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Tag: Michigan

  • Shipwrecks from 1914 found in Lake Superior after disappearing during storm

    Shipwrecks from 1914 found in Lake Superior after disappearing during storm

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    Two shipwrecks from 1914 found in depths of Lake Superior


    Two shipwrecks from 1914 found in depths of Lake Superior

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    Michigan researchers have found the wreckage of two ships that disappeared into Lake Superior in 1914 and hope the discovery will lead them to a third that sank at the same time, killing nearly 30 people aboard the trio of lumber-shipping vessels.

    The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society announced the discoveries this month after confirming details with other researchers. Ric Mixter, a board member of the society and a maritime historian, called witnessing the discoveries “a career highlight.”

    “It not only solved a chapter in the nation’s darkest day in lumber history, but also showcased a team of historians who have dedicated their lives towards making sure these stories aren’t forgotten,” Mixter said.

    The vessels owned by the Edward Hines Lumber Company sank into the ice-cold lake on Nov. 18, 1914, when a storm swept through as they moved lumber from Baraga, Michigan, to Tonawanda, New York. The steamship C.F. Curtis was towing the schooner barges Selden E. Marvin and Annie M. Peterson; all 28 people aboard were killed.

    In this image taken from video provided by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, lettering identifying a wrecked ship as the Selden E. Marvin is seen in Lake Superior in August 2022.
    In this image taken from video provided by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, lettering identifying a wrecked ship as the Selden E. Marvin is seen in Lake Superior in August 2022.

    Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society via AP


    The society’s team found the wreck of the Curtis during the summer of 2021 and the Marvin a year later within a few miles of the first discovery. The organization operates a museum in Whitefish Point and regularly runs searches for shipwrecks, aiming to tell “the lost history of all the Great Lakes” with a focus on Lake Superior, said Corey Adkins, the society’s content and communications director.

    “One of the things that makes us proud when we discover these things is helping piece the puzzle together of what happened to these 28 people,” Adkins said. “It’s been 109 years, but maybe there are still some family members that want to know what happened. We’re able to start answering those questions.”

    Both wrecks were discovered about 20 miles north of Grand Marais, Michigan, farther into the lake than the 1914 accounts suggested the ships sank, Adkins said. There was also damage to the Marvin’s bow and the Curtis’ stern, making researchers wonder whether a collision contributed, he said.

    In this image taken from video provided by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, lettering identifying the wrecked ship as property of the Edward Hines Lumber Company is seen in Lake Superior in August 2022.
    In this image taken from video provided by the Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society, lettering identifying the wrecked ship as property of the Edward Hines Lumber Company is seen in Lake Superior in August 2022.

    Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society via AP


    “Those are all questions we want to consider when we go back out this summer,” Adkins said.

    Video footage from the Curtis wreckage showed the maintained hull of the steamship, its wheel, anchor, boiler and still shining gauges — all preserved by Lake Superior’s cold waters, along with other artifacts.

    Another recording captured the team’s jubilant cheers as the words “Selden E. Marvin” on the hull came into clear view for the first time on a video feed shot by an underwater drone at the barge wreck site.

    “We’re the first human eyes to see it since 1914, since World War I,” one team member mused.


    Selden E. Marvin Underwater footage.mp4 by
    The Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on
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  • Almost 100 confirmed or probable cases of rare fungal infection linked to Michigan paper mill, health officials say | CNN

    Almost 100 confirmed or probable cases of rare fungal infection linked to Michigan paper mill, health officials say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Ninety-three confirmed or probable cases of blastomycosis have been identified in Michigan’s Delta and Menominee counties, according to the local health department, and they are believed to be associated with a paper mill in the town of Escanaba.

    Blastomycosis is caused by a fungus, Blastomyces, that lives in the environment, especially in moist soil and decomposing matter like wood or leaves, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is predominantly found in the Midwest and the South, particularly around the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and the Great Lakes.

    There are only one or two cases per 100,000 people each year in states where blastomycosis is a reportable condition, according to the CDC. One analysis found 1,216 deaths related to the illness from 1990 to 2010.

    People can breathe in these microscopic fungal spores, and although most of them won’t get sick, some will develop symptoms like a fever or cough between three weeks and three months later, the CDC says. Other symptoms may include chest pain, trouble breathing, night sweats, fatigue, weight loss, and muscle or joint pain, according to Public Health Delta & Menominee Counties. In rare cases, the infection can spread outside the lungs to places like the skin, bones, brain and spinal cord.

    Blastomycosis does not spread from person to person. It’s treated with antifungal medication that must be taken for a period ranging from six months to a year, depending on the severity of the illness and the person’s overall health.

    Nineteen of the cases linked with Escanaba Billerud Paper Mill have been confirmed by culture or microscope, and the other 74 are probable, meaning the person has symptoms of blastomycosis and a positive antigen or antibody test, the health department says.

    “Although the source of the infection has not been established, we continue to take this matter very seriously and are following recommendations from health and government officials and implementing numerous, proactive steps to protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors and visitors,” Billerud Escanaba Mill Operations Vice President Brian Peterson said in a statement from the health department.

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  • Are robot waiters the future? Some restaurants think so

    Are robot waiters the future? Some restaurants think so

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    MADISON HEIGHTS, Mich. (AP) — You may have already seen them in restaurants: waist-high machines that can greet guests, lead them to their tables, deliver food and drinks and ferry dirty dishes to the kitchen. Some have cat-like faces and even purr when you scratch their heads.

    But are robot waiters the future? It’s a question the restaurant industry is increasingly trying to answer.

    Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages. Sales of them have been growing rapidly in recent years, with tens of thousands now gliding through dining rooms worldwide.

    “There’s no doubt in my mind that this is where the world is going,” said Dennis Reynolds, dean of the Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston. The school’s restaurant began using a robot in December, and Reynolds says it has eased the workload for human staff and made service more efficient.

    But others say robot waiters aren’t much more than a gimmick that have a long way to go before they can replace humans. They can’t take orders, and many restaurants have steps, outdoor patios and other physical challenges they can’t adapt to.

    “Restaurants are pretty chaotic places, so it’s very hard to insert automation in a way that is really productive,” said Craig Le Clair, a vice president with the consulting company Forrester who studies automation.

    Still, the robots are proliferating. Redwood City, California-based Bear Robotics introduced its Servi robot in 2021 and expects to have 10,000 deployed by the end of this year in 44 U.S. states and overseas. Shenzen, China-based Pudu Robotics, which was founded in 2016, has deployed more than 56,000 robots worldwide.

    “Every restaurant chain is looking toward as much automation as possible,” said Phil Zheng of Richtech Robotics, an Austin-based maker of robot servers. “People are going to see these everywhere in the next year or two.”

    Li Zhai was having trouble finding staff for Noodle Topia, his Madison Heights, Michigan, restaurant, in the summer of 2021, so he bought a BellaBot from Pudu Robotics. The robot was so successful he added two more; now, one robot leads diners to their seats while another delivers bowls of steaming noodles to tables. Employees pile dirty dishes onto a third robot to shuttle back to the kitchen.

    Now, Zhai only needs three people to do the same volume of business that five or six people used to handle. And they save him money. A robot costs around $15,000, he said, but a person costs $5,000 to $6,000 per month.

