By SAM MEDNICK, SAMY MAGDY and WAFAA SHURAFA, Associated Press

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Two of U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoys traveled to Israel Monday to shore up the tenuous ceasefire that’s holding in Gaza, a day after the fragile deal faced its first major flareup as Israel threatened to halt aid transfers and killed dozens in strikes after it accused Hamas of killing two soldiers.

The Israeli military announced it resumed enforcing the ceasefire late Sunday. Aid deliveries will resume Monday through multiple crossings after Israeli inspection, in line with the agreement, according to an Israeli security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they weren’t authorized to speak to the media.

By early afternoon, it was not immediately clear if the flow of aid had restarted.

Israeli government spokesperson Shosh Bedrosian said on Monday that U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about developments in the region.

She said U.S. Vice President JD Vance and the second lady, Usha Vance, would also be visiting the country and meeting with Netanyahu, but didn’t provide a timeline.

There was no immediate confirmation from Washington regarding the vice president’s visit.

A fragile truce

More than a week has passed since the start of the U.S.-proposed truce aimed at ending two years of war. Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that Hamas has been “quite rambunctious” and “they’ve been doing some shooting.”

He also suggested that the violence might be the fault of “rebels” within the organization rather than its leadership.

Since the ceasefire started, Hamas security forces have returned to the streets in Gaza, clashing with armed groups and killing alleged gangsters in what the militant group says is an attempt to restore law and order in areas where Israeli troops have withdrawn.

On Sunday, Israel’s military said militants had fired at troops in areas of Rafah city that are Israeli-controlled according to agreed-upon ceasefire lines.

Retaliatory strikes by Israel killed 45 people in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry, which says a total of 80 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect on Oct. 11.

Hamas, which continued to accuse Israel of multiple ceasefire violations, said communication with its remaining units in Rafah had been cut off for months and “we are not responsible for any incidents occurring in those areas.”

The next stage of ceasefire

The next stage is expected to focus on disarming Hamas, Israeli withdrawal from additional areas it controls in Gaza, and future governance of the devastated territory. The U.S. plan proposes the establishment of an internationally backed authority.

In an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” news program on the weekend, Kushner said the success or failure of the deal would depend on whether Israel and the international mechanism could create a viable alternative to Hamas.

“If they are successful, Hamas will fail, and Gaza will not be a threat to Israel in the future,” he said.

A Hamas delegation led by chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya was in Cairo to follow up on the implementation of the ceasefire deal with mediators and other Palestinian groups.

Fears ceasefire may not hold up

Palestinians in Gaza are wary that the deal may fall apart after Sunday’s flare-up.

Funeral services were held Monday for some of the dozens of people killed earlier by Israeli strikes across the strip. Associated Press footage showed mourners lining up for funeral prayers behind bodies draped in white sheets.

“There should be concerns as long as the matters have yet to be settled,” said Hossam Ahmed, a displaced person from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.

There is also concern about how much aid Israel is letting into Gaza, which is part of the agreement.

In their Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel that sparked the war, Hamas killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 people as hostages.

The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 68,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Thousands more people are missing, according to the Red Cross.

Magdy reported from Cairo and Shurafa from Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip.

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said on Monday that it will consider whether people who regularly smoke marijuana can legally own guns, the latest firearm case to come before the court since its 2022 decision expanding gun rights.

President Donald Trump’s administration asked the justices to revive a case against a Texas man charged with a felony because he allegedly had a gun in his home and acknowledged being a regular pot user. The Justice Department appealed after a lower court largely struck down a law that bars people who use any illegal drugs from having guns.

The Republican administration favors Second Amendment rights, but government attorneys argued that this ban is a justifiable restriction.

They asked the court to reinstate a case against Ali Danial Hemani. His lawyers got the felony charge tossed out after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the blanket ban is unconstitutional under the Supreme Court’s expanded view of gun rights. The appellate judges found it could still be used against people accused of being high and armed at the same time, though.

Hemani’s attorneys argue the broadly written law puts millions of people at risk of technical violations since at least 20% of Americans have tried pot, according to government health data. About half of states legalized recreational marijuana, but it’s still illegal under federal law.

The Justice Department argues the law is valid when used against regular drug users because they pose a serious public safety risk. The government said the FBI found Hemani’s gun and cocaine in a search of his home as they probed travel and communications allegedly linked to Iran. The gun charge was the only one filed, however, and his lawyers said the other allegations were irrelevant and were mentioned only to make him seem more dangerous.

The case marks another flashpoint in the application of the Supreme Court’s new test for firearm restrictions. The conservative majority found in 2022 that the Second Amendment generally gives people the right to carry guns in public for self-defense and any firearm restrictions must have a strong grounding in the nation’s history.

The landmark 2022 ruling led to a cascade of challenges to firearm laws around the country, though the justices have since upheld a different federal law intended to protect victims of domestic violence by barring guns from people under restraining orders.

Lukas Nelson has been known, for all of his life, as Willie Nelson’s son and occasionally part of his family band. And for 16 years of his music-making life he was the leader of the band Promise of the Real, which backed Neil Young as well as releasing eight albums of his own.

Now this Nelson, 36, is out on his own.

During June, Nelson — who won Grammy and BAFTA awards for the songs he wrote for the hit 2018 remake of “A Star is Born” — released “American Romance,” the first album to bear his name alone. Produced by longtime friend Shooter Jennings, the 12-track set includes a collaboration with Sierra Ferrell (“Friend in the End”), as well as a new version of “You Were It,” the first song Nelson ever wrote — at 11 years old — that was first released on Willie Nelson’s 2004 album “It Will Always Be.”

The set ushers in what Lukas Nelson acknowledges is a new era in his career, one he feels will allow him to make a wide array of music, entirely on his own terms…

* Nelson says via Zoom from New York that he considers stepping away from Promise of the Real — whose other members are working in Young’s Chrome Hearts band — to be “almost cosmetic. What happened to me was the name Promise of the Real was so tied into Neil Young from the times we’d been playing with him that I felt like I wanted to make sure I could do something different, that felt different, that maybe fans of Neil Young or even fans of my dad wouldn’t necessarily be bummed about. I love Neil Young fans, and I love my dad’s fans, but I want to bring other fans along, too. And I felt like sometimes people were getting a little aggressive about me not playing as much guitar or rocking out at certain points. I wanted the freedom to NOT do that, and to do what I want to, when I want to. So I just felt I had to change the name, really.”

* He acknowledges that the tenor of “American Romance” is a bit quieter and more reflective than the harder-rocking Promise of the Real material. “I have so many songs. I was in a flow of writing, and you can’t really tell yourself to write a certain song — some people can, but for me, whatever comes out comes out. So I was writing a lot of songs that were more about lyrics and vocals than they were about rockin’ out. That’s just what was coming out, and I wanted to focus on those songs. Since then, I’ve written a lot of rockers.” (laughs)

* Nelson — who splits time between homes in Nashville and Maui — considers “American Romance” to be a kind of aural travelogue, inspired by his own journeys as a musician. “Moving, traveling — up until this point in my life and, actually, continually that has been my biography the defining aspect of my life. That’s what’s kept me from getting married and having kids. It’s what keeps me from so much. It’s a romance; there’s happiness and sadness, and heartbreak and elation. It kind of covers the gamut.”

* As “American Romance” is his first “solo” album, Nelson felt it would be appropriate to include “You Were It” as the closing track. “I was on the school bus one day when I was 11, and it started playing in my head and I realized it was a song that hadn’t been written yet. So I wrote it and played it for my dad, and he liked it so much he put it on his album. That gave me a lot of confidence; I knew it wasn’t just fluff ’cause dad put it on his album. I figured it was appropriate to finally put it out, and what better way to put it out than on a record with just my name on it. It’s very stripped down; that’s me at my core, so it was kind of a nice callback.”

* Nelson says he has “so many things I’m excited about in the future, including both music and movies. “I’m working on a movie project right now that I can’t really talk about yet, but I’ve written 30 songs for that with Ernest, and that’s exciting. I’ve got some other stuff in New York that I might be doing soon. And I’m planning on recording another album coming up pretty soon; I’m writing for that now, ’cause I can’t stop the songs from coming. I just wrote a song with Ben West and Laci Kaye Booth that feels like a mix of Radiohead and country. So it’s hard to say; I can just tell you there’s a lot of music, and some fun stuff on the horizon.”

Lukas Nelson performs Wednesday, Oct. 22, at the Majestic Theatre at the Majestic Theatre, 4140 Woodward Ave. Doors at 7 p.m. 313-833-9700 or majesticdetroit.com.

LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Dodgers blew away the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League Championship Series. Try as all parties involved might to suggest that things could have gone differently with a few breaks here or there, the Brewers simply did not have the horsepower to keep up. They looked like a team built on a budget playing a team that spares no expense – which, of course, is exactly what they were.

Maybe that had nothing to do with the Dodgers’ sweep. Maybe, if they played this series again – say, in a stretch when the Dodgers’ starting pitching wasn’t historically dominant – the Brewers would win it. They did, after all, beat the Dodgers in all six games they played in the regular season. No one can say for sure.

But what is certain is that even the downright modest present-day value of Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year contract (roughly $460 million) could cover the Brewers’ entire payroll three times over with room to spare. In other words, the fight for this year’s NL pennant put baseball’s haves-and-have-nots economics on national display.

Twelve months and a few weeks from now, baseball’s collective bargaining agreement will expire, a moment for which the industry has been bracing for years. Payroll disparities across MLB – such as the one on display when the Dodgers and Brewers met – have widened so much that almost everyone agrees substantial economic change is necessary.

But the owners and players disagree so dramatically on what shape that change should take that both groups are bracing for a lengthy lockout, readying themselves for the possibility of an extended work stoppage so completely that players and executives alike are crafting contracts with security in the event of a missed season.

From some vantage points, then, this series had the makings of a referendum.

An easy Dodgers win would prove the point of MLB and its owners, who are in favor of a salary cap – but are careful not to say for certain whether they will push for one. Sure, their argument would go, a so-called small-market team such as the Brewers can be an annual contender in the regular season. But when it comes to the playoffs, all perceptions of parity evaporate. No small-market club has won the World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015, and only one other such team (the Florida Marlins in 2003) has won a title since the turn of the century.

Certainly, parity is not the only motivation that team owners would have in pushing for a salary cap, which would limit the money they could spend on payroll and, they believe, increase franchise valuations by establishing cost certainty more like that held by NFL, NBA and NHL teams.

