PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump intensified his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed on Sunday, portraying him as a threat to national security and questioning his loyalty to the United States in remarks that drew a sharp rebuke from a former top Arab American ally.

Trump called El-Sayed, a former Detroit health official, a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists” and would “have to go through a metal detector before he’s allowed to go into the Senate.” He also repeatedly invoked the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, drawing a comparison between stopping El-Sayed from entering the Senate chamber and the passengers who fought back against the hijackers aboard United Flight 93.

El-Sayed, who would become the nation’s first Muslim senator if elected, has called attacks on his loyalty to the country “shameful” and repeatedly denied any ties to extremist groups. The Republican president's remarks were condemned by Bishara Bahbah, a founder of Arab Americans for Trump, the group that helped lead the president’s outreach to Arab American voters in 2024.

“The president’s statements are out of line," he said in a phone interview. "They are crossing a red line. They are racist.”

With Republicans on the defensive over inflation, soaring fuel prices and the Iran war, the president has been trying to generate turnout by claiming that El-Sayed and other Democrats are existential threats to America, instead of electoral rivals. Michigan’s Senate race between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers is among a handful of contests that could determine control of the chamber.

Trump made his remarks in Port Huron, a Canadian border city about an hour north of Detroit and near communities where he made significant gains among Arab American voters in 2024. He became the first Republican presidential candidate since 2000 to win Dearborn, a city with one of the nation’s largest concentrations of Arab Americans.

Trump, who imposed a travel ban targeting several predominantly Muslim countries during his first term, has increasingly leaned into anti-Muslim rhetoric as Election Day approaches. He also attacked Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota at Sunday’s rally, where he declared that he had come to Michigan “to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator.”

Cole Wozniak, a spokesperson for El-Sayed, responded to Trump's comments in a statement: “While they lie and resort to desperate, bad faith attacks, Abdul remains laser focused on his plans to bring down costs and stand up to the chaos and corruption in Washington."

El-Sayed’s faith, associations and past statements become campaign flashpoints

Central to Republicans’ strategy against El-Sayed in the final weeks of the campaign has been an effort to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic movement with branches that the U.S. government has designated as terrorist organizations.

There is no evidence that El-Sayed has any affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood. His half-sister, Eman Abdelhadi, wrote on social media in 2012 that “my family has long been MB” and described a conversation with her mother about her involvement in the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1970s.

El-Sayed was born in the United States to Egyptian immigrant parents who divorced when he was young. He was raised by his father, not his biological mother.

Trump on Sunday also targeted El-Sayed’s ties to popular streamer Hasan Piker, who appeared alongside the Democrat multiple times during the primary campaign, including at his election night event.

Piker in the past has said that “Hamas is a thousand times better” than Israel, describing some Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and that “America deserved 9/11.”

El-Sayed has faced criticism for his own rhetoric. He has repeatedly refused to answer questions about whether Iran or Israel poses a bigger threat to the country. Earlier this year, he said “hurt people hurt people” after an attack on a synagogue in the Detroit area. The attacker had lost four relatives in an Israeli airstrike on Lebanon the week earlier. El-Sayed later apologized, saying he was not trying to justify what happened.

“To anyone who feels like my comments might have been hurtful, I’m really sorry,” he said. “That was not my intention.”

Founder of Arab Americans for Trump calls the president 'racist'

Bahbah, whose organization has since changed its name to Arab Americans for Peace, said Trump’s remarks were unacceptable to Arab and Muslim communities, including Christian Arabs.

“The remarks are out of line and crazy. I mean, no sane individual would say these things," Bahbah said.

Dearborn helped Trump win Michigan in 2024 after many voters in the city were outraged by the Biden administration's handling of the war in Gaza.

“The president of the United States saying that about a person because of his religion, that is just not acceptable,” said Bahbah. “And people are going to remember that on Nov. 3."

The campaign has been one of the most contentious this year

Rogers and El-Sayed have been locked in a bitter race to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Gary Peters.

During their second and final general election campaign debate, Rogers questioned El-Sayed's loyalty to the United States.

“Are you for America, or are you for these terrorist groups overseas?” Rogers asked.

El-Sayed said that questioning was “shameful.”

“I’m proud of our Constitution that guarantees all of us the right to pray as we choose to pray,” he said.