    Zhai said the robots give human servers more time to mingle with customers, which increases tips. And customers often post videos of the robots on social media that entice others to visit.

    “Besides saving labor, the robots generate business,” he said.

    Interactions with human servers can vary. Betzy Giron Reynosa, who works with a BellaBot at The Sushi Factory in West Melbourne, Florida, said the robot can be a pain.

    “You can’t really tell it to move or anything,” she said. She has also had customers who don’t want to interact with it.

    But overall the robot is a plus, she said. It saves her trips back and forth to the kitchen and gives her more time with customers.

    Labor shortages accelerated the adoption of robots globally, Le Clair said. In the U.S., the restaurant industry employed 15 million people at the end of last year, but that was still 400,000 fewer than before the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. In a recent survey, 62% of restaurant operators told the association they don’t have enough employees to meet customer demand.

    Pandemic-era concerns about hygiene and adoption of new technology like QR code menus also laid the ground for robots, said Karthik Namasivayam, director of The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business.

    “Once an operator begins to understand and work with one technology, other technologies become less daunting and will be much more readily accepted as we go forward,” he said.

    Namasivayam notes that public acceptance of robot servers is already high in Asia. Pizza Hut has robot servers in 1,000 restaurants in China, for example.

    The U.S. was slower to adopt robots, but some chains are now testing them. Chick-fil-A is trying them at multiple U.S. locations, and says it’s found that the robots give human employees more time to refresh drinks, clear tables and greet guests.

    Marcus Merritt was surprised to see a robot server at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta recently. The robot didn’t seem to be replacing staff, he said; he counted 13 employees in the store, and workers told him the robot helps service move a little faster. He was delighted that the robot told him to have a great day, and expects he’ll see more robots when he goes out to eat.

    “I think technology is part of our normal everyday now. Everybody has a cell phone, everybody uses some form of computer,” said Merritt, who owns a marketing business. “It’s a natural progression.”

    But not all chains have had success with robots.

    Chili’s introduced a robot server named Rita in 2020 and expanded the test to 61 U.S. restaurants before abruptly halting it last August. The chain found that Rita moved too slowly and got in the way of human servers. And 58% of guests surveyed said Rita didn’t improve their overall experience.

    Haidilao, a hot pot chain in China, began using robots a year ago to deliver food to diners’ tables. But managers at several outlets said the robots haven’t proved as reliable or cost-effective as human servers.

    Wang Long, the manager of a Beijing outlet, said his two robots have both have broken down.

    “We only used them now and then,” Wang said. “It is a sort of concept thing and the machine can never replace humans.”

    Eventually, Namasivayam expects that a certain percentage of restaurants — maybe 30% — will continue to have human servers and be considered more luxurious, while the rest will lean more heavily on robots in the kitchen and in dining rooms. Economics are on the side of robots, he said; the cost of human labor will continue to rise, but technology costs will fall.

    But that’s not a future everyone wants to see. Saru Jayaraman, who advocates for higher pay for restaurant workers as president of One Fair Wage, said restaurants could easily solve their labor shortages if they just paid workers more.

    “Humans don’t go to a full-service restaurant to be served by technology,” she said. “They go for the experience of themselves and the people they care about being served by a human.”

    ___

    AP researcher Yu Bing contributed from Beijing.

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  • Ex-head of Michigan medical marijuana board and former state House speaker admits he took bribes

    Ex-head of Michigan medical marijuana board and former state House speaker admits he took bribes

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    ap03121606054.jpg
    File: House Speaker Rick Johnson, R-LeRoy, right, talks with House Minority Leader Dianne Byrum, D-Onondaga, during a session in the House Chambers, Dec. 16, 2003, in Lansing, Mich. 

    AL GOLDIS / AP


    The former head of a Michigan medical marijuana licensing board has agreed to plead guilty to accepting $110,000 in bribes when he led the panel over a two-year period, authorities said Thursday.

    Rick Johnson acknowledged in a signed court filing that he acted “corruptly” when he accepted cash and other benefits to help businesses get licenses.

    Charges against Johnson and three other men were announced by U.S. Attorney Mark Totten at a press conference near the Capitol in Lansing.

    Johnson, 70, was chairman of the marijuana board for two years until spring 2019. Years earlier, the Republican was also a powerful lawmaker, serving as state House speaker from 2001 through 2004.

    “Public corruption is a poison to any democracy. … That poison is especially toxic here,” Totten said. “The marijuana industry has been likened to a modern-day gold rush, a new frontier where participants can stake their claim and just maybe return big rewards.”

    The marijuana board reviewed and approved applications to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes.

    A message seeking comment from Johnson’s attorney wasn’t immediately returned.

    Agreements with Johnson and others to plead guilty were filed simultaneously with charges in federal court in Grand Rapids.

    Johnson accepted $110,200 in cash and benefits from at least two companies while voting in favor of granting them marijuana licenses, according to the bribery charge.

    Johnson “provided valuable non-public information about the anticipated rules and operation of the board and assistance with license application matters,” the court filing states.

    John Dalaly, who obtained a marijuana business license, has agreed to plead guilty to providing at least $68,200 in cash and other benefits to Johnson, including two private flights to Canada, according to court documents.

    Filings show that two lobbyists, Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown, have also agreed to plead guilty to conspiring to pass bribes to Johnson.

    Gov. Gretchen Whitmer abolished the medical marijuana board in 2019, a few months after taking office, and put oversight of the industry inside a state agency.

    Michigan voters legalized marijuana for medical purposes in 2008. A decade later, voters approved the recreational use of marijuana.

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  • Are robot waiters the wave of the future? Some restaurants say yes.

    Are robot waiters the wave of the future? Some restaurants say yes.

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    You may have already seen them in restaurants: waist-high machines that can greet guests, lead them to their tables, deliver food and drinks and ferry dirty dishes to the kitchen. Some have cat-like faces and even purr when you scratch their heads.

    But are robot waiters the future? It’s a question the restaurant industry is increasingly trying to answer.

    Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages. Sales of them have been growing rapidly in recent years, with tens of thousands now gliding through dining rooms worldwide.

    “There’s no doubt in my mind that this is where the world is going,” said Dennis Reynolds, dean of the Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership at the University of Houston. The school’s restaurant began using a robot in December, and Reynolds says it has eased the workload for human staff and made service more efficient.

    But others say robot waiters aren’t much more than a gimmick that have a long way to go before they can replace humans. They can’t take orders, and many restaurants have steps, outdoor patios and other physical challenges they can’t adapt to.

    “Restaurants are pretty chaotic places, so it’s very hard to insert automation in a way that is really productive,” said Craig Le Clair, a vice president with the consulting company Forrester who studies automation.

    Robot Waiters
    A BellaBot robot at the Noodle Topia restaurant delivers food and drinks to a table in Madison Heights, Michigam. Many think robot waiters are the solution to the industry’s labor shortages.

    Carlos Osorio / AP


    Tens of thousands deployed worldwide

    Still, the robots are proliferating. Redwood City, California-based Bear Robotics introduced its Servi robot in 2021 and expects to have 10,000 deployed by the end of this year in 44 U.S. states and overseas. Shenzen, China-based Pudu Robotics, which was founded in 2016, has deployed more than 56,000 robots worldwide.