The players union, by contrast, could look at this series as proof that parity is as strong as ever. The team in MLB’s smallest market (as measured by the CBA) had its best regular season record and home-field advantage into the NLCS. The Brewers had as good of a chance as anyone. If they had spent even a little more, they might have had the pitching they needed to keep up with the Dodgers.

Player salaries are not the problem, the union would argue; stingy owners are. Look what happened, for example, when the Seattle Mariners splurged at this year’s trade deadline after years of relative frugality: They are one win from the World Series.

“I think that we’re in a big market [and] we’re expected to win. Our fans expect us to win. I can’t speak to what revenue we’re bringing in, but our ownership puts it back into players, a big chunk of it, which I know that’s the way it should be with all ownership groups,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said. “… I think that that’s what sports fans would want from everyone – to get the best of their team.”

The Dodgers batted away the Brewers with elite starting pitching – more than $1.3 billion worth by total contract value. The Brewers were not alone in finding their offense suddenly inert against this Dodgers rotation: The formerly slugging Philadelphia Phillies scored more than three runs just once in four games against them in the NL Division Series and are now reevaluating the makeup of their roster.

The Dodgers also can afford to stockpile arms and approach the regular season with only mild desperation, which is how they ended up with four top starters at full strength in October. They let Ohtani take his time working back from Tommy John surgery so that he would be fully built up by late in the season and not a moment before. They let Blake Snell take his time working back from shoulder trouble, so much so that he made just 11 starts before the postseason. They could give Tyler Glasnow a lucrative contract extension despite his injury history because they were not signing him to be their only ace but rather one of several.

“I think the one constant, at least from my time here in L.A., is we use a lot of people. We use our roster. Our front office does a really good job of providing depth from the beginning of the season and supplementing it as the season goes on,” Dodgers pitching coach Mark Prior said. “And it allows us to use guys to bring in, to get big outs, even if it’s for two or three games.”

Brewers Manager Pat Murphy repeatedly brought up his team’s underdog status this past week, pointing out at one point that Snell “makes more money than our entire pitching staff.”

“That’s for a reason – because he’s great. What he demonstrated [in Game 1] was the high end of his game, unbelievable. That’s great,” Murphy said. “We can’t do anything about it.”

But even Murphy, who is not one to filter, knew better than to inflame tensions with a comment on whether his team would face a fairer fight with a salary cap in place. He insisted he does not use the Brewers’ perceived financial disadvantages as a motivator.

“That’s a correlation between great success and great payroll, so you can bring it up if you want to, but I don’t bring it up with our guys,” Murphy said. “I just try to get them to play hard and believe they can.”

Even if this series was symbolic, it is hard to see it changing many minds. Certainly, neither side’s position would be altered by its outcome. MLB Players Association bulldog Bruce Meyer, for example, seems unlikely to rethink his union’s most fundamental position because those doggone Dodgers won again.

But even a year before those negotiations begin, the questions were being asked and the stories were being written. MLB and union officials made their cases to reporters on the field. And everyone from team officials to coaches in the dugout wagered their guesses about how long a work stoppage might last – and which side will blink first.

These are supposed to be the halcyon days before collective bargaining’s cruel reality check, but the storm clouds are already here.

By SAMYA KULLAB, Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his reportedly tense meeting with U.S President Donald Trump last week was “positive” — even though he did not secure the Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine — and emphasized what he said is continued American interest in economic deals with Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said Trump reneged on the possibility of sending the long-range missiles to Ukraine, which would have been a major boost for Kyiv, following his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin hours before the Ukrainian leader and American president were to meet on Friday.

“In my opinion, he does not want an escalation with the Russians until he meets with them,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Sunday. His comments were embargoed until Monday morning.

Ukraine is hoping to purchase 25 Patriot air defense systems from American firms using frozen Russian assets and assistance from partners, but Zelenskyy said procuring all of these would require time because of long production queues. He said he spoke to Trump about help procuring these quicker, potentially from European partners.

According to Zelenskyy, Trump said during their meeting that Putin’s maximalist demand — that Ukraine cede the entirety of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions — was unchanged.

Zelenskyy was diplomatic about his meeting with Trump despite reports that he faced pressure to accept Putin’s demands — a tactic he has kept up since the disastrous Oval Office spat on Feb. 28 when the Ukrainian president was scolded on live television for not being grateful for continued American support.

Zelenskyy said that because Trump ultimately supported a freeze along the current front line his overall message “is positive” for Ukraine.

He said Trump was looking to end the war and hopes his meeting in the coming weeks with Putin in Hungary — which does not support Ukraine — will pave the way for a peace deal after their first summit in Alaska in August failed to reach such an outcome.

So far, Zelenskyy said he has not been invited to attend but would consider it if the format for talks were fair to Kyiv.

“We share President Trump’s positive outlook if it leads to the end of the war. After many rounds of discussion over more than two hours with him and his team, his message, in my view, is positive — that we stand where we stand on the line of contact, provided all sides understand what is meant,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy expressed doubts about Hungary’s capital of Budapest being a suitable location for the next Trump-Putin meeting.

“I do not consider Budapest to be the best venue for such a meeting. Obviously, if it can bring peace, it will not matter which country hosts the meeting,” he added.

Zelenskyy took a stab at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying he does not believe that a prime minister “who blocks Ukraine everywhere can do anything positive for Ukrainians or even provide a balanced contribution.”

Zelenskyy also expressed skepticism about Putin’s proposal to swap some territory it holds in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions if Ukraine surrenders all of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

“We wanted to understand exactly what the Russians meant. So far, there is no clear position,” he said.

Zelenskyy said he thinks that all parties have “moved closer” to a possible end to the war.

“That doesn’t mean it will definitely end, but President Trump has achieved a lot in the Middle East, and riding that wave he wants to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Zelenskyy added.

He said the United States is interested in bilateral gas projects with Ukraine, including the construction of an LNG terminal in the southern port city of Odesa. Other projects of interest to the U.S. include those related to nuclear energy and oil.

By CHRISTOPHER MEGERIAN, Associated Press

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE (AP) — President Donald Trump said the United States could buy Argentine beef in an attempt to bring down prices for American consumers.

“We would buy some beef from Argentina,” the Republican president told reporters aboard Air Force One during a flight from Florida to Washington on Sunday. “If we do that, that will bring our beef prices down.”

Trump promised days earlier to address the issue as part of his efforts to keep inflation in check.

U.S. beef prices have been stubbornly high for a variety of reasons, including drought and reduced imports from Mexico due to a flesh-eating pest in cattle herds there.

Trump has been working to help Argentina bolster its collapsing currency with a $20 billion credit swap line and additional financing from sovereign funds and the private sector ahead of midterm elections for his close ally President Javier Milei.

ALLEN PARK — If you’re familiar with Alim McNeill’s temperament, his answer shouldn’t surprise you.

Athletes and coaches speak often about the value of remaining even-keel. Never getting too high, never getting too low. Refusing to ride the inevitable emotional roller coaster that comes during a five-to-six-month NFL season. It’s easier said than done.

But McNeill, in his fifth year with the Detroit Lions, lives that mantra.

“He’s always very steady, which I appreciate about him,” teammate Aidan Hutchinson said.

McNeill is set to make his season debut against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night, about 10 months removed from the torn ACL he suffered last December. For some, a return like this draws emotion, maybe even some tears of gratitude during pregame warmups or the national anthem. McNeill, however, doesn’t see himself responding that way, and it’s not because he doesn’t appreciate the moment.

“I don’t take things for granted at all; it’s for sure going to be a huge moment. But just knowing me, it’s just going to be game day for me,” said McNeill, as nonchalant as he is talented. “I’m not going to sit here and try to make a big deal out of it and all this and that. Because people get hurt and come back all the time. So, it’s like, why would I make a big deal out of it? Let’s just go play football.”

McNeill’s return is massive for the Lions. He’s a disruptive run defender next to fellow defensive tackle DJ Reader, but perhaps more important is his ability to rush the passer from an interior alignment. The Lions have missed that this season, with not only McNeill being unavailable, but also Levi Onwuzurike, who had a season-ending knee procedure before training camp.

Before getting hurt against the Buffalo Bills in Week 15 last season, McNeill posted 45 pressures, tied for the eighth-most among all defensive tackles through Weeks 1-15. He also had seven tackles for loss and 3½ sacks. His presence on the defensive line should, at least in theory, open up even more opportunities for Hutchinson, who, entering Week 7, leads the NFL in pressures (36) and strip-sacks (three), and is fourth in sacks (six).

“It’ll be super fun,” McNeill said of playing alongside Hutchinson again. “We were already out there (at practice) trying to get that chemistry back going. It’s a couple things that we were doing out there, little head nods, little small stuff like that we were trying to get going. It’s going to be fun. That’s an electric player to be beside. He elevates everybody around him.”

Excitement around McNeill’s return isn’t limited to members of the defensive line. Linebackers coach Shaun Dion Hamilton is well aware what McNeill can do for his unit, eating up space, closing gaps and opening avenues for the team’s linebackers to come down and get run stops.

The Lions already had a handful of strong run defenders at defensive tackle, in Reader, rookie Tyleik Williams and veteran Roy Lopez. Adding a fourth stout piece to the rotation should only make everyone’s responsibilities more manageable.

“Very ecstatic, as a coach, to have that guy back,” Hamilton said. “Some of the things that he can do at 300-plus pounds, you’re not supposed to be able to do. He’s going to, for sure, help affect the quarterback, play the run. It’s so many things that guy can do. Just glad that he’s on our team and not another team.”

How many snaps McNeill plays against the Bucs remains to be seen, but he’s expecting to perform at the same level he was at before getting injured. He attacked his rehabilitation too hard to think anything different: “That’s the work that I’ve been putting in, to be the same exact way, if not better.”

Ten months of work and recovery will culminate for McNeill on Monday. Don’t expect to see watery eyes when the camera pans toward him. But rest assured, McNeill, one of Detroit’s defensive cornerstones, couldn’t be happier.

“It’s the only thing I’ve been looking forward to,” McNeill said of his upcoming return. “I don’t even know how to (properly) explain that to you. I’ve been waiting on this day for a long, long time.”

By Beth LeBlanc, Chad Livengood, Melissa Nann Burke, Grant Schwab, MediaNews Group

After vowing to bring state employees back to Lansing, the Legislature’s actual written instructions included in this year’s spending plan leaves much of the decision-making on remote work up to Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer‘s administration, as it has been for the past several years.