Speaking before Trump’s appearance Sunday, Rogers repeated his allegations linking El-Sayed to the Muslim Brotherhood.

“The Muslim Brotherhood celebrated exactly one victory in the United States in the primary this year,” Rogers said on stage. “Abdul El-Sayed's.”

Rally doesn't deliver a new economic handout, but gets boost from Minaj

Trump has routinely announced new investments in factories at his campaign rallies, but he did not do so as part of his speech in Michigan, a state defined by the auto industry.

The president instead repeated investments already being made by domestic automakers. Those automakers could see their finances slump if the president expands his trade war with Canada, which has been an essential partner for the U.S. automotive sector.

While it lacked a fresh promise for Michigan's economy, Trump's rally did deliver a bit of star power.

Rapper Nicki Minaj appeared on stage and urged people to get out and vote for the state's Republican ticket. Her appearance followed an awkward moment from Trump, who has increasingly been fixated on commenting about other people's body parts.

After praising the body of Ohio Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican in a close election contest, Trump turned his eye toward Minaj and commented on her posterior.

The president then signaled for Minaj to stand for the crowd and she did, after which Trump said, “I hope Nicki wasn’t insulted, but we love Nicki. She’s been with us for a long time.”

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Cappelletti reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

Tens of thousands of visitors flood the University of Michigan campus each spring to catch a glimpse — and a whiff — of one of North America’s premier collections of herbaceous peonies.

Four months later, members of the men’s and women’s cross country teams pulverize the showy perennials.

The Wolverine runners volunteer each autumn to cut down and clear out the historic W.E. Upjohn Peony Garden at the Ann Arbor school. The peonies are at their glorious peak in May and June, when so many visitors descend on the garden that they have to be bused in.

The Upjohn Garden contains hundreds of historic cultivated varieties from the 19th and early 20th centuries, representing Asian, European and North American peonies of the era. At peak bloom, the garden typically features 10,000 flowers.

But in the fall, they are in a dormancy phase, said Olivia Liebing-Slater, collections horticulturist at Nichols Arboretum, which is home to the Peony Garden.

The annual cleanup prepares the nearly 800 historic peony plants for winter, so they can bloom spectacularly the following spring.

It only took them about an hour on Sunday.

“I definitely think this builds a lot of teamwork and togetherness, relying on each other,” said Penelopea Gordon, a women’s cross country team member and graduate student from Rochester, Minnesota. “‘You got this part, I got this part.’ So, it’s a lot of good camaraderie and team bonding for sure.”

It was Gordon’s fourth peony-pruning outing.

“We’re very appreciative here for what this cross country team does. It’s actually something that we put on our calendar months in advance and look forward to it,” Liebing-Slater said. “It’s a lot of energy having a team running around and working together so well. And it’s also just something that it sets us up for the success that we need in the spring.”

“We need to cut all of these leaves down, the foliage, so that we can be ready for spring,” she said. “Cutting it down also helps reduce any disease that carries over, so it’s really important for the health, too.”

The effort is the brainchild of longtime women’s cross country coach Mike McGuire, who has been running through the Arb since he was a Michigan student in the 1970s.

“We heard the story that it would take the staff quite a while to do it, because they didn’t have this army of people that we have. And so, we were able to do something that maybe took them a week, and we could knock it off in 90 minutes with the army that we have,” said McGuire, who actually underestimated the teams’ output.

Kenny Champ, a freshman runner from Barrie, Ontario, got his first experience.

His specialty was picking up armfuls of cut-back peonies and other debris and tossing them in the back of a waiting truck.

“I was just trying to collect as many as I can, try to beat my previous one,” he said.

As for Gordon, who is in her final year running for Michigan, it’s all about preparation.

“It’s that much more meaningful when we get to clean it up and get it ready for the wintertime and then it can have its beautiful spring bloom,” she said.

PORT HURON, Mich. (AP) — Abdul El-Sayed, holding a handheld mic and wearing his signature V-neck black shirt, slowly shook his head as a woman at his town hall described how she burned through her savings after undergoing emergency brain surgery.

“I’m really sorry for your experience, and I hope that you’re on the mend,” said El-Sayed, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in Michigan, after outlining proposals for guaranteed health care and paid leave.

Later that night, while talking to reporters in the basement below the theatre, his tone was far different. El-Sayed called his Republican opponent Mike Rogers a “coward,” said President Donald Trump was “afraid” to visit the state and dismissed as “dumb” a question about whether Iran or Israel posed a greater threat to the United States.

