmakers want to shut up obnoxious cars with modified exhausts

    Michigan lawmakers want to shut up obnoxious cars with modified exhausts

    Vroom, vroom!

    The thundering, ear-splitting sound of an illegally modified car can be unnerving and obnoxious, unless you’re into that kind of thing.

    Soon, state lawmakers are going to debate the merits of a bill that would crackdown on noisy, illegally modified car mufflers and exhausts. Under the bill introduced Thursday by Rep. Natalie Price, D-Berkley, police would have the authority to stop vehicles for excessive noise and impose stiffer fines and penalties.

    Not only can drivers be penalized, but those who modify an exhaust system to make it louder can also face fines.

    The bill enables law enforcement to impound or tow vehicles driven by repeat offenders.

    The bill offers “grace” for first-time offenders, vehicles that need to be repaired, and drivers who can demonstrate compliance with the Motor Vehicle Act.

    The driving force behind the bill is the nearly incessant rumbling of cars with modified exhausts on Woodward Avenue, which has been a cruising destination for auto enthusiasts for decades.

    “Day and night, Woodward is often used as a racetrack by drivers who have modified their vehicle’s exhaust systems with boosters that amplify their noise and often sound like gunshots,” Price said in a statement Monday. “The effect is deafening noise and a seriously eroded quality of life for residents and businesses in the surrounding neighborhoods. We need to clamp down on this purposefully disruptive behavior with a targeted approach.”

    Noise from exhaust systems raises quality-of-life issues and may have negative impacts on people’s health. The sound pollution can increase stress and trouble sleeping, which can exacerbate cardiovascular disease, mental health disorders, type 2 diabetes, and memory, attention, and concentration issues. Noise pollution is particularly problematic for vulnerable populations, such as children, seniors, veterans suffering from PTSD, and those undergoing at-home healing. Pets also are stressed out by loud noises.

    “My neighbor came over earlier tonight and was truly concerned it was gunshots not cars backfiring,” resident Alyssa Marsack said. “My dog has been scared several times just today and ran inside as she tried to enjoy her backyard. My neighbor with a young child has been kept up until 2 a.m. due to the noise on a weekday. I have had to close my windows and use the AC when I don’t want to just to keep the noise level down so I can sleep.”

    The current penalty for driving a car with a modified exhaust is $100. Under the proposed bill, first-time offenders face a $500 fine, and repeat offenders could be fined up to $1,000. A third offense could lead to a misdemeanor criminal charge. 

    “Existing law limits what we can do about it, and unfortunately, the current $100-per-offense civil infractions do not seem to deter this behavior,” Birmingham Police Chief Scott Grewer said. “With higher penalties for those intentionally seeking to disturb the peace, this bill will hopefully disincentivize vehicle modification and offer us more tools to deal with those who continue doing so.”

    Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, said living along Woodward has become “a nightmare” for some residents.

    “While cruising on Woodward is a treasured tradition, the ear-splitting noise from new aftermarket exhausts on cars and bikes which run as loud as possible every day from the first warm day of the year until the first frost and late into each evening has made living along this historic corridor a nightmare for many residents,” McMorrow said. “Noise pollution at this volume is proven to have highly negative impacts on health — noise which disrupts sleep, wakes babies, shakes houses and even sounds like gunfire. Due to gaps in our current laws and because Woodward Avenue is a state highway, our local law enforcement departments have been unable to enact and enforce reasonable noise ordinances in the best interest of their residents.”

    The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation, where it will be debated at a future date.

    Steve Neavling

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