    “Every restaurant chain is looking toward as much automation as possible,” said Phil Zheng of Richtech Robotics, an Austin-based maker of robot servers. “People are going to see these everywhere in the next year or two.”

    Li Zhai was having trouble finding staff for Noodle Topia, his Madison Heights, Michigan, restaurant, in the summer of 2021, so he bought a BellaBot from Pudu Robotics. The robot was so successful he added two more. Now, one robot leads diners to their seats while another delivers bowls of steaming noodles to tables. Employees pile dirty dishes onto a third robot to shuttle back to the kitchen.

    The robots also save him money. Zhai now only needs three people to do the same volume of business that five or six people used to handle. While a robot costs around $15,000, he said, a person costs $5,000 to $6,000 per month.

    More time to mingle

    Zhai said the robots give human servers more time to mingle with customers, which increases tips. And customers often post videos of the robots on social media that entice others to visit.

    “Besides saving labor, the robots generate business,” he said.

    Interactions with human servers can vary. Betzy Giron Reynosa, who works with a BellaBot at The Sushi Factory in West Melbourne, Florida, said the robot can be a pain.

    “You can’t really tell it to move or anything,” she said. She has also had customers who don’t want to interact with it.

    But overall the robot is a plus, she said. It saves her trips back and forth to the kitchen and gives her more time with customers.

    Labor shortages accelerated the adoption of robots globally, Le Clair said. In the U.S., the restaurant industry employed 15 million people at the end of last year, but that was still 400,000 fewer than before the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association. In a recent survey, 62% of restaurant operators told the association they don’t have enough employees to meet customer demand.

    Acceptance boosted by pandemic

    Pandemic-era concerns about hygiene and adoption of new technology like QR code menus also laid the ground for robots, said Karthik Namasivayam, director of hospitality business at Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business.

    “Once an operator begins to understand and work with one technology, other technologies become less daunting and will be much more readily accepted as we go forward,” he said.

    Namasivayam notes that public acceptance of robot servers is already high in Asia. Pizza Hut has robot servers in 1,000 restaurants in China, for example.

    The U.S. was slower to adopt robots, but some chains are now testing them. Chick-fil-A is trying them at multiple U.S. locations, and says it’s found that the robots give human employees more time to refresh drinks, clear tables and greet guests.

    Robot Waiters
    A BellaBot robot at the Noodle Topia restaurant heads back to the kitchen after a table is cleared. 

    Carlos Osorio / AP


    Marcus Merritt was surprised to see a robot server at a Chick-fil-A in Atlanta recently. The robot didn’t seem to be replacing staff, he said; he counted 13 employees in the store, and workers told him the robot helps service move a little faster. He was delighted that the robot told him to have a great day, and expects he’ll see more robots when he goes out to eat.

    “I think technology is part of our normal everyday now. Everybody has a cellphone, everybody uses some form of computer,” said Merritt, who owns a marketing business. “It’s a natural progression.”

    “The machine can never replace humans”

    But not all chains have had success with robots.

    Chili’s introduced a robot server named Rita in 2020 and expanded the test to 61 U.S. restaurants before abruptly halting it last August. The chain found that Rita moved too slowly and got in the way of human servers. And 58% of guests surveyed said Rita didn’t improve their overall experience.

    Haidilao, a hot pot chain in China, began using robots a year ago to deliver food to diners’ tables. But managers at several outlets said the robots haven’t proved as reliable or cost-effective as human servers.

    Wang Long, the manager of a Beijing outlet, said his two robots have both broken down.

    “We only used them now and then,” Wang said. “It is a sort of concept thing and the machine can never replace humans.”

    Human service a premium?

    Eventually, Namasivayam expects that a certain percentage of restaurants — maybe 30% — will continue to have human servers and be considered more luxurious, while the rest will lean more heavily on robots in the kitchen and in dining rooms. Economics are on the side of robots, he said; the cost of human labor will continue to rise, but technology costs will fall.

    But that’s not a future everyone wants to see. Saru Jayaraman, who advocates for higher pay for restaurant workers as president of One Fair Wage, said restaurants could easily solve their labor shortages if they just paid workers more.

    “Humans don’t go to a full-service restaurant to be served by technology,” she said. “They go for the experience of themselves and the people they care about being served by a human.”

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  • New Buffalo moves closer to decision on marijuana – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

    New Buffalo moves closer to decision on marijuana – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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    NEW BUFFALO — Whether to allow the sale of marijuana in New Buffalo is now up to the City Council to decide.

    The New Buffalo Planning Commission voted 3 to 1 last week to recommend approval of a zoning ordinance specifying where marijuana shops can locate in the city.

    City Manager Darwin Watson said the council will begin the process next month of deciding whether to grant final approval to the proposed zoning ordinance, which would legalize the sale of marijuana in the city.

    Unless amended, the zoning ordinance would allow marijuana shops to locate in select locations primarily on the far east and far south sides of the city.

    Riding Shotgun with the Gary Fire Department



    Communities were given the option to allow for the sale of marijuana after voters statewide in 2018 chose to make the drug legal for retail distribution in Michigan.

    People are also reading…

    New Buffalo decided not to allow for the sale of marijuana but started considering it after taking a survey that disclosed registered voters in the city, by about a 2 to 1 margin, favored legalizing marijuana.

    Planning Commission Chairman Paul Billingslea said he believes the…

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  • Court rules parents of Michigan school shooter can stand trial

    Court rules parents of Michigan school shooter can stand trial

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    Court rules parents of Michigan school shooter can stand trial – CBS News


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    An appeals court ruled that the parents of a shooter who killed four students at a Michigan school can face trial themselves for purchasing the gun used in the killings.

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  • Michigan State outlasts Marquette; Izzo back to Sweet 16

    Michigan State outlasts Marquette; Izzo back to Sweet 16

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    COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Tom Izzo leaned on star guard and native New Yorker Tyson Walker to get Michigan State to Madison Square Garden for the Sweet 16.

    Walker, a fourth-year player who grew up in Westbury on Long Island, delivered against Marquette in March Madness on Sunday night, scoring 23 points and punctuating Michigan State’s 69-60 victory with a steal and his first ever collegiate dunk late in the game.

    And Walker wants to make sure his 68-year-old, Hall of Fame coach has a quintessential Big Apple experience.

    “It means everything,” said Walker, who played two years at Northeastern before transferring to Michigan State. “Just growing up, seeing everything, playing at the Garden. Just to make those shots, look over see my dad, see how excited he was. That means everything. And I just owe Coach some pizza now. And a cab ride.”

    Joey Hauser — a Marquette transfer — had 14 points and A.J. Hoggard had 13 as seventh-seeded Michigan State (21-12) took over in the last three minutes. The Spartans advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time in four years and will play third-seeded Kansas State in the East Region semifinals on Thursday.

    “I’ve been in Elite Eight games; I’ve been in the Final Four — that was as intense and tough a game as I’ve been in my career,” Izzo said. “And a lot of credit goes to Marquette and (coach) Shaka (Smart) and how they played, too.”

    Izzo reached his 15th regional semifinal and won his record 16th March Madness game with a lower-seeded team — one more than Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim, who retired after this season.

    This one was particularly meaningful. Izzo became the face of a grieving school where three students were killed in a campus shooting on Feb. 13.