The so-called boilerplate language in the state budget bill requires state departments to “optimize” in-person work, to monitor remote workers and ensure all state employees comply with Office of State Employer standards.

But it leaves those standards up to Whitmer’s administration, which has allowed state workers to operate under a patchwork of remote work policies that differ by agency since the governor sent them home in March 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Additionally, the provisions in the budget require state buildings to have about 80% occupancy, without defining how that occupancy would be measured. Currently, the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget measures building occupancy by available square footage versus the amount of square footage allocated to an agency or tenant.

In other words, an increased occupancy rate, under the current definition, does not necessarily mean more individuals in a building.

More: Amid remote work scrutiny, Michigan refuses to release state office building occupancy data

House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, had been an outspoken critic of the Whitmer administration’s post-pandemic in-person work requirements, vowing in April to “bring the state workers back to work” through a state budget mandate. One Republican-controlled House committee held a blistering hearing about the issue in May.

When asked about the budget’s work requirements last week, Hall said through a spokesman that the language included in the budget stems from “productive conversations” between Hall and Whitmer about how to get employees back from the office.

While the speaker believes the language represents progress, “the House will be monitoring that progress over the next few weeks to see how it plays out,” said Gideon D’Assandro, a spokesman for Hall.

D’Assandro referred questions on specifics to the governor’s team.

The Department of Technology Management and Budget said it is “constantly evaluating our state-owned buildings and leased footprint.”

“That work will continue as we implement the new boilerplate,” spokeswoman Laura Wotruba said.

The Office of State Employer, when asked about the possibility of new work requirements, did not answer directly.

“The Office of the State Employer is currently reviewing the budget recently signed into law by Gov. Whitmer and will provide information and appropriate guidance to our department and agency partners in the near future,” the office’s spokeswoman, Lauren Leeds, said.

The vagueness of the budget language prompted the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce to formally ask for clarification last week on when workers might return to the capital city. The letter from the chamber’s president and CEO, Tim Daman, seeks a clear timeline for the implementation of return-to-work policies and a clear indication of how occupancy will be measured.

“As the chamber continues to collaborate with state agencies and business partners to strengthen Michigan’s capital region economy, clear communication about the policy’s timing and application will help ensure businesses are prepared to support increased workforce activity downtown,” Daman wrote.

Will autism funding be restored?

The Autism Alliance of Michigan laid off 18 employees last week who worked in their autism navigator program, helping thousands of families find services for their children on the spectrum, said Colleen Allen, president and CEO of the nonprofit organization.

The Autism Alliance’s $2 million appropriation in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services was swept up in targeted spending cuts as lawmakers sought to find funds for a roughly $1.8 billion annual road repair increase.

Allen said the layoffs amounted to half of the organization’s staff and will result in the remaining autism navigator staff being able to serve 1,000 families annually instead of 4,000.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signaled her support for restoring the $2 million in a year-end spending bill.

“The governor included funding for the Autism Alliance in her executive recommendation and would support restoring the funding,” Whitmer spokesman Bobby Leddy said.

But Allen said she couldn’t take a chance of not being able to make payroll in the coming monts if lawmakers don’t come through with promises to restore the funding.

In an Oct. 8 interview, House Speaker Matt Hall said he’s unsure if lawmakers will be able to restore the $2 million program.

“I don’t see a vehicle to do that,” Hall said of restoring the funding. “I don’t think that we wanted it out. I think that essentially there wasn’t enough money left to pay for it.”

The Kalamazoo County Republican characterized the decision to cut the autism navigator program as “an oversight.”

“I think it was also an oversight because I don’t know that anyone intended for it to happen,” Hall told The News.

Hall also labeled the $2 million line-item as “pork,” a description Allen took exception with.

“We’re not an earmark,” Allen said. “We’re embedded in the MDHHS budget.”

Clerks oppose ranked choice voting

County clerks across the state voted unanimously Tuesday to oppose a ballot initiative that would allow for ranked choice voting in Michigan.

The Michigan Association of County Clerks’ rare public rebuke of a ballot initiative was based on concerns over the effect RankMiVote’s voting initiative would have on ballot length, voter confusion, audits and recounts and delayed results.

“We support the rights of voters to amend the state constitution through the initiative process. And as county clerks, it is our duty to implement all election requirements, including this one, if enacted,” Washtenaw County Clerk Larry Kestenbaum said in a statement. “But we feel that this proposal, as written, will have unintended consequences for Michigan elections.”

More: Backers of ranked choice voting want proposal on Michigan ballot despite Trump opposition

Ghalib to get ambassadorship hearing

Hamtramck Mayor Amer Ghalib is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday morning, about seven months after President Donald Trump nominated him to be ambassador to Kuwait.

The hearing comes after New Hampshire U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, last month said the panel’s chairman, Republican Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, had agreed to postpone consideration of Ghalib’s nomination as senators await more details about Ghalib’s background.

Ghalib’s nomination has prompted criticism from groups accusing him of antisemitism and of being anti-Israel. But Ghalib earlier this month said he had received a call from Trump, who “renewed” his support for Ghalib, despite the pushback to his nomination.

Last year, the mayor endorsed Trump for president and campaigned with him in Hamtramck in October at a critical juncture in the 2024 election when the Republican nominee was trying to win over Arab American voters in battleground Michigan.

Groups devoted to fighting antisemitism have come out strongly against Trump’s pick of Ghalib.

They have highlighted Ghalib’s support for the movement to boycott, divest and impose sanctions on Israel and called him a “denier” of sexual violence by the militant group Hamas in its 2023 attack on Israel ― an apparent reference to Ghalib’s remarks at a protest following the Oct. 7 attack.

Both the Anti-Defamation League and the grassroots group StopAntisemitism called on Trump to withdraw the nomination months ago, with the ADL saying it “strongly” opposes the pick. The American Jewish Committee expressed similar concerns.

McClain, Slotkin on No Kings rallies

Republicans in Congress spent the last week deriding the No Kings protests against the Trump administration as the “I Hate America” rallies, and suggesting that Democratic lawmakers were only trying to keep the government shutdown until after the protests.

“I hope after they have the ‘I hate America’ rally on Saturday that some reasonable Democrats will stop being ruled by their Marxist left-wing arm of their party and come to their senses and open up the government for the American people,” said U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain of Bruce Township, chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.

Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Holly led a group of Democratic members of Congress last week, pushing back against the narrative. The group, which served in the military or, like Slotkin, in national security roles, called on veterans and others to show up “patriotically” and protest peacefully at their local No Kings rally on Saturday.

“We are all watching what President Trump is doing with the uniform military, using it to police American streets. … We’ve seen this authoritarian playbook before in too many other countries,” Slotkin and the others said in a montage video.

“As people who have served, we think it’s important that we say something. … Let’s exercise our freedoms and make clear that this is out of a deep sense of patriotism, love of country and collective desire to make our country better. … Because this is our country, and we need to fight for it, because America … has no king.”

Appearing in the video with Slotkin were Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego of Arizona and U.S. Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Pat Ryan of New York, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

Reps: Pay federal law enforcement

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Holland, led a group of lawmakers in writing to the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget to encourage efforts to pay federal law enforcement during the government shutdown after the administration previously reprogrammed funds to ensure troops wouldn’t miss a paycheck last week.

The shutdown is in its third week, with most civilian federal employees scheduled to miss their first paycheck Oct. 24.

“Federal law enforcement are currently performing dangerous, mission-critical work without pay—including Border Patrol, ICE agents, CBP officers, DEA, Secret Service, Federal Air Marshals, and Transportation Security Officers,” Huizenga wrote.

“This is especially true in this climate of increasingly hateful rhetoric and violence directed at these officers — from the recent sniper assault on an ICE facility in Dallas to the nationwide harassment, endangerment, and doxxing of federal agents by extremist groups like Antifa, and by cartels placing assassination bounties on law enforcement officials.”

The letter was also signed by Reps. Tom Barrett of Charlotte and John James of Shelby Township, among others.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, last week introduced legislation in Congress to pay Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees during government shutdowns.

Former candidate endorses in 10th District Dem primary

Days after posting the top quarterly fundraising haul in a suburban Detroit Democratic congressional primary, attorney Eric Chung won the endorsement of a one-time opponent.

Chung, of Sterling Heights, is one of three Democratic hopefuls looking to replace James after the twice-elected GOP lawmaker’s term expires at the end of 2026. James is running for governor of Michigan instead of seeking reelection to Congress.

Alex Hawkins of Rochester, an Army veteran and former congressional fellow for then-Rep. Slotkin, recently dropped out of the race. He will instead challenge GOP state Rep. Mark Tisdel of Rochester Hills for a seat in the state Legislature.

“I’ve gotten to know Eric Chung over the course of this campaign, and I’m proud to endorse him for Congress in Michigan’s 10th District. Eric’s the real deal,” Hawkins said in a statement.

He continued: “(Chung) shows up, listens, and fights for people instead of playing politics. At a time when so many are tired of career politicians and empty promises, Eric brings honesty, integrity, and a deep commitment to serving our communities. I’m proud to stand with him in this race and look forward to working alongside him to deliver real results for Michigan.”

Hawkins chose Chung over former special victims prosecutor Christina Hines of Warren and Pontiac Mayor Tim Greimel.

“I am honored to have Alex’s endorsement,” said Chung, a former U.S. Commerce Department attorney during the Biden administration. “A veteran and a community leader, Alex understands what it means to lead with integrity and purpose. I am looking forward to working with him to build a brighter future for workers and families in Macomb and Oakland County and across Michigan.”

Tweet of the Week

The Insider report’s “Tweet of the Week,” recognizing a social media post that was worthy of attention or, possibly, just a laugh, from the previous week, goes to Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox.

The former attorney general had a bone to pick with the way the recent state budget was portrayed when the actual numbers told a different story.

eleblanc@detroitnews.com

mburke@detroitnews.com

gschwab@detroitnews.com

 

Today is Monday, Oct. 20, the 293rd day of 2024. There are 72 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Oct. 20, 1947, the House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence in the U.S. motion picture industry.

Also on this date:

In 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

In 1944, Gen. Douglas MacArthur waded ashore in his return to the Philippines against Japanese forces in World War II, fulfilling a promise he made (“I shall return”) after being ordered to evacuate the country in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

In 1967, a jury in Meridian, Mississippi, convicted seven men of violating the civil rights of killed civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner; the seven received prison terms ranging from three to 10 years.

In 1973, in what would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre,” President Richard M. Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson to fire special Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox; Richardson refused and resigned. Deputy Attorney General William B. Ruckelshaus also refused to fire Cox and resigned. Acting Attorney General Robert Bork fired Cox.