The exchanges captured two sides of a candidate who is the central figure in one of the nation’s most consequential Senate races. El-Sayed would be the country's first Muslim senator, and he's crisscrossing the state to counter a Republican effort, fueled by tens of millions of dollars, to portray him as a dangerous radical. But he has also embraced his confrontational side by mocking and taunting Trump and Rogers.

“If they want to make me the main character in the midterms, I’m not shying away from it,” El-Sayed said in an interview. “Run against me. See how well that works out for you.”

El-Sayed’s brash, swaggering confidence rubbed some Democrats the wrong way during a divisive primary against Rep. Haley Stevens. The former public health official has shown little interest in toning it down, remaining unapologetic about his progressive agenda and adversarial approach, emboldening supporters who believe he's the right candidate for an angry electorate that has lost faith in the political establishment.

But his doubters fear he'll cost Democrats control of the Senate by failing to unite his party's disparate factions ahead of November.

“If you want their votes, you have to make nice with those people, and he’s not really doing that,” said Michigan political strategist Adrian Hemond, who supported Stevens. “Maybe he doesn’t have to. The entire theory of this candidacy has been he can remake what the electorate looks like.”

Republicans target El-Sayed

Even though Michigan backed Trump twice in his three presidential campaigns, no Republican has won a Senate race in the state since 1994.

The political landscape is no friendlier this year. Trump started an unpopular war with Iran, leading to higher gas prices. Rogers has opted for a low-key campaign with fewer public events than El-Sayed as he tries to make the race all about his Democratic opponent.

As of Oct. 10, Republicans had outspent Democrats by $78 million to $63 million in the Michigan Senate race, according to AdImpact, which tracks political advertising. Around $40 million in Republican spending has gone toward negative advertisements, compared to only around $20 million from Democrats.

The ads portray El-Sayed as “dangerously radical” and “too extreme,” highlighting his past calls to defund the police and relax immigration enforcement. Others tie him to Hasan Piker, a popular online streamer with whom El-Sayed has appeared and who has drawn criticism for past comments, including saying that “America deserved 9/11.”

On Friday, Rogers appeared alongside Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy, who told reporters that El-Sayed “sleeps in a Bin Laden jersey.” Rogers laughed.

Vice President JD Vance has called him “evil.” In one social media post, Trump shared a photo of himself with first lady Melania Trump alongside a photo of El-Sayed and his wife, who wears a hijab, with the caption: “Two VERY DIFFERENT America’s.”

Late Wednesday, Trump referred to El-Sayed as “Mohammed” and said he “goes back to the days of the Jihad.”

El-Sayed has hardly backed down. At the campaign stop in Port Huron, he taunted Trump to visit Michigan, suggesting Rogers and other Republicans were afraid the president would hurt their chances.

“Donald, if you’re watching, don’t wuss out, man,” El-Sayed said.

And he responded to Kennedy’s attack by suggesting the Republican is in the KKK.

“That’s rich coming from someone who wears his bed sheets out at night,” El-Sayed posted on social media.

El-Sayed uses a personal touch with voters

Before the Port Huron town hall, El-Sayed worked his way down a line of people who couldn’t fit inside the theater, shaking hands, taking photos and stopping for conversations.

Jeff Petrucella and his wife Alice traveled from Macomb County to see El-Sayed. They described themselves as politically “middle of the road” and said they had voted Republican in the past.

“I’m pretty done with the Republicans right now,” Jeff said.

Alice said she was “looking for a change that is better for my granddaughters,” pointing to El-Sayed’s support for Medicare for All. Nor was she put off by his more confrontational appearances on Fox News.

“I think he expresses himself well. You can tell he’s a well-spoken, educated man,” she said.

Pat Kreiner was among those who waited nearly an hour to see El-Sayed. Her children had persuaded her to support him in the Democratic primary.

“My son said to me, ‘I have been living with this trickle-down economy since the day I was born,’” Kreiner said. “‘It doesn’t work for me.’”

Kreiner also expressed anger about Trump's trade war with Canada, just across the river from Port Huron.

“We are heartsick about our neighbors,” she said. “They used to come over a lot. We don’t see them now.”

Visiting smaller towns such as Port Huron has become central to El-Sayed’s campaign, with his team recently saying he's held more than 500 events in over 100 cities across the state.