    “It’s been a long year,” an emotional Izzo said in a courtside interview. “I’m just happy for our guys.”

    Olivier-Maxence Prosper led second-seeded Marquette (29-7) with 16 points and Kam Jones had 14 points, including three 3-pointers, for the Big East champions.

    Michigan State led by as many as 12 in the first half, but Ben Gold and Prosper made back-to-back 3-pointers to help the Golden Eagles close within 33-28 at halftime.

    Prosper hit two more 3s in the first minute of the second half to give Marquette its first lead of the day. Michigan State grabbed back the lead with an 8-0 run and didn’t relinquish it.

    Back-to-back baskets in the paint by Hoggard and then Walker, both times as the shot clock expired, gave the Spartans a 60-55 lead with 2:20 left. Mady Sissoko then blocked shots on consecutive Marquette possessions, and Walker had a steal followed by a game-sealing dunk with 39 seconds left.

    Marquette’s nine-game winning streak ended, concluding a season in which the Golden Eagles exceeded expectations under coach Smart, who has referred to Izzo as a mentor.

    Michigan State, meanwhile, finished fourth in the Big Ten but appears to be improving at the right time.

    “We’ve still got some dancing to do,” Izzo said. “And we’re going to New York. I couldn’t be more excited for Tyson and even A.J., being a Philly guy.

    “After watching the tournament, it doesn’t matter who we play, when we play, where we play, or how, it’s going to be a hell of a game. And I’m looking forward to it.”

    BIG PICTURE

    Marquette: Coming off their first Big East Tournament title, the Golden Eagles dominated Vermont in the first round of March Madness, but Michigan State was a much tougher opponent. The Golden Eagles committed 11 of their 16 turnovers in the second half, and those giveaways led to 19 Spartans points.

    “I thought (Michigan State) played with great aggressiveness, particularly early in the game and at the very end of the game,” Smart said. “And those two the stretches were the difference in the outcome of the game.”

    Michigan State: The Spartans came out of their shooting funk after the halfway point of the second half and pulled away. They made 15 of their 17 free throws after halftime.

    KOLEK HURTING

    Tyler Kolek, the Big East Player of the Year, injured his thumb when he caught it on the jersey of a Vermont player in the opening round Friday night.

    He finished that game with eight points. He wasn’t much of a factor against Michigan State, either, scoring seven points, losing six turnovers and committing four fouls.

    Kolek insisted the thumb “wasn’t an issue at all.”

    “Just trying to be out there for my team and command the game. And I didn’t do that today,” he said.

    UP NEXT

    Michigan State’s next opponent, Kansas State, is making its first Sweet 16 appearance since 2018 and first under coach Jerome Tang.

    ___

    AP March Madness coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness and bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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  • Here Comes the Sun: Actor Michelle Yeoh and the history of fudge

    Here Comes the Sun: Actor Michelle Yeoh and the history of fudge

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    Here Comes the Sun: Actor Michelle Yeoh and the history of fudge – CBS News


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    Michelle Yeoh sits down with Seth Doane to discuss her film “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” Then, Faith Salie travels to Original Murdick’s Fudge in Michigan to learn about the history of fudge. “Here Comes the Sun” is a closer look at some of the people, places and things we bring you every week on “CBS Sunday Morning.”

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  • The shooting deaths of 3 missing rappers were ‘gang violence related,’ Michigan police say | CNN

    The shooting deaths of 3 missing rappers were ‘gang violence related,’ Michigan police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The deaths of three Michigan rappers whose bodies were found in an abandoned apartment building in early February were related to gang violence, state police said, asking members of the public who might have information about the case to come forward.

    In a series of tweets Friday, Michigan State Police confirmed they were continuing to investigate the triple homicide of Armani Kelly, 28; Dante Wicker, 31; and Montoya Givens, 31, who were reported missing after their January 21 performance at a Detroit club was canceled.

    Their bodies were found almost two weeks later in the apartment complex in Highland Park, about 6 miles northwest of Detroit, and state police later said they each died of multiple gunshot wounds.

    “This was a gang violence related incident,” Michigan State Police said on Twitter on Friday, addressing what it said were “rumors” circulating about the investigation. “This homicide was not random and had nothing to due (sic) with music or a performance.”

    While no one is in custody, police said, “There are other people that know the details and we need them to come forward.”

    “Together we can bring closure to these families,” state police said.

    Police were first alerted to the men’s disappearances by Kelly’s mother, who reported him missing on January 23, Michael McGinnis, commander of major crimes at the Detroit Police Department, previously said.

    As the story of Kelly’s disappearance gained media attention, “other family members of the other missings come to realize that that’s a friend of their loved ones and they haven’t seen them either, so then they both get reported missing,” McGinnis said.

    The bodies were discovered February 2, in the complex police described as “rat infested.” Several days later, state police confirmed “this was not a random incident” and said investigators believed they had determined a motive.

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  • Police release Michigan State shooting timeline and a troubling note found in the gunman’s pocket | CNN

    Police release Michigan State shooting timeline and a troubling note found in the gunman’s pocket | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The gunman who killed three Michigan State University students and critically wounded five others last month in a mass shooting wrote in a note found in his pocket that he was “tired of being rejected” and was hurt, police said Friday.

    The Michigan State University Police and Public Safety Department released a detailed timeline of events and shared images of a note gunman Anthony Dwayne McRae, 43, wrote, police said in a news release.

    Written on spiral notebook paper, the two-page document is dated a day before the February 12 shooting. Portions of it have been redacted by police.

    One side of the note starts with the gunman identifying himself: “Hi My Name is Anthony McRae.” A second side starts with “They hurted me” at the top of the page before listing the locations of other targeted areas.

    McRae writes that he is the leader of a group of 20 people and claims “another team” in his group will be targeting the other outlined locations – upon discovering the note, law enforcement officials “investigated and cleared all of the other locations McRae named in the note,” police said.

    “While McRae states in the note that he was acting with others, investigators from MSU DPPS, Michigan State Police and the FBI have determined through comprehensive reviews and detailed follow-up that McRae acted alone and was not working with other people,” the statement from MSU DPPS said.

    In the letter, McRae appears to write about his grievances repeatedly writing “they hate me” and detailing other general, non-specific, perceived slights against him like “I’m tired of being rejected,” “No one noticed me,” “Everywhere I go people treat me different.”

    Police detail a timeline of events, sharing the gunman’s whereabouts and how police responded to his movements accordingly:

    • 8:18 p.m. – Ingham County 911 started receiving calls of the first shots fired at Berkey Hall, MSU police said
    • Two minutes later, at 8:20 p.m. ET, officers entered Berkey Hall
    • 8:24 p.m. – McRae entered the Union
    • 8:26 p.m. – First report of shooting at the Union
    • 8:27 p.m. – Officers arrived at the Union
    • 8:30 p.m. – First emergency alert notification was sent
    • 8:31 p.m. – Second emergency alert notification was sent
    • 11:18 p.m. – Photo of suspect was shared on MSU DPPS social media
    • 11:35 p.m. – Ingham County 911 received a call about a person matching the description of the suspect walking on Lake Lansing Road near High Street in the City of Lansing
    • 11:49 p.m. – Officers approached McRae and he shot and killed himself

    As part of the ongoing investigation, police said they are currently reviewing and finalizing details of the route McRae took as he left campus, according to the statement.