In 1973, the Sydney Opera House was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1976, 78 people were killed when the Norwegian tanker SS Frosta rammed the commuter ferry George Prince on the Mississippi River near New Orleans.

In 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with three others in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi.

In 1990, three members of the rap group 2 Live Crew were acquitted by a jury in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of violating obscenity laws with an adults-only concert in nearby Hollywood the previous June.

In 2011, Moammar Gadhafi, 69, Libya’s dictator for 42 years, was killed as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.

In 2022, British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned after just 49 days in office when her plan for billions in tax cuts rocked financial markets and battered the value of the pound; Truss also resigned as head of the Conservative Party.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Japan’s Empress Michiko is 91.
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame singer Wanda Jackson is 88.
• Baseball Hall of Famer Juan Marichal is 88.
• Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky is 85.
• Retired MLB All-Star Keith Hernandez is 72.
• Composer Thomas Newman is 70.
• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., is 70.
• Film director Danny Boyle is 69.
• Actor Viggo Mortensen is 67.
• Former Vice President Kamala Harris is 61.
• Actor William Zabka is 60.
• Journalist Sunny Hostin (TV: “The View”) is 57.
• Actor Kenneth Choi is 54.
• Rapper Snoop Dogg is 54.
• Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, is 53.
• Actor John Krasinski is 46.
• Rapper YoungBoy Never Broke Again is 26.

If in mid-September you had forecast that Florida State would spend part of mid-October in the wee hours at Stanford frantically trying to avoid going 3-4 overall and 0-4 in the ACC while lunging toward the goal line on a final play that the referee then carefully reviewed for half an eternity, well, sure, you could have made a bloody fortune, but that wouldn’t have made you any less loopy. The truth around college football, after all, has gone loopy lately, even for college football.

Another one of those berserk weekends met its end after four top-10 teams lost and the Seminoles, 17.5-point favorites, fell, 20-13, to a program in a rebuilding decade. The drawn-out ending of Florida State-Stanford played like some slow-warping alternate universe as the game kept seeming to conclude but then not doing so as Stanford students in the stands mocked Florida State with tomahawk chops. Florida State Coach Mike Norvell wound up looking glum and puzzled again, his sixth Seminoles team appearing as if lost among the redwoods with a dead flashlight, still roaming the country without any ACC win since September 2024, across nine yawning losses.

And a final score from Tallahassee on Aug. 30, 2025 – Florida State 31, Alabama 17 – continued to mutate into some inexplicable oddity in the rearview.

Maybe somebody should just go ahead and delete it.

The Seminoles, who danced at the end of that 31-17 win to Soulja Boy’s “Crank That” as quarterback Thomas Castellanos fretted maybe they should temper the braggadocio, the team from the empire resuscitated, have now lost to Virginia, Miami, Pittsburgh and Stanford. Its good coach’s job teeters. Meanwhile, the Alabama team and its second-year coach presumed doomed and soft for a loud September week just reached 6-1 with a fourth straight win over a ranked SEC opponent, this time Tennessee by 37-20. Alabama looks like Alabama. It has beaten even Vanderbilt. “They’ve got an edge to them still and haven’t lost it since the beginning there, since Week 1,” Kalen DeBoer said of his players to reporters in Tuscaloosa. “That’s hard to do. That’s really hard to do.”

All around the land, a sport historically long on oligarchy has taken to dabbling in anarchy. Miami looks ironclad – no, wait. It lost Friday night to Louisville on a diving interception that doubled as one of the best catches ever by a linebacker, making Louisville quarterback Miller Moss say, “Holy s—,” and making the interceptor, Miami native T.J. Capers, say, “You know, I’d say it was surreal.” James Franklin looks gone – no, wait. There he sat as an ex-Penn State coach on the set of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” saying, “We’re just going to go win the national championship somewhere else now.” Two-loss Texas looks healed – no, wait. It got outgained 395-179 on Saturday night at struggling Kentucky, got out-first-downed 26-8, got out-possessed 39:23-20:37 and tussled into a 13-13 overtime, where it needed a touchdown-saving tackle by Jaylon Guilbeau, a goal-line stand and a 45-yard field goal to smile going home. “You know,” Coach Steve Sarkisian told reporters in Lexington, “once a year, you have a culture win, where the game’s not pretty but the team, because the team is so close, finds a way to win the game.”

USC returns – no, wait. Michigan sinks – no, wait. The only frigates sailing calmly above the fray seem to be Ohio State and Indiana, but the latter case feels refreshingly upside-down. UAB fired its coach last Sunday, then upended 21½-point favorite Memphis on Saturday. BYU dipped into deep trouble Oct. 11 at Arizona, wriggled out of that in double overtime and then bested loathed rival Utah, 24-21, on Saturday to reach 7-0 with the help of a ricocheting 22-yard touchdown run by a quarterback wearing No. 47 and named Bear (Bachmeier), all while Jason Benetti of Fox Sports called from the booth, “There’s a Bear on the loose in Provo!”

It’s a season in which Vanderbilt sits a legit 6-1 as lionhearted quarterback Diego Pavia helps beat No. 10 LSU, 31-24, with a fourth-down play in the third quarter on which a defensive end appears squarely in his windshield and Pavia buys himself two seconds with some sort of unteachable 360 move out of the ether before throwing. He also throws a touchdown pass to a blocking tight end, Cole Spence, who later chirpily notes it’s his first news conference and says, eventually: “Yeah, we’re not hiding it. We’re trying to go win a national championship. This is a big win, another step on the road, but if we end this season with six wins, we’re going to be pissed.”

In how many seasons do Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech stream toward the top 10 while ranked Virginia sits 6-1 after that nutty rarity, a game-winning safety, all while Texas Tech gets upset?

In one, pretty much. Assumptions keep croaking, so when you assume, you make – you know. An epitome of croaked assumptions occurred in that fresh harbor of fervor, Tempe.

You might know the populous Arizona State student body as having a bit of a reputation for appreciating that the campus is not, you know, dry. But as the newfangled college football with its 12-team playoff and its player mobility seems to allow more college towns a chance at non-delusional hoping, those Sun Devil students helped create one hell of a field-storming scene after a 26-22 upset of No. 7 Texas Tech. At one point, it appeared their grand blob of humanity engulfed a 6-foot-5, 295-pound lineman with an 82-inch wingspan, Champ Westbrooks from Los Angeles, except you can’t engulf somebody like that, so Westbrooks appeared to just grin amid the love.

Amid all the fine senselessness, both Texas Tech and Arizona State had visited Salt Lake City this year, the former whacking Utah, 34-10, and the latter getting whacked, 42-10, just last week. “I still don’t want to think about it,” Arizona State Coach Kenny Dillingham said, “because I’m so embarrassed by it.” So, of course, assumptions crumbled again.

“You’ve got to find solutions to problems,” said Dillingham, the 35-year-old native Arizonan who has returned the electricity to his alma mater. “[Losing 42-10] beat me up. It beat me up a lot. But I sat down. … I called two coaches that I knew that I had a lot of respect for and I said: ‘Hey, this is the situation we’re in. We’ve got some guys dinged up. … We’re not as physical as we were. We’re a veteran team. I’ve never been in this situation. Help?’”

Well, the embarrassed rise again in 2025, maybe even after some pad-popping practices, and so the Sun Devils led 19-7, trailed 22-19 with two minutes left and won on a 75-yard drive led by quarterback Sam Leavitt, including a hairy fourth and two when he darted toward the line but then flipped a pass to Jordyn Tyson along the sideline, leading to 33 yards of relieved roaring. Besides, everyone wants a quarterback who sobs when the leaves fall and he’s hurt and he can’t play, as happened at Utah.

“I remember we were driving on the bus on the way to the [Utah] game,” Leavitt told reporters in Tempe, “and obviously, we’re [based] in Arizona, so it doesn’t really get fall weather around here. So we get [to Salt Lake City] and leaves are falling and it feels like real football. So we’re on our way to the stadium, I’ve got my headphones on, and I just started bawling.”

In 2025, you can bawl one week and enthrall the next – or, of course, the other way around.

DETROIT (AP) — Dylan Larkin and rookie Emmitt Finne each scored twice to help the surging Detroit Red Wings beat the Edmonton Oilers 4-2 on Sunday.

Detroit has won five straight since opening with a 5-1 loss to Montreal.

Edmonton has a losing record after dropping a third straight game as superstar Connor McDavid extended his career-long, season-opening, goal drought to six games.

Detroit’s John Gibson stopped 16 shots, including one that denied McDavid midway through the third period. On the same shift, Larkin poked the puck away from the three-time MVP to take away another potential scoring opportunity.

Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner had 21 saves.

Leon Draisaitl was all alone with a chance to pull the Oilers into a tie late in the game, but lost control of the puck.

Shortly thereafter, Finne scored an empty-net goal to seal it.

Finne, a 2023 seventh-round pick, had the first goal of midway through the second period to put Detroit ahead 2-0 after Larkin broke a scoreless tie a few minutes earlier in the period.

Larkin, who has a point in all six games this season, resored the Red Wings’ two-goal lead late in the third period after Edmonton’s Noah Philp scored.

Detroit’s captain is the third Red Wing to have multiple season-opening point streaks of six or more games, joining Hall of Famers Gordie Howe and Steve Yzerman.

The Red Wings are off to a desperately needed strong start after extending their franchise-record postseason drought to nine years last spring.

The Oilers, coming off back-to-back losses in the Stanley Cup Final, didn’t earn a point for the first time against Detroit in eight games to end their longest active streak against an opponent.

Up next

Oilers: At Ottawa on Tuesday night.

Devils: At Buffalo on Wednesday night.

After more than a month of renovations, the Royal Oak Senior Center reopened earlier this month with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours of the rejuvenated facility.

With $500,000 invested in improvements both inside and outside, including some infrastructure repairs, Director Yolanda Botello-McClain has seen an influx of residents and non-residents fill the building.

“We have all new flooring throughout the entire Senior Center, except for the three tiled floors. We have new paint, a state-of-the-art coffee bar, and all-new bathrooms, which are now ADA compliant,” she said after the facility re-opened Friday, Oct. 3. “We now have all new LED lighting throughout the entire senior center and all new ceiling tiles, along with a new reception area.”

Paid for by a grant from Oakland County and matching ARPA funds from the city, the half-million-dollar project didn’t cost Royal Oak taxpayers a dime. The updates include a new generator – key in keeping the kitchen up and running and keeping food safe during power outages. The center had undergone some previous updates, including the workout area, back in February 2025.