    From February 13 to February 14 between 8 p.m. and 1 a.m., Ingham County 911 received 2,100 phone calls, which is the equivalent of 2.5 days’ worth of calls for the dispatch center – within a 5-hour period, police said.

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  • Routine traffic stop ends in

    Routine traffic stop ends in

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    Confronting America’s fentanyl crisis


    Fatal fentanyl overdoses on the rise in the U.S.

    09:59

    A traffic stop in Michigan led to the seizure of four kilograms of fentanyl, a potentially deadly synthetic opioid. 

    According to law enforcement, this is the largest seizure of fentanyl in the state’s history.

    Troopers on I-94 near Paw Paw Township pulled over a driver for a routine traffic stop, citing traffic violations including improper lane use and a cracked windshield, the Michigan State Police said in a news release. Troopers detected “several indicators of criminal activity” when they spoke with the driver. After receiving verbal consent to search the vehicle, the troopers found four kilograms, or about 8.8 pounds, of fentanyl in a duffel bag. 

    The troopers then obtained “additional information” that led them to a second location, where two additional kilograms of “suspected fentanyl” and about $30,000 in cash were found and seized. 

    The driver was identified as a 25-year-old California man. The Michigan State Police said evidence showed he was “transporting or smuggling fentanyl from California to Michigan.” He has been arrested on charges of possession with intent to deliver more than 1,000 grams of fentanyl. 

    The state of Michigan recorded 2,599 deaths from opioids in 2020. Of those, 1,911 deaths were related to synthetic drugs, including fentanyl. 


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  • Michigan legislature votes to repeal 1931 law criminalizing abortion drugs

    Michigan legislature votes to repeal 1931 law criminalizing abortion drugs

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    The Michigan Legislature on Wednesday repealed a 1931 law that criminalized abortion drugs in the state. 

    H.B. 4006 passed the state House by a 58-50 margin on March 2, and the state Senate by a 20-18 margin less than a week later. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign the bill.   

    “Today’s repeal of this antiquated law is a victory for millions of Michigan residents who, like myself, value bodily integrity and personal freedom,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a news release. She expressed gratitude that state legislators are listening to their constituents, whose voted successfully passed Proposition 3 in November, enshrining abortion in the state constitution. 

    The bill repeals Section 750.14 of Michigan penal code that makes “miscarriage” inducing drugs a felony, barring instances where the pregnant person’s life is in danger. The felony carries a punishment of up to four years in prison, and/or a $5,000 fine.

    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Holds Round Tables on Abortion
    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer listens to pastors at an abortion round table discussion at Liberty Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

    The Washington Post via Getty Images


    Additionally, the bill repeals Section 750.15, which pertains to the advertisement or sale of abortion-inducing drugs, a criminal misdemeanor. 

    The bill was originally introduced in mid-January by state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky, a Democrat from Michigan’s 17th District.

    “The people of this state can rest assured that their elected officials will not sit idly by in the wake of Roe v. Wade being overturned, and will fight to ensure that residents’ health, safety, and wellbeing is safeguarded from harmful legislation,” said Nessel, referencing the federal right to abortion, which was overturned by the Supreme Court in June of last year. 

    In September, a Michigan court ruled the 1931 laws unconstitutional following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, allowing for the legal procurement of abortion-inducing medication in the state.

    C Mandler


    1630512655666.jpg

    C Mandler is a social media producer and trending topics writer for CBS News, focusing on American politics and LGBTQ+ issues.

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  • Michigan Senate votes to repeal 1931 abortion ban | CNN Politics

    Michigan Senate votes to repeal 1931 abortion ban | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Michigan state Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal the state’s 1931 abortion ban as well as its sentencing guidelines.

    The bills were passed 20-18, along party lines in the Democratic-controlled Senate after passing the House last week and were sent to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for her signature. Democrats control the governor’s office and the state legislature for the first time in four decades.

    Whitmer has been a vocal supporter of abortion rights, using the issue as a driving force in her 2022 reelection campaign. The governor filed a lawsuit against several county prosecutors in her state last year in an attempt to prevent the 1931 ban from taking effect after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

    The Michigan law, which was invalidated by the 1973 high court decision but remained on the state’s books, prohibits abortions even in cases of rape or incest, except to preserve the woman’s life.

    Michigan state Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks previously told CNN one of the first priorities of the new legislature would be to repeal the ban that was put back in play after the Supreme Court’s ruling last summer.

    In September, a state court declared the abortion ban unconstitutional and blocked it from being enforced, allowing abortion to remain legal in the state.

    Michigan voters enshrined abortion rights in the state constitution during the midterms, a move that was intended to help block the ban from taking effect.

    But reproductive rights advocates see the bills’ passage through the legislature as “major step forward.”

    “This is proof positive that elections matter,” Mini Timmaraju, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said in a statement. “Michiganders made clear in the midterms that they overwhelmingly support reproductive freedom, and repealing this oppressive pre-Roe ban sends an unmistakable signal that Michigan will always fight for abortion access.”

    Democratic state senators celebrated the bills’ passage in the legislature Wednesday.

    “My abortion was necessary to save my life,” state Sen. Rosemary Bayer said on Twitter. “I’m glad I’m here today because of that, and to be able to vote on this bill and ensure this life-saving healthcare is protected and kept safe and legal here in Michigan.”

    Republicans in the Michigan state Senate, however, oppose the new effort and have described it as “dangerous.”

    “While Senate Republicans have introduced legislation to strengthen safeguards for women, Senate Democrats are rushing dangerous bills to repeal long-standing protections for women and the unborn,” GOP state Sen. Joseph Bellino said in a statement.

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  • At least 10 dead after winter storm slams South, Midwest

    At least 10 dead after winter storm slams South, Midwest

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    A large storm system took aim at the Northeast on Friday, threatening heavy snow and coastal flooding after heavy winds and possible tornadoes damaged homes and buildings, left thousands without power and caused at least ten deaths in a wide swath of the South and Midwest.

    Three people were killed by falling trees in Alabama as severe weather swept through the state. In Mississippi, a woman died inside her SUV after a rotted tree branch struck her vehicle, and in Arkansas a man drowned after he drove into high floodwaters.

    Four weather-related deaths also were reported in Kentucky in four different counties as storms with straight-line winds moved through the state. Gov. Andy Beshear had declared a state of emergency before the storm and on Friday evening the mayor of Louisville, Craig Greenberg, followed suit because of the severe storms, high winds, widespread damage and danger to lives and property.

    Storm damage in Scott County, Arkansas. March 3, 2023. 

    Scott County Emergency Management


    “I encourage everyone in our community to exercise extreme caution this evening, and in the coming days – do not drive through standing water, do not approach downed power lines, or do anything that would put the lives of anyone at risk,” Greenberg said in a Facebook post.

    A vehicle passenger died near the western Tennessee town of Waverly, the Humphreys County Sheriff’s Office reports. The death was deemed to be weather-related, the sheriff’s office said.

    More than a million utility customers in Kentucky, Tennessee and Michigan were without power as of late Friday night, according to the utility tracker PowerOutage.us.

    The National Weather Service in Louisville called the storm Friday “powerful and historic” with peak wind gusts between 60-80 mph.

    The storm barreled Friday afternoon into the Detroit area, quickly covering streets and roads beneath a layer of snow. The weather service said some areas could see blizzard conditions with snowfall approaching 3 inches per hour. The Detroit Metropolitan Airport closed Friday evening because of rapidly deteriorating weather conditions, but reopened late Friday night.

    Detroit-based DTE Energy reported more than 130,000 customers lost power Friday evening. It was the latest slap after ice storms last week left more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power.

    The National Weather Service reported poor road conditions and numerous vehicle crashes across much of northwest Indiana because of heavy snowfall Friday afternoon.

    The storm system was turning toward New England, where a mix of snow, sleet and rain was expected to start Friday night and last into Saturday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a winter storm warning.

    There’s a chance of coastal flooding in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the storm could bring as much as 18 inches of snow to parts of New Hampshire and Maine. The storm will also bring strong winds that could cause power outages.

    Airport officials in Portland, Maine, canceled several flights for Saturday ahead of the weather and some libraries and businesses in the region announced weekend closures. Still, with warmer weather expected to return by the end of the weekend, most New Englanders were taking the storm in stride.

    It wasn’t the same story in California, where the weather system slammed the state earlier in the week with as much as 10 feet of snow. Some residents in mountains east of Los Angeles will likely remain stranded in their homes for at least another week after the snowfall proved too much to handle for most plows.

    Many residents of Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas emerged Friday to find their homes and businesses damaged and trees toppled by the reported tornadoes.

    In Alabama, a 70-year-old man sitting in his truck in Talledega County was killed when a tree fell onto his vehicle. A 43-year-old man in Lauderdale County and a man in Huntsville also were killed by falling trees Friday, local authorities said.

    storm damage Texas
    Storm damage in North Richland Hills, Texas. March 3, 2023.  

    City of North Richland Hills


    In Texas, winds brought down trees, ripped the roof off a grocery store in Little Elm, north of Dallas, and overturned four 18-wheelers along. Minor injuries were reported, police said.

    Winds of nearly 80 mph were recorded near the Fort Worth suburb of Blue Mound. The roof of an apartment building in the suburb of Hurst was blown away, resident Michael Roberts told KDFW-TV.

    “The whole building started shaking…The whole ceiling is gone,” Roberts said. “It got really crazy.”

    Heavy rain was also reported in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, causing flooding in both states.


    Severe storms cause damage, leave thousands without power in Texas and Louisiana

    02:50

    In southwest Arkansas, Betty Andrews told KSLA-TV that she and her husband took shelter in the bathroom of their mobile home while a tornado moved through.

    “It was very scary. I opened the front door to look out and saw it coming. I grabbed Kevin and went and got into the bathtub,” Andrews said. “We hunkered down, and I said some prayers until it passed.”

    They were OK but the home sustained major damage and the couple was temporarily trapped in the bathroom until a neighbor cleared debris from outside the door.

    Elsewhere in the Midwest, Minnesota and Wisconsin expected areas of freezing fog with less than a quarter mile of visibility into the weekend, the weather service said. In North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, highways could get up to 10 inches of snow and 45 mph wind gusts on Sunday and Monday.

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  • 2 more Michigan State shooting victims sent home from hospital while 2 remain hospitalized | CNN

    2 more Michigan State shooting victims sent home from hospital while 2 remain hospitalized | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Two Michigan State students wounded in the mass shooting on campus in February have been discharged from hospital, according to the university’s police department.

    The tweet did not identify the students who were released but said they were previously listed in serious condition.

    One student remains hospitalized in critical condition and one is in fair condition, the MSU Police and Public Safety Department said.

    One other student was discharged last week. Troy Forbush wrote in a Facebook post on February 26 he had a “brush with death” after being shot in the chest.

    He credited the “incredible doctors” who saved his life with emergency surgery. He said he spent a week in the ICU and three more days being cared for by the “superhero staff.”

    “My world has been turned upside down so suddenly but I refuse to be a number, a statistic. Alongside my family, friends, community, university, & state government officials, we will enact change,” he wrote.

    Three students – Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser and Alexandria Verner – were killed in February 13 when a man opened fire in a classroom and then in another building.

    It’s still unclear why the gunman – a man with no known ties to MSU – targeted the university. He died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound the night of the killings, authorities said, and had a note threatening other shootings hundreds of miles away in New Jersey.

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  • As crews remove contaminated soil and liquid from Ohio toxic train wreck site, concerns emerge about where it’s going | CNN

    As crews remove contaminated soil and liquid from Ohio toxic train wreck site, concerns emerge about where it’s going | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    After a brief pause, shipments of contaminated liquid and soil from the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, have resumed after cross-country concerns about where the hazardous waste is going.

    Officials with the Environmental Protection Agency previously said they have approved the shipment of contaminated waste to two EPA-certified sites in Ohio: Heritage Thermal Services in East Liverpool and Vickery Environmental in Vickery. Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore said Monday two more sites – one in Ohio and one in Indiana – will also receive waste from the derailment scene.

    The move came after officials in Texas and Michigan complained they didn’t get any warning that waste from the toxic crash site would be shipped to their states for disposal. The EPA ordered the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, to stop the shipments Friday so that it could review the company’s disposal plans.

    Shore said she spoke with officials from Ohio and Indiana on Monday regarding the shipment of hazardous waste material to their towns.

    Questions about the disposal of toxic waste from the February 3 derailment have added to the controversy surrounding the crash that has also left residents of the town worried about potential long-term health effects.

    The mayor of East Liverpool, one of the Ohio towns set to incinerate the waste, expressed concerns about the process but said the EPA has assured him that everyone has been following necessary guidelines.

    “We have a 2-year-old daughter and of course that’s a concern,” Mayor Gregory T. Bricker said. “But, again, I think this is a state-of-the-art facility that can handle this type of waste.”

    So far, about 1.8 million gallons of liquid waste and 4,832 cubic yards of solid waste have been pulled from the derailment site, according to the office of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.

    EPA Administrator Michael Regan is expected to make his third trip to East Palestine on Tuesday to mark the grand opening of a new community center, Shore said.

    US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has given Norfolk Southern and other major rail companies a deadline of this week to say whether they will participate in the Confidential Close Call Reporting System – a voluntary program that allows workers to report safety hazards.

    “This common-sense program encourages employees to report safety hazards, including conditions that could lead to derailments, by protecting these workers from reprisal when they come forward,” Buttigieg wrote in a Monday letter to Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw.

    The transportation secretary said “not one major freight rail company participates” in the Confidential Close Call Reporting System, also known as C3RS.

    “By refusing to take this commonsense step, you are sending an undesirable message about your level of commitment to the safety of your workers and the American communities where you operate,” Buttigieg wrote.

    “I am asking you to join the C3RS program now, even as our Department proceeds to take appropriate steps toward making this program mandatory.”

    Buttigieg first called for the change in a letter to railroads dated February 14, but is now going directly to rail CEOs and asking them to reply to the Department of Transportation “by the end of the week.”

    After that, Buttigieg said, he will “present the public with a summary of which companies have agreed to this important safety measure and which have refused.”

    The hazardous waste that has already been sent to Michigan and Texas is being processed, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore said Sunday.

    About 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site were expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, with about half a million gallons already there, the county’s chief executive said last week.