“I applied for a grant through Oakland County for senior centers, and we received it. Then, the city matched that amount with ARPA dollars, which paid for all of these things,” Botello-McClain said. “Also, last year, we upgraded our commercial kitchen with all new appliances. The grant also covered new laptops.”

She noted the center is “so much brighter and it just gives it a totally different look without the dark carpeting and the lighting was very dim in here. It’s definitely a breath of fresh air when you walk in now.”

The Senior Center is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. However, evening activities and classes often extend the center’s hours until 8 or 9 p.m., depending on the schedule.

“We have everything from card groups, massage therapy, art classes, fitness classes, dancing classes, French classes and we have congregate meals every day with lunch at 11:40 a.m. for only $5. You can choose dine-in or carry-out,” she said.

The center features two billiard tables and offers support groups for grief, aphasia, Alzheimer’s, caregivers, and various veteran support groups. With the renovation finished, residents and non-residents are filling the center and getting back into their routines.

“While we were out, we were actually stationed at the library. And we did hold some of our classes in the Farmer’s market. Some of our support groups were held at a builder’s club and the Presbyterian Church,” Botello-McClain said. “And then there were some of our groups that chose to go to either Clawson or Madison Heights for a space there. But they’ve all returned.”

Outside the Senior Center, landscaping was added and the drainage system was fixed as it had caused damage to some of the walls.

“They discovered that some of the downspouts where the water wasn’t going out into the drain system, so water was sitting and we had to have some of our walls fixed,” Botello-McClain explained. “They remedied all of that on both sides of the building.”

Touchscreen computers have been installed for residents to find their classes and groups and the technology helps the staff keep up with how many are using the facility.

“We can now handle our transportation scheduling with the new software. It really fits our senior center well. They were previously using recreation software, which required many workarounds,” Botello-McClain said. “We’re working smarter, not harder. It benefits the seniors because we can see which classes have high enrollment and which have low, helping us better utilize our space. We also have new technology throughout the senior center. Every room has TV monitors, allowing instructors and leaders to bring in their PowerPoints or for rentals to play videos during celebrations. At the main entrance, there’s a 75-inch monitor that shows our daily schedule and upcoming programs.”

Renovated and rejuvenated for the use of Royal Oak residents and non-residents (who can participate for a small fee), the Leo Mahany/Harold Meininger Senior Community Center is now open for business at 3500 Marais Ave., just off 13 Mile Road near Royal Oak High School.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Michigan State’s best defense Saturday came when its defense wasn’t even on the field.

In a 38-13 blowout loss to No. 3 Indiana, Michigan State’s defense gave up touchdowns on its first five drives and got pushed into its red zone on the next two. But a whopping 19:12 of first half possession time kept Indiana’s offense off the field and made Saturday’s game competitive for at least a little while.

“Going into the game, especially in the first half, we wanted to put longer drives together,” MSU coach Jonathan Smith said. “Possess the ball, and there was a lot that we were able to execute besides just being able to flat-out match touchdown scores.”

Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza threw for four touchdowns and 332 yards while leading his offense to a 464-367 lead in total yardage. Michigan State’s defense managed just three tackles for loss and no turnovers.

Such a stat line was to be expected against Indiana, who had the nation’s fourth-ranked offense and defense heading into the game. With explosive players all over the field, Indiana exploited talent mismatches against an increasingly banged-up MSU defense (it lost another, safety Malik Spencer, to end the game).

The Spartans’ defense didn’t have an answer for Elijah Sarratt, who scored two touchdowns on four catches, including one on a beautiful ball thrown by Mendoza right behind freshman cornerback Aydan West. In the run game, Indiana had whatever it wanted between the tackles, including Kaelon Black’s 29-yard touchdown through a significant chunk of the MSU defense.

Yet the Michigan State offense at least stayed on the field long enough to keep the game at a reasonable score — not the blowout most expected as the Spartans limped in off three straight losses. Four of eight drives lasted longer than four minutes, with the only touchdown drive going for 8:18 to take a second lead in the second quarter.

But Indiana just proved too much down the stretch for this defense.

“We knew what we were getting into,” VanSumeren said. “This is the Big Ten. This is what we came here to do, is to play these type of games, play these type of teams. It’s not like we were physically outmatched or anything like that. It’s just some things we gotta clean up at different positions, and we’ll get it right.”

Running woes strain Chiles’ limits

Aidan Chiles looked like he could do it all Saturday, throwing for 243 yards and a touchdown. He completed 27 of his 33 throws, including 20 straight at one point. He ran for 91 yards, including a 64-yard keeper in the second half. He even punted, the first MSU quarterback to do so since Rocky Lombardi in 2018.

But Chiles couldn’t do it all, held off the score sheet in the second half. And much of that had to do with the lack of a running game beside him.

Michigan State finished short of 100 yards rushing as a team for the third straight game, managing just 74 yards on 24 carries. It could’ve been even bleaker — Chiles’ 48 yards led the unit, and his total would’ve been a lot lower without that 64-yard call.

Transfer Elijah Tau-Tolliver ran for 13 yards on five carries to lead the running backs, starter Makhi Frazier bottled for a single yard on seven carries. Brandon Tullis, who showed improved pass protection compared to his early season form, finished with 3 yards on two carries.

Smith highlighted Indiana’s defensive front, led by defensive lineman Mikail Kamara (two tackles) and aided by the adept reads of linebacker Aiden Fisher (nine tackles) and Rolijah Hardy (eight tackles).

“We gotta get that solved, because we do — we want to be more effective with that,” Smith said.

Progress is fine, Spartans want results

There are no moral victories in football, even if the early fight Michigan State showed made the result a little easier to stomach.

Smith made it clear that though Michigan State showed progress in the loss, they’re still in the business of winning football games.

“We’re always looking to win the game, 100%,” Smith said, “and so that hasn’t lost our sight in any way. I mean, this is a good football team and all of that, but we want to be able to play winning football and haven’t done it the last few weeks.”

The lack of wins is weighing on Smith’s program. His four-game losing streak is the longest of his 19-game tenure at Michigan State, one that is in question given the way this season has gone. Performances like Saturday’s may have been expected, but those losses still sting.

And though it’s nice to show some progress on film, there’s a lot more work to be done. Improvements in the pass rush, pass coverage, the run game and pass protection need to be made, especially in a highly-charged rivalry setting this week against Michigan.

ANN ARBOR — With leading rusher Justice Haynes sidelined, Michigan running back Jordan Marshall stepped in and the Wolverines did not miss a beat in the running game.

Marshall had 133 yards on 25 carries (5.3 per carry) and had a touchdown in the Wolverines’ 24-7 victory over Washington on Saturday at Michigan Stadium. Michigan finished with 187 yards against a run defense that had allowed an average 82.8 yards.

“I just pride myself in running hard,” Marshall said. “That’s how I practice. That’s how I’m going to play. I’m gonna push files, I’m gonna hit people, I’m just going to play hard. That’s what my team asked from me every single play, and I’m going to give them my best. And I think I did that for not only Justice, who’s on the sideline today, but for Coach (Tony) Alford and for our whole room is just to run hard.”

Haynes suffered an unspecified injury to his torso late in the first half at USC the previous week and did not return to the game. He practiced this week and was listed as questionable but did not play. He leads the team with 705 yards and eight rushing touchdowns and entered the game as the nation’s fourth-leading rusher averaging 117.5 yards a game.

While Haynes has distinguished himself with home-run runs — he has two 75-yard touchdowns — Marshall is more of a grind-it-out, tough-yardage runner who will drag defenders much like former Michigan back Blake Corum.

“You hand off the ball, you see him get wrapped up a little bit and like, yeah, couple more yards coming after that,” quarterback Bryce Underwood said. “So just an expectation now for him.”

Marshall, sitting to Underwood’s left at the postgame interview, said that absolutely is the expectation every time he touches the ball.

“I’m a downhill, hit-you-in-the-mouth-type of runner, and I pride myself on that and carrying piles,” Marshall said. “I’ve been doing this since high school (at Cincinnati Moeller), carrying piles, and I don’t plan on stopping.”

Marshall said Haynes didn’t offer much advice before the game, because he didn’t have to. The running backs, he said, trust each other.

“He knows what I can do. I know what he can do,” Marshall said. “He just gave me that look, and he doesn’t need to say anything for me to know what I’m going to go out there and do. And I told the guys before the game, in the running back room, we talk about being the most connected team and most connected program.

“When one of your brothers are down or not playing, you got to play for them. Justice was doing everything he could this week to get out there and play with his team and couldn’t go before the game, and I know I was going to have to carry the load today and help this team win. And again, just putting us in the position to win is all I ever asked for. And playing relentless and with 100% effort every single play is what I’m going to give every single time I step out there.”

Injury updates

Starting left tackle Evan Link suffered an injury to his left leg early in the game, and after being surrounded by his teammates, he was taken off the field on a cart.

“It doesn’t look too good,” Moore said of Link’s injury. “I know it was a lower-body thing, but we’ll see how he does.”

Blake Frazier filled in for Link.

There were several absences from the game on Saturday. Haynes went through some pregame drills but was ruled out. He was listed as “questionable” on the availability list issued two hours before kickoff by the Big Ten.

Safeties Rod Moore and Brandyn Hillman did not appear on the Big Ten list but were considered by Michigan to be “game-time” decisions. They did not play. Also out was tight end Hogan Hansen. A Michigan spokesman said the Big Ten was informed before the game he would not be playing.

“They practiced through the week,” Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore said. “We always err on the side (of caution) even sometimes when they want to go, making sure they’re full strength before we do anything. “They were just game-time decisions. (Moore) practiced these past couple days, but again, you’re always going to do what’s in the best interest of the kid, even if they want to go. He probably could have gone, but we just felt like it wasn’t that time.”

Moore said he watched pregame warm-ups to make sure players were capable of playing.

“Guys that practice leading up to the game, you feel like they’re ready,” Moore said. “You get to the game, they go through warm-ups and you say, OK, that doesn’t look exactly right. Those are the things we make decisions off of.”

Linebacker Ernest Hausmann, the team’s leading tackler who had seven against the Huskies, went down late in game with what looked like a lower left leg injury. He walked off the field unassisted.

“He’ll be fine,” Moore said.

Hanging on to the trophy

Tight end Zack Marshall entered the game against Washington having caught three passes for 29 yards during his career. With tight ends Marlin Klein and Hogan Hansen out, Marshall became an important target for Underwood.