    In Michigan, contaminated soil from the derailment site was taken to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan, US Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said.

    Vickery Environmental will process overflow water from the crash scene, according to the Sandusky County Emergency Management Agency.

    The agency didn’t comment on how much water the facility has received so far, saying only that it has been receiving three to four loads per day, but according to Ohio officials, more than 94,000 gallons have been disposed of at the facility so far.

    Until Friday, Norfolk Southern had been “solely responsible” for disposing of waste from the train derailment, but waste disposal plans “will be subject to federal EPA review and approval moving forward,” Shore said.

    Every aspect of transporting and disposing of the hazardous waste “from the moment trucks and rail cars are loaded until the waste is safely disposed of” will be closely regulated and overseen by federal, state, and local governments, Shore said Sunday.

    After speaking to residents in East Palestine, Shore said “we owe it to the people of East Palestine to move it out of the community as quickly as possible.”

    “At the same time,” Shore added, “I know there are folks in other states who have concerns, legitimate concerns, about how this waste is being transported and how it will be disposed of. EPA will continue to work with our local, state, and federal partners to use our longstanding experience and expertise in these matters to ensure the health and safety, and support the East Palestine community and to hold Norfolk Southern accountable.”

    The fiery derailment and subsequent intentional release of vinyl chloride from train cars left East Palestine residents with anxiety about the safety of their air and water. Some have reported rashes, headaches, nausea and bloody noses.

    So far, tests of East Palestine’s public drinking have found “no indication of risk to East Palestine public water system customers” and “treated drinking water shows no detection of contaminants associated with the derailment,” the EPA said in a Sunday update.

    And air quality tests inside 578 East Palestine homes detected no contaminants linked to the derailment, the EPA said.

    But residents are still concerned, and federal teams are going door-to-door to conduct health surveys and provide informational flyers after President Joe Biden directed the move, a White House official told CNN.

    And new wells will be drilled this week “to determine if ground water immediately below the derailment site is contaminated,” DeWine’s office announced Sunday.

    Four wells have already been installed and up to three more will be drilled this week after the soil under the rails is completely excavated, officials said.

    “These monitoring wells will also support a better understanding of the direction and rate of the ground water flow in the area,” DeWine’s office said.

    As for the wreckage, all rail cars except the 11 held by investigators have been removed from the site of the derailment, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Anne Vogel said Sunday.

    “This is so critically important to moving on to next steps. We can now excavate additional contaminated soil and began installing monitoring wells,” Vogel said.

    The Ohio EPA will oversee the installation of water monitoring wells at the site of the derailment that will measure contaminant levels in the groundwater below.

    While the crash was “100% preventable,” it appears the train’s crew didn’t do anything wrong leading up to the derailment, said Jennifer Homendy, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board.

    An NTSB preliminary report found one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, Homendy said last week. Video of the train before the crash showed what appeared to be an overheated wheel bearing, the report said.

    What caused the wheel bearing failure will be key to the investigation, Homendy added.

    The investigation will also look into the train’s wheelset and the bearing, the designs of tank cars and railcars, the maintenance procedures and practices, as well as the damage from the derailment, the NTSB report said.

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  • Rep. Elissa Slotkin entering race to succeed retiring Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow | CNN Politics

    Rep. Elissa Slotkin entering race to succeed retiring Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin is entering the race to replace retiring Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow, with a campaign launch video on her YouTube page and a US Senate campaign website up.

    The announcement makes Slotkin the first Democrat to officially declare a bid in what is likely to be among the most competitive and expensive Senate contests in 2024.

    In the three-minute-long video, Slotkin talks about growing up in Michigan, entering public service after 9/11 and going on to work for the CIA.

    “Look, we all know America is going through something right now. We seem to be living crisis to crisis. But there are certain things that should be really simple,” Slotkin says in the video. “This is why I’m running for the United States Senate. We need a new generation of leaders that thinks differently, works harder, and never forgets that we are public servants.”

    Slotkin won reelection to the US House in one of Michigan’s top battleground districts in 2022. According to her most recent FEC filing, Slotkin had about $130,000 in her campaign account at the end of 2022.

    Michigan’s Senate seat is crucial for Democrats. The party is defending 23 of the 34 Senate seats up for reelection next year, including three seats in states that backed former President Donald Trump by at least 8 points in 2020: West Virginia, Montana and Ohio. Besides Michigan, the party is also defending seats in other battleground states such as Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

    Other potential candidates for the seat include Republican Reps. Bill Huizenga and John James, Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell, and Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who drew national attention last year in a floor speech pushing back against anti-LGBTQ attacks from a Republican colleague. James lost a closer-than-expected race to Stabenow in 2018 and then narrowly lost a bid for the state’s other Senate seat in 2020, before winning election to the House in November from a swing seat north of Detroit.

    Several other Democrats who have been considered potential candidates, such as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Dan Kildee, have said they are not running.

    This story has been updated with additional details and background information.

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  • Shipments of contaminated waste to resume from Ohio train derailment site | CNN

    Shipments of contaminated waste to resume from Ohio train derailment site | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    The Environmental Protection Agency has approved resuming shipments of contaminated liquid and soil out of East Palestine, Ohio, where a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed earlier this month.

    The EPA on Friday ordered the train’s operator, Norfolk Southern, to halt the shipments so that it could review the company’s plans for disposal, adding to the controversy surrounding the crash that has also left residents of the town worried about potential long-term health effects.

    That’s as officials in Texas and Michigan complained they didn’t receive any warning that hazardous waste from the crash would be shipped into their jurisdictions for disposal.

    Shipments now will be going to two EPA-certified facilities in Ohio, and Norfolk Southern will start shipments to these locations Monday, EPA regional administrator Debra Shore said at a news conference Sunday.

    “Some of the liquid wastes will be sent to a facility in Vickery, Ohio, where it will be disposed of in an underground injection well,” Shore said. “Norfolk Southern will also beghin shipping solid waste to the Heritage Incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.”

    Until Friday, Norfolk Southern was “solely responsible” for disposing of waste from the train derailment, Shore said Saturday, but waste disposal plans “will be subject to EPA review and approval moving forward.”

    All rail cars, except for those held by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), have been removed from the site of the derailment, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Director Anne Vogel said in an update Sunday.

    The NTSB is currently holding 11 railcars as part of its investigation into the derailment, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in a statement Sunday.

    “This is so critically important to moving on to next steps. We can now excavate additional contaminated soil and began installing monitoring wells,” Vogel said. The Ohio EPA will oversee the installation of water monitoring wells at the site of the derailment that will measure contaminant levels in the groundwater below.

    Every aspect of transporting and disposing of the hazardous waste material “from the moment trucks and rail cars are loaded until the waste is safely disposed of” will be closely regulated and overseen by federal, state, and local governments, Shore said Sunday.

    Shore detailed the federal, state, and local compliance requirements expected from Norfolk Southern.

    “These extensive requirements cover everything from waste labeling, packaging, and handling, as well as requirements for shipping documents that provide information about the wastes and where they’re going,” Shore said.

    The hazardous waste material previously sent to facilities in Michigan and Texas is now being processed at those facilities, Shore said.

    About 2 million gallons of firefighting water from the train derailment site were expected to be disposed in Harris County, Texas, with about half a million gallons already there, according to the county’s chief executive.

    Also, contaminated soil from the derailment site was being taken to the US Ecology Wayne Disposal in Belleville, Michigan, US Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Friday.

    The Michigan and Ohio facilities were, in fact, EPA approved sites, but they are not currently accepting any more shipments at this time, and the EPA is “exploring to see whether they have the capacity” to accept shipments in the future, Shore said.

    A spokesperson Gov. DeWine told CNN the governor was not briefed on where in the country the shipments would be sent. But this is typical, as the train company is responsible for the transport of material and the EPA is responsible for regulating that transport, DeWine spokesman Daniel Tierney said Saturday.

    The February 3 derailment of the Norfolk Southern train and subsequent intentional release of vinyl chloride it was hauling first forced East Palestine residents out of their homes, then left them with anxiety about health effects as reports of symptoms like rashes and headaches emerged after they returned.

    Officials have repeatedly sought to assure residents that continued air and water monitoring has found no concerns. The EPA reported last week that they have conducted indoor air testing at a total of 574 homes and detected no contaminants associated with the derailment.

    Federal teams in East Palestine have begun going door-to-door to check in with residents, conduct health surveys and provide informational flyers after President Joe Biden directed the move, a White House official told CNN.

    Also, a 19-person scientific team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been collecting information from residents about symptoms they have experienced since the derailment, said Jill Shugart, a senior environmental health specialist for the CDC.

    The EPA also installed “sentinel wells” near the city’s municipal well field to monitor contaminants in well water as part of the agency’s long-term early detection system “to protect the city for years to come,” Vogel, head of the Ohio EPA, said Saturday.

    In a Saturday update on the removal of contaminated waste, DeWine said 20 truckloads of hazardous solid waste had been hauled away from the Ohio derailment site. Fifteen of those truckloads were disposed of at a licensed hazardous waste treatment and disposal facility in Michigan and five truckloads were returned to East Palestine.

    About 102,000 gallons of liquid waste and 4,500 cubic yards of solid waste remained Saturday in storage on site in East Palestine – not including the five truckloads returned, according to DeWine. Additional solid and liquid wastes are being generated as the cleanup progresses, he added.

    Dingell told CNN on Saturday that neither she nor Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were aware of plans for toxic waste to be delivered to disposal sites in her district.

    “I called everybody,” Dingell said. “Nobody had really been given a heads up that they were coming here.”

    Across the country, Texas Chief Executive Lina Hidalgo expressed frustration that she first learned about the expected water shipments to her state from the news media – not from a government agency or Texas Molecular, the company hired to dispose of the water.

    She added that although there’s no legal requirement for her office to be notified, “it doesn’t quite seem right.”

    Hidalgo said Texas Molecular told her office Thursday that half a million gallons of the water was already in the county and the shipments began arriving around last Wednesday.

    On Thursday, Texas Molecular told CNN it had been hired to dispose of potentially dangerous water from the Ohio train derailment. The company said they had experts with more than four decades of experience in managing water safely and that all shipments, so far, had come by truck for the entire trip.

    Hidalgo’s office had been seeking information about the disposal, including the chemical composition of the firefighting water, the precautions that were being taken, and why Harris County was the chosen site, she said.

    According to a Thursday news release from Ohio Emergency Management Agency, more than 1.7 million gallons of contaminated liquid had been removed from the immediate site of the derailment. Of that, more than 1.1 million gallons of “contaminated liquid” from East Palestine had been transported off-site, with the majority going to Texas Molecular and the rest going to a facility in Vickery, Ohio.

    CNN asked the Ohio agency the location of the remaining 581,500 gallons which had been “removed” but not “hauled off-site” and has yet to receive a response.

    Regarding the causes of the accident, a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report found that one of the train’s cars carrying plastic pellets was heated by a hot axle that sparked the initial fire, said Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the safety board. So far, the investigation found the three crew members on board the train did not do anything wrong prior to the derailment, though the crash was “100% preventable,” she said.

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  • RNC chair says requiring loyalty pledge for participation in GOP presidential debates is a ‘no-brainer’ | CNN Politics

    RNC chair says requiring loyalty pledge for participation in GOP presidential debates is a ‘no-brainer’ | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
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    Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Sunday that she expects 2024 GOP presidential contenders will have to sign a pledge to back the party’s ultimate nominee in order to participate in primary debates.

    “We haven’t put the criteria out, but I expect a pledge will be part of it. It was part of 2016. I think it’s kind of a no-brainer, right? If you’re going to be on the Republican National Committee debate stage asking voters to support you, you should say, ‘I’m going to support the voters and who they choose as the nominee,’” McDaniel told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” in her first interview since winning a contentious race for a fourth term as RNC chairwoman.

    “As RNC chair, if I said I wouldn’t support the Republican nominee, I would be removed from office,” she said.

    Asked if there would be other requirements for candidates to get onto the debate stage, McDaniel said, “I think there should be a threshold.”

    “You want to make sure you have people on the debate stage who are running for president. We don’t want people who are running for book deals, or media contracts, or Cabinet positions,” she said.

    Republicans who have launched presidential bids include former President Donald Trump, former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, but many more are signaling interest. Among them are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state.

    A Trump campaign spokesperson told CNN later Sunday in response to McDaniel’s pledge expectation that “President Trump will support the Republican nominee because it will be him.”

    Earlier this month, Trump hesitated when asked if he would support the eventual GOP nominee if it were not him.

    “It would depend,” the former president told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt during an interview on radio show. “It would have to depend on who the nominee was.”

    DeSantis called for “some new blood in the RNC” prior to McDaniel’s win in January, while offering praise for Harmeet Dhillon, one of her opponents for the chair position. Asked by Bash if she had spoken to the Florida governor since then, McDaniel said, “Ron and I have a good relationship. And we’re going to work well together,” adding that she campaigned with DeSantis’ wife, Casey, “quite a bit” in the last election.

    The primary is still in its early stages, and it could take months before the field fully rounds into form and candidates make more than occasional visits to states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, which will kick off the GOP’s nominating process.

    “We can’t be attacking each other so much that we lose sight of: We have to beat the Democrats. We have to beat Joe Biden in 2024. And we may have divisive primaries and differences of opinions, but in the end we have to settle those to win the big picture, which is governing our country and doing right by the American people,” McDaniel said Sunday, leaning on the message of unity she put forward in her campaign for another term atop the RNC.

    Asked Sunday about compelling certain White House hopefuls who have broken with party leaders – such as former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson – to sign a loyalty pledge, McDaniel offered: “I think you support the voters.”

    “I am Mitt Romney’s niece and I was appointed to the RNC by Donald Trump. And I would support both of them … if they were the nominee of our party over Joe Biden. But I don’t know if they would support each other,” she said.

    McDaniel was also asked about the decision by Republicans in her home state of Michigan to choose Kristina Karamo as state party chair. Karamo has falsely claimed that Trump won the state in the 2020 election, and she has yet to concede her loss in last year’s race for Michigan secretary of state.

    “I don’t know her very well. And I wasn’t at this recent convention,” said McDaniel, herself a former Michigan GOP chair. “But I’m committed to Michigan. It’s my state.”

    “We have a Senate seat. We have House seats. I love our great state. And the RNC is absolutely committed to Michigan,” she said.

    This story has been updated with additional reaction.

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