Marshall was targeted seven times and made five catches for a team-best 72 receiving yards including a 10-yard touchdown pass from Underwood. Marshall was asked what he saw on the touchdown reception.

“A lot of grass,” Marshall said. “It was pretty fun. They attached to the back, I got open. I mean, it’s how you draw it up.”

Marshall brought the football he caught for his first touchdown to the postgame interview and was asked what he’s going to do with it.

“I’m gonna put it straight into my backpack, put it right on the wall,” Marshall said. “I’m never touching those gloves again. I mean, I’m excited.”

By Alex Brown, Stateline.org

For years, Western leaders have debated the creation of a regional energy market: a coordinated grid to pool solar power in Arizona, wind in Wyoming, hydro in Washington and battery storage in California.

The shared resources would meet the demands of 11 different states, bolstering utilities’ local power plants with surplus energy from across the region.

With the passage of a landmark new law in California, that market is finally on its way to becoming a reality. Proponents say it has the potential to lower energy costs, make the grid more resilient and speed up the deployment of clean energy.

But the market’s success, experts agree, depends heavily on which states and utilities decide to opt in. As energy issues have become increasingly politicized, it’s uncertain whether Western leaders can buy into a common vision for meeting the region’s power needs.

“As we move toward weather-dependent renewables to run our grid, we’ve got to have a grid that is bigger than a weather pattern,” said California Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation aimed at establishing the new market. “A Western energy market is critical.”

The California measure earned bipartisan support, and leaders in conservative and liberal states alike have long touted the benefits of a region-wide market.

But some skeptics worry about merging the power systems of states with varying climate goals. And some fear the new market could give federal regulators appointed by President Donald Trump an opening to interfere and mandate more fossil fuel-powered plants that can be turned on regardless of the weather.

A bigger market

Across the 11 Western states that straddle or sit west of the Rocky Mountains, 37 separate private and public utilities operate portions of the grid.

This fragmented structure differs from the grid systems in Eastern and Midwestern states, where regional transmission organizations, or RTOs, coordinate and plan for energy needs across vast swaths of the country.

Backers of a Western market argue that a region-wide approach would be much more efficient.

Under the current system, each utility is required by state public utility commissions to build enough power to meet peak energy demands. That could mean building gas plants that only turn on a few times a year during extreme heat waves.

As part of a West-wide market, utilities could manage those high-demand events by importing power from other parts of the region that are generating surplus electricity. Such agreements could also prevent the periodic shutdowns of wind and solar farms when they produce more energy than local utilities can use.

“We could be drawing on the solar resources from the Southwest during the day, and then in the evening the wind resources in Montana and Wyoming are a great benefit,” said Austin Scharff, senior energy policy specialist with the Washington State Department of Commerce. “We have a lot of hydro resources, and we can help make sure the regional grid stays balanced when those are needed.”

Some industry leaders say such trading would allow states to pull in cheap electricity from elsewhere, rather than building expensive new power plants.

“When you have this bigger market, not everybody has to build to their peak in the same way,” said Leah Rubin Shen, managing director with Advanced Energy United, an industry group focused on energy and transportation. “Everybody’s able to share.”

Western states do trade electricity on a bilateral basis between individual utilities. Utilities spanning much of the West also transact through a real-time market that allows them to address pressing short-term demand issues. Some are poised to join a new day-ahead market that will conduct planning based on daily demand and production forecasts.

But some lawmakers and officials believe the region needs a larger vision that goes beyond moment-by-moment needs, a market that can plan interstate transmission lines and energy projects to serve the whole region in the decades to come.

“We’re facing really rapidly growing energy demand,” said Nevada Assemblymember Howard Watts, a Democrat. “The best way for us to meet that is to effectively move energy all across the Western U.S. The only way we can do that is through an RTO.”

Watts sponsored a bill, enacted in 2021, that requires Nevada to join an RTO by 2030. Colorado also passed a law that year with a 2030 deadline for utilities to join an RTO.

“Any future is better than our status quo, which is 37 separate grids in the West,” said Chris Hansen, a former Democratic senator who sponsored the Colorado legislation. “We can lower costs and provide greater reliability if we’re sharing resources.”

Hansen now serves as CEO of La Plata Electric Association, an electric cooperative in southwestern Colorado.

A new market

The push for a West-wide market had always faced one major hurdle: Any market would likely include the massive geographical footprint and energy supply managed by the California Independent System Operator, or CAISO. As the West’s largest grid operator, CAISO manages the flow of electricity across most of the Golden State. It’s governed by a five-member board appointed by California’s governor, and other states were unlikely to sign up for a market in which they have no representation.

The law passed by California legislators last month allows for a new organization with independent governance from across the region to oversee Western energy markets.

“This legislation is a key reset and has been the largest sticking point in building a regional market,” said Amanda Ormond, managing director of the Western Grid Group, which advocates for a more efficient grid. “This is a primary concern of a lot of folks that has now been solved.”

The law sets in motion a yearslong process that will task regional leaders with establishing the organization’s governance and navigating a series of regulatory procedures. The new market could be in place by 2028.

State leaders across the West say the California law is a long-awaited development.

“You get this really good benefit from being able to optimize across a larger footprint than an individual utility can,” said Tim Kowalchik, research director with the Utah Office of Energy Development. “Those resources can play really well together.”

Utah led a study in 2021, collaborating with other Western states, exploring the potential for energy markets in the region. State officials say the research has helped drive the current effort.

“It was fascinating how substantial the benefits were,” said Letha Tawney, chair of the Oregon Public Utility Commission. “The interdependence of the West started to become much more apparent, and it really changed the conversation.”

The study looked at a variety of market options and found that an RTO would have significant benefits, lowering costs for electricity customers and promoting clean energy. Based on the study’s projections, the market would produce roughly $2 billion in gross benefits per year, largely by saving utilities from building extra capacity.

Another study in 2022, conducted by a pair of consulting firms, found that an RTO would create as many as 657,000 permanent jobs and bolster the region’s economy.

While Western leaders say the potential benefits are massive, no states outside of Nevada and Colorado have committed to joining a regional RTO. State leaders say they’ll be watching carefully to see what emerges from the new California law. While the decision on joining the market will largely be left to individual utilities, state regulators can play a major role by directing them to conduct an economic analysis of such a move.

State sovereignty

The push for a regional market has also faced opposition from skeptics who fear it undermines states’ power to set their own energy and climate goals. Some point to Eastern governors’ frustration with PJM Interconnection, the RTO that manages the grid across a swath of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic.

“It’s very dangerous,” said Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, a California-based nonprofit advocacy group. “We’re giving up control of our sovereignty. Once a state’s in, it’s not the state that has the control.”

Some experts fear that states with significant coal or gas industries may be hesitant to join a market that could incentivize their utilities to import cheap solar power from elsewhere. On the flip side, some climate advocates in California are wary of plugging into a market that could support coal power from out of state.

“Some states are parochial-minded: ‘This is a California thing, and we don’t want anything to do with California,’” said Vijay Satyal, deputy director of markets and transmission with Western Resource Advocates, a nonprofit climate-focused group. “That one state’s government will not decide how a market will be operated, it’s a seismic shift in the industry.”

Backers of an RTO argue that it can incorporate states’ varying energy goals. They point to research showing that the market will support renewable power. But others fear merging fates with coal-heavy states could give federal regulators more leverage to intervene in favor of fossil-fuel power.

Even if Trump is out of office when the market comes online, the regulators he appoints to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will still be serving out their terms. Some believe FERC could set rules that require the new market to favor fossil fuel-powered resources.

“When you have a mixed market with a lot of coal plants, it creates opportunities for the Trump administration to rejigger the rules to favor coal,” said Matthew Freedman, renewables attorney with The Utility Reform Network, a California-based consumer advocacy group. “In another reality, this would have sounded like a hysterical concern, but it’s pretty obvious where [Trump’s appointees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] want to go.”

Freedman’s group pushed California lawmakers for protections that would have given states more flexibility to withdraw from the market, while also prohibiting “resource adequacy” mandates that could be used by the feds to prop up coal. While those elements were included in a Senate version of the bill, they were stripped from the Assembly bill that ultimately was passed.

Supporters of the bill say such concerns are overblown, and the new market is structured to avoid the pitfalls facing other RTOs.

“The simple economic fact is that right now clean energy resources are the cheapest in the world,” said Petrie-Norris, the law’s sponsor. “We’re going to see solar displacing dirty fuels rather than the reverse.”

Much depends on convincing states and utilities it’s in their best interests to join the market. The strength-in-numbers advantages of an RTO depend on widespread participation. While many Western leaders have long touted a region-wide market, the opportunity is arising at a time where energy has become a partisan issue.

Meanwhile, the long-awaited market emerging from California is facing new competition from the east. The Southwest Power Pool, an Arkansas-based RTO serving the middle of the country, is expanding its footprint in the West, with several utilities poised to join its day-ahead market.

“Anytime you have two neighboring utilities in different markets, you have seams that create a lot of friction and inefficiency,” said Rubin Shen, with the energy industry group. “Whether or not everybody can come together and be all-in on a full West-wide market, it’s too soon to tell.”

Stateline reporter Alex Brown can be reached at abrown@stateline.org.

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©2025 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By CATHY BUSSEWITZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — With the U.S. experiencing a significant hiring slowdown, it’s a daunting time to be looking for a job. Many workers are staying put instead of changing jobs to secure better pay. Artificial intelligence tools increasingly screen the resumes of applicants. Now may seem like an inappropriate time to request a raise.

But sticking around doesn’t mean wages and salaries have to stagnate. Career experts say it’s not wrong, even in a shaky economy, to ask to be paid what you’re worth. Raises aren’t even necessarily off the table at organizations that are downsizing, according to some experts.

“A lot of people think if their company has done layoffs, the likelihood of getting a raise is pretty low,” said Jamie Kohn, a senior director in the human resources practice at business research and advisory firm Gartner. “And that might be true, but the the other way to think about it is that this company has already decided to reinvest in you by keeping you on.”

When should you ask?

If you’ve taken on greater responsibilities at work and have received strong performance reviews, or if you’ve learned you’re paid substantially less than colleagues or competitors with similar levels of experience, then it may be the right time to ask for a pay adjustment.

“They know that you’re taking on more work, especially if you’ve had layoffs on your team,” Kohn continued. “At that point, it is very hard for them to lose an employee that you know they now are relying on much more.”

Another signal that it’s time to ask for an adjustment is if you’re working a second job to make ends meet or your current financial situation is causing angst that impacts job performance, said Rodney Williams, co-founder of SoLo Funds, a community finance platform.

“There’s nothing wrong with saying, ’Hey, I need to raise my financial position. I’m willing to do more,” Williams said. “I’m willing to show up earlier, I’m willing to leave later, I’m willing to help out, maybe, and do other things here.”

Some people view asking for more compensation as less risky than switching to a new job. “There is a sense of not wanting to be ‘last in, first out’ in a potential layoff situation,” said Kohn.

Know your worth

Before starting the compensation conversation, do some research on current salaries. You can find out what people with comparable experience are making in your industry by searching on websites such as Glassdoor, where people self-report salaries, or ZipRecruiter, which gathers pay data from job postings and other sources.

Three years ago, a lot of people asked for 20% pay increases because of price inflation and high employee turnover coming out of the coronavirus pandemic, Kohn said. Companies no longer are considering such big bumps.

“Right now, I think you could say that you are worth 10% more, but you’re unlikely to get a 10% pay increase if you ask for it,” she said.

Your success also depends on your recent performance reviews. “If you’ve been given additional responsibilities, if you are operating at a level that would be a promotion, those might be situations where asking for a higher amount might be worth it,” Kohn said.

Compare notes with colleagues

Many people view the topic as taboo, but telling coworkers what you make and asking if they earn more may prove instructive. Trusted coworkers with similar roles are potential sources. People who were recently hired or promoted may supply a sense of the market rate, Kohn said.

“You can say, ‘Hey, I’m trying to make sure I’m being paid equitably. Are you making over or under X dollars?’ That’s one of my favorite phrases to use, and it invites people into a healthy discussion,” Sam DeMase, a career expert with ZipRecruiter, said. “People are way more interested in talking about salary than you might think.”

You can also reach out to people who left the company, who may be more willing to compare paychecks than current colleagues, DeMase said.

Brag sheet

Keep track of your accomplishments and positive feedback on your work. Compile it into one document, which human resources professionals call a “brag sheet,” DeMase said. If you’re making your request in writing, list those accomplishments when you ask for a raise. If the request is made in a conversation, you can use the list as talking points.

Be sure to list any work or responsibilities that typically would not have been part of your job description. “Employers are wanting employees to do more with less, so we need to be documenting all of the ways in which we’re working outside of our job scope,” DeMase said.

Also take stock of the unique skills or traits you bring to the team.

“People tend to overestimate our employers’ alternatives,” said Oakbay Consulting CEO Emily Epstein, who teaches negotiation courses at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley. “We assume they could just hire a long line of people, but it may be that we bring specialized expertise to our roles, something that would be hard to replace.”

Timing matters

Don’t seek a raise when your boss is hungry or at the end of a long day because the answer is more likely to be no, advises Epstein, whose company offers training on communication, conflict resolution and other business skills. If they’re well-rested and feeling great, you’re more likely to succeed, she said.

Getting a raise is probably easier in booming fields, such as cybersecurity, while it could be a tough time to request one if you work in an industry that is shedding positions, Epstein said.

By the same token, waiting for the perfect time presents the risk of missing out on a chance to advocate for yourself.

“You could wait your whole life for your boss to be well-rested or to have a lot of resources,” Epstein said. “So don’t wait forever.”

Responding to “no”

If your request is denied, having made it can help set the stage for a future negotiation.

Ask your manager what makes it difficult to say yes, Epstein suggested. “Is it the precedent you’d be establishing for this position that might be hard to live up to? Is it fairness to the other people in my position? Is it, right now the company’s struggling?” she said.

Ask when you might revisit the conversation and whether you can get that timeframe in writing, DeMase said.

Laura Kreller, an executive assistant at a university in Louisiana, recently earned a master’s degree and asked for her job description to change to reflect greater responsibilities and hopefully higher pay. Her boss was kind but turned her down, citing funding constraints. Kreller said she has no regrets.

“I was proud of myself for doing it,” she said. “It’s better to know where you stand.”

Share your stories and questions about workplace wellness at cbussewitz@ap.org. Follow AP’s Be Well coverage, focusing on wellness, fitness, diet and mental health at https://apnews.com/hub/be-well

By Max Bryan and Craig Mauger, MediaNews Group

Nearly 100 “No Kings” rallies throughout Michigan on Saturday brought thousands of demonstrators to the streets and spurred a war of words between local officials in the country’s two major political parties.

The cross-country rally initially organized in opposition to President Donald Trump’s birthday parade in June returned Saturday to Metro Detroit, Lansing and the Upper Peninsula in response to moves including sending immigration agents into cities, pushing for the redrawing of congressional maps to favor Republicans and “gutting health care,” according to the rally website.

The rallies were held as the federal government is shut down amidst a fight between Republicans and Democrats over Medicaid policy, and after Trump’s attempts to send National Guard troops into Chicago and Portland, Ore. to reduce crime. Trump has also sent an influx of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents into Chicago to arrest undocumented immigrants.

In Oakland County’s Ferndale, the No Kings rally was on Woodward Avenue between Cambourne and Albany streets, where hundreds of demonstrators lined each side of the thoroughfare and the median and waved signs at traffic. Motorists honked their horns as they passed by, prompting cheers from the crowd.

Beth McGraw held a sign with her father’s picture from his service in the Navy with the words “My dad fought for freedom, not fascism.” McGraw said her father served on one of the ships that bombarded the Germans in the allied invasion of Normandy.

McGraw said today’s political landscape is “a slap in the face” to her father.

“We’re barreling into fascism if we’re not already there yet, the way that there’s no checks and balances anymore,” she said. “It’s almost like everybody forgot their civics classes.”

Demonstrator Michael Bachman had a sign with playing cards showing four poker hands, none of which had kings.

Bachman said the protesters were exercising their constitutional right to peacefully assemble, noting that tea party members publicly demonstrated against the Affordable Care Act in the early 2010s.

“The shoe’s on the other foot now,” he said. “We have the right to protest.”

Ahead of the rallies Saturday, the Oakland County Republican Party claimed that “affiliates” of the No Kings rallies “have a well-documented history of fueling division and unrest in our communities.” The party’s news release listed the Communist Party USA, the Freedom Socialist Party and the Democratic Socialists of America as affiliates, though none of these groups are listed as partners on the No Kings website.

“The Oakland County Republican Party stands for law and order, and we reject the radical and violent tactics that have become the hallmark of the No Kings movement and its extremist sponsors,” Chairman Vance Patrick said in the release.

The release also asked anyone with “intelligence or information regarding Antifa domestic terrorism activity” to report it to the FBI, referencing the leftist group recently designated by the Trump administration as “a militarist, anarchist enterprise.”

In June, confrontations at the No Kings rallies were isolated and the protests were largely peaceful.

Police in Los Angeles, where protests over federal immigration enforcement raids erupted the week prior and sparked demonstrations across the country, used tear gas and crowd-control munitions to clear out protesters after the formal event ended. Officers in Portland also fired tear gas and projectiles to disperse a crowd that protested in front of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building well into the evening.

In a prepared statement, members of the Oakland County Democratic Party said they were “deeply disturbed” by the local Republican Party’s statement.

“Their statement, cloaked in the language of safety, instead fans the flames of division and fear by mischaracterizing peaceful civic mobilizations as threats and by implying that those who exercise their constitutional rights should be treated as suspects,” the statement reads. “At a moment when our democracy demands leadership rooted in truth and responsibility, this kind of rhetoric is not only reckless, it is dangerous.”

State leaders had opinions of Saturday’s demonstrations as well. Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Curtis Hertel praised them and said demonstrators are making clear that “the power belongs to the people.”

“Today’s marches are a peaceful demonstration of patriotism in the face of a Republican Party that is more interested in Trump’s power grabs and passing tax cuts for billionaires than serving the American people,” Hertel said in a prepared statement.

State Republican Party Chairman Jim Runestad had an unfavorable view of the demonstrations, calling them “a canard” that gives credence to the idea that Trump will take citizens’ rights away. Runestad said presidents have the right to federalize law enforcement when they see fit, and used Dwight Eisenhower sending troops into Little Rock, Ark., during school integration as an example.

Runestad said accusations of Trump acting in a “totalitarian” manner are a deflection on the part of the Democrats in the wake of the federal government shutdown. Republican leaders are refusing to negotiate on an end to the shutdown until a short-term funding bill to reopen the government is passed, while Democrats say they won’t agree without guarantees on extending health insurance subsidies.

“They’re frustrated with the shutdown, and they want to cast all the blame on the Republicans, and this thing is just a big canard pretending that President Trump is the dictator-in-chief when Biden went after conservative groups in every way he possibly could, and there never was a peep out of them on any of that,” Runestad said.

In Lansing, demonstrators crowded outside of the Michigan Capitol for the event, marking one of largest rallies on the Capitol lawn this year.

Among them was 78-year-old Bob McVeigh of Dimondale. He carried multiple signs, including one that said, “Nobody paid me to be here. I just hate Trump.”

The crowd chanted things like, “Lock him up,” referring to the Republican president.

“We’ve got to do what we can to save the country,” McVeigh said, as he stood on the Capitol lawn.

Speakers at the Lansing event frequently focused on immigration and criticized the deportation efforts of the Trump administration.

Rick Martinez, 66, of Potterville, who described himself as a lifelong Democrat, contended Republicans had been “stagnant” in the face of Trump’s actions and said Trump had been “jailing his enemies.”

“We just need to make sure that we have a good democracy here,” Martinez said.

In Detroit, demonstrators brought their signs to Roosevelt Park, where they heard speakers give calls to action.

Sharon Jeter, who stood in the crowd with an American flag, said she marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. when he visited Detroit in the 1960s. She said she came to the rally “to save America.”

“I’ve seen so much happen, and so many things that were really bad, improve. And now we’re supposed to go back? We’re supposed to go in our corners and be quiet? I don’t think so,” said Jeter.

Nine new wells to monitor groundwater contamination will be added to Oakland County International Airport in Waterford Township over the next 90 days. It’s part of a five-year consent agreement the airport signed with the state in February.

Township Supervisor Anthony Bartolotta said Thursday he was aware of some PFAS discussion “four or five years ago,” but did not know about the new wells, the consent agreement or a dedicated county airport-PFAS webpage. There is no requirement for the airport or Michigan’s Environmental, Great Lakes and Energy office to notify the township of PFAS monitoring at the airport.

Eight wells were installed on airport grounds in 2021, after the airport and hundreds of others across the state were linked to groundwater contaminated with forever chemicals per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances generally known as PFAS. These chemicals have been used in firefighting foam, flame retardant in carpet and upholstery and cosmetics. PFAS has been linked to some cancers. Twelve more wells were installed on airport grounds since 2021, as state tests continued to find unacceptable PFAS levels.

EGLE online records show that in July 2023, a state contractor collected water samples at 26 of the 39 homes known to be affected. Tests found PFAS traces in two residential wells at two homes at levels below allowable limits. On Oct 31, 2023, testing on 22 homes found 15 wells exceeded groundwater clean-up criteria for PFAS. The highest result was 11,000 parts per trillion for a subtype called PFOS; the state’s limit is 16 parts per trillion.

On Friday, airport’s manager Cheryl Bush told The Oakland Press the new wells were planned as a result of the agreement with EGLE.

EGLE officials have been testing wells in some nearby homes and the water and fish in White Horse Lake, an eight-acre body of water downstream from the airport, north of Elizabeth Lake Road and south of Pontiac Lake Road. It’s part of the Clinton River watershed and has bluegill and panfish.

Abigail Hendershott is executive director of EGLE’s PFAS action response team. She spoke to The Oakland Press Friday along with Stephanie Kammer, EGLE’s emerging-pollutants section manager, and PFAS response team expert Mike Jury. They encourage homeowners with wells to regularly test for contaminants.

Township’s DPW director, Justin Westlake, was also unaware of the airport’s consent agreement – in part because the township has no jurisdiction over the airport property or homes that rely on wells for drinking water. The township has its own water system, which uses deep wells to draw water from the aquifer.

The airport is still in the investigation phase, Bush said. She said she is “happy to sit down and update the township on its progress at their convenience.”

The township’s website includes water testing results for its own wells and information on PFAS chemicals classified by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as an emerging contaminant.

Health and lab studies show elevated levels of PFAS may cause increased cholesterol, changes in the body’s hormones and immune system, decreased fertility and increased risk of certain cancers.

The EPA has set a lifetime health advisory level for drinking water for two PFAS compounds but no enforceable limits for the chemicals in drinking water.

AIRPORT PFAS HISTORY

EGLE’s website recaps the airport’s history. The first truck with the fire-fighting foam arrived in 1965 with 400 gallons aboard. Records on how and why the foam was used between then and 1996 to 1996 are lost.

Between 1996 and 2019, the foam was used in seven incidents. In March 2020 an accidental release of the foam happened during a nozzle certification on the airport property. In 2020, the airport received a grant to pay for a PFAS investigation.

As of Thursday, the state’s website had not been updated with any tests in 2024 or 2025. The airport’s PFAS webpage was updated this month, online at https://www.oakgov.com/community/airports/oakland-county-international-airport/pfas-response

Kammer oversees the consent agreements like the one with Oakland County’s airport. The voluntary agreement gives each facility four years to create a process testing surface-water runoff for PFAS and minimizing the contamination, with the final year dedicated to ensuring ongoing compliance. The airport submitted its plan in June.

“If they still have exceedances they have to evaluate and update their plans to bring the site into compliance,” she said. “It can be an iterative process. Oakland County airport has been very cooperative.”

The agreement is limited to the airport itself, though state officials know there are nearby homes and waterways that may be affected.

EGLE officials have made four or five efforts to alert households near the airport that rely on wells, Hendershott said. Awareness campaigns include knocking on residents’ doors, leaving door hangers with information and sending informational letters multiple times to ask permission to test the water.

“We’ve sampled between 40 and 45 home wells but we have many people who declined the sampling,” Hendershott said. Eight of the residential wells tested were found to have unacceptable levels of PFAS.

WHY TESTING HOUSEHOLD WELLS MATTERS

She and Jury encourage homeowners to have their wells tested through the state or independently.

Jury said there are many sources of PFAS besides the airport’s stormwater runoff.

They said PFAS continues to be used in manufactured products, including cosmetics, hand creams, eye drops and rug shampoo.

Jury said it’s an ingredient that isn’t yet required to be listed in many cases, but the state has an online resource where people can look up various items to check.

Something as simple as shampooing stain-resistant carpets or upholstery and dumping the wastewater into a septic field can increase PFAS saturation, he said.

EGLE doesn’t offer specific guidelines on PFAS and well depths. Jury said many people don’t know how deep their household wells are. There’s no standard depth for residential wells because the depth depends on the water table, who made the well and when it was installed. Some are barely 14 feet deep and others could be close to 150 feet deep.

That’s why testing matters, he said. Predicting stormwater runoff filtration depends on the various types of earth filtering the water and a well’s depth.

The state offers tests worth nearly $300 for homes in the affected areas near the airport. If unacceptable levels of PFAS are found, they provide an under-sink water filter and other resources.

People outside the affected area can buy their own tests and under-sink filters, Jury said.

State and township officials emphasized that homeowners with wells are effectively their own water departments and should regularly test their wells for contaminants on a regular basis and maintain the electric pump.

Hendershott’s team works with a wide range of facilities; there are dozens in Oakland County. The state has an interactive map where people can check their own neighborhoods for details, online at  https://egle.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=bdec7880220d4ccf943aea13eba102db

She said Michigan’s PFAS response is so comprehensive, it is used by the EPA and other states. EGLE works with the EPA to develop interim strategies to manage exceedances, she said.

Because PFAS and PFOS can accumulate in fish, EGLE instituted a monitoring program in White Horse Lake, downstream from the airport.

WATERFORD’S OUTLOOK

Waterford’s DPW director Westlake said the lion’s share of the township’s 32,000-plus households are connected to the township’s water supply. Township wells, an estimated 100 feet or more deep. He estimated 2,000 to 3,000 households have their own wells.

The most recent township tests for PFAS, copper, lead and other known contaminants based on EGLE’s schedules and found they were below dangerous levels, he said. The township has about a dozen wells in various spots with two close to the airport.

He said DPW officials have so far not found excessive contaminants.

“But who knows what it’ll be in 10 years,” he said. “I think that’s the worry, that the groundwater is supposed to filter it out because the deeper it goes the more it gets filtered.”

The chemicals are already in the ground, he said, adding that “the best you can do is monitor it and God forbid it becomes an issue in our public wells.”

If the township were to find excessive levels in its wells, he said, mitigation options could include digging new, deeper wells or overhauling the water treatment plant.

“But you’re not going to spend millions to overhaul a treatment plant for something that’s not there,” he said.

People using wells who are concerned and want to connect to the township’s system can contact DPW for guidance, he said. Some may be eligible for help based on financial hardship, but they would still likely have to pay a contractor to install a water line between the township’s system and the home.

“As of right now, Waterford is ‘so far, so good’ and hopefully it stays that way,” he said. “If not, we’ll adapt and adjust.”

AIRPORT ACTION

Airport officials belong to the Michigan Association of Airport Executives and other organizations that share information about limiting PFAS contamination at their airports, Bush said.

In August, the airport added a new fire-fighting vehicle, which uses the new fluorine-free foam and has an older vehicle that uses a concentrate called 3% aqueous film forming foam as a back-up plan for an extreme emergency, Bush said, adding that all the vehicles and foam storage comply with FAA rules.

Each year, the airport conducts FAA-mandated firefighting training and a demonstration by the airport’s emergency response team during the annual August airshow.

Bush said no foam is dispensed during the drills and no foam has ever been used at the airport during training exercises.

If an emergency leads to foam use, rules require cleaning it up as quickly as possible to limit what gets into the ground. Absorbent booms capture pollutants and filter water out, drains are plugged immediately and a contractor specializing in environmental clean-up disposes the captured foam.

The airport relies on EGLE grants for monitoring, tracking and analyzing PFAS to understand its full impact on the airport and nearby neighborhoods and has applied for additional state grants, Bush said. More state funds may be available for disposing of old equipment and any foam it holds, she said.

The next airport committee meeting is 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 3, in the conference room near the county  commission auditorium at 1200 N. Telegraph Road in Pontiac. Airport committee members: County Commissioners Karen Joliat, Penny Luebs, Linnie Taylor, Christine Long and Dave Woodward, with executive designee J. David VanderVeen. Typically Bush and another airport employee are present for these meetings.

ELGE has a dedicated website with resources at https://www.michigan.gov/pfasresponse/resources/action.

A 15-year, $300 million upgrade to a Detroit-based pumping station serving Oakland and Macomb counties is complete.

That led to an all-smiles ribbon-cutting Wednesday with Oakland County Water Resources Commissioner Jim Nash and Macomb County Public Works Commissioner Candice S. Miller – long at odds over stormwater overflows.

The northeast sewage pumping station improvement is part of a multi-phase modernization of the Oakland-Macomb Interceptor Drain wastewater system.

The renovation didn’t change the facility’s 400-million-gallon daily capacity for moving sewerage. The pumping station is part of the sanitary sewer system and separate from the type of combined sewer system that carries stormwater. Only combined sewer systems carry stormwater and wastewater.

The upgrades strengthen reliability and ensure the system can handle the wastewater for more than 830,000 residents in both Oakland and Macomb counties well into the future, according to Oakland’s WRC officials.

The pumping station on Outer Drive just east of Van Dyke in Detroit  was built between 1969 and 1972. It has more than seven miles of pipe that sends sewage to the Great Lakes Water Authority for processing. The new infrastructure is considered a critical link in southeast Michigan’s wastewater network.

A federal grant paid for nearly $1 million of the cost and Michigan’s Clean Water revolving fund paid $125 million. The remainder came from local bond sales and community investment, according to WRC officials.

“This project focused on replacing aging mechanical and electrical systems to improve reliability, not increase flow.

Nash and Miller were joined for Wednesday’s ribbon cutting by a retired state official, Mike Gregg, who spent part of his career at the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development as the water resources program manager.

Nash called the project a major investment and “reflects our commitment to protecting public health and the environment by ensuring that future generations inherit dependable infrastructure.”

Miller said the two counties’ engineers worked closely with consulting engineers and contractors on the project.

“There’s no overstating the importance of this massive modernization project,” she said. “Without it, this aging pumping station built in the 1960s would have eventually failed and caused an infrastructure disaster and health hazard impacting many hundreds of thousands of people, homes and businesses.”

Improvements include:

•  Mechanical and electrical upgrades to reduce water and energy use.

•  State-of-the-art sewer lining upgrades to protect pipes and extend system life.

•  Revitalized pumps and sensors to increase efficiency and reliability.