“Go everywhere. Talk to everyone. That’s what we do,” El-Sayed said in an interview.

The personal approach has not erased all the skepticism surrounding El-Sayed, including within his own party.

His criticism of Israel and association with Piker have raised concerns among some Jewish Democrats. El-Sayed has held a series of private gatherings with undecided Jewish voters as he works to win their support.

He has also sought to strengthen his standing with Black voters. In the Democratic primary, Stevens drew more support in Wayne County, home to Detroit and its large Black population.

Ahead of Thursday’s debate, El-Sayed attended two events with Black leaders before stopping at a Black barbershop, where he moved from chair to chair talking with customers. He stopped at one point to speak with a pregnant woman, congratulating her and asking when her baby was due.

“November 8th?” El-Sayed joked. “Make sure you vote early, huh?”

The race has become about more than just Michigan

While El-Sayed has spent much of his campaign trying to win over Michigan voters, his candidacy has taken on significance far beyond the state. Republicans have made him a symbol of what they warn is an increasingly radical Democratic Party, while progressives see his campaign as a chance to prove their politics can win in a closely divided state.

At a New York City fundraiser on Oct. 5, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez cast his campaign as a test for progressives nationwide.

“If Abdul can win in Michigan, anybody can win anywhere,” said the New York Democrat, a potential presidential candidate.

Ocasio-Cortez plans to campaign with El-Sayed in Michigan next week, followed by former President Barack Obama on Oct. 24.

The national stakes have also drawn renewed opposition. United Democracy Project, a super PAC affiliated with AIPAC, disclosed an initial $94,000 expenditure against El-Sayed on Friday, after spending nearly $30 million to oppose him in the Democratic primary.

And El-Sayed, despite insisting the election should focus on Michigan voters and their economic struggles, has embraced the larger implications of his candidacy.

“I am grateful for your support,” he told the audience at the New York fundraiser, according to remarks obtained by The Associated Press. He said he had two goals — “pick up a U.S. Senate seat” and “change the nature of our politics for the better.”

ATLANTA — Not long ago, Georgia gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson eagerly compared himself to his fellow billionaire in the Oval Office. He promised to be Donald Trump “with a Southern tone.” And sharing a summer rally stage, Jackson pointed at the president and declared, “I’m going to be this man’s favorite governor.”

On the debate stage this week with his Democratic opponent, however, Jackson discussed Trump only when Keisha Lance Bottoms brought him up. And he assured his audience that he’d “stand up to anybody.”

Jackson is not alone in his recalibration: Republican nominees for Senate, the U.S. House and governor’s offices across the country are sidestepping Trump or openly distancing themselves as they debate before Election Day.

Those tactics, not unlike Republicans scrubbing Trump from their campaign websites, are the latest signs of how much Trump’s standing has fallen because of voters’ frustration with inflation, the Iran war and other matters. And the dynamics highlight the perilous options many Republicans face as they try to stitch together winning coalitions that go beyond Trump’s core supporters.

“Republicans right now are facing a voter turnout problem” in their own party, said GOP pollster Paul Shumaker, and must win “unaffiliated voters” who care most about the economy.

“You have to have something significant to change this narrative,” Shumaker said. But, he explained, that means “a significant victory in Iran” and seismic economic improvements — not something any Republican midterm candidate can force from behind a debate podium.

There’s a Trump tightrope on Iran, tariffs and rhetoric

Some Republicans are taking specific positions at odds with the president.

Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers said in his debate Thursday with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed that he’d urged the White House privately to reach a trade deal with Canada and end the president’s tariffs. Canada is Michigan’s largest trading partner, as it is for many Great Lakes and Midwestern states.

Days before, Rogers unveiled a new ad in which he said, “We know that Canada is not our enemy. We need to end the tariff war — now.”

That's a noticeable departure from Rogers’ earlier, less specific statements praising Trump’s “America First” economic agenda while saying tariffs are not a “one-size-fits-all” solution.

Another Michigan Republican, Rep. Tom Barrett, already had bucked the president by voting for a war powers resolution intended to assert congressional authority over military actions in Iran. But debating Democrat Will Lawrence in their central Michigan district, Barrett added a criticism of Trump's rhetoric Monday in Nebraska, where he floated the possibility of Iran attacking San Diego and Los Angeles.

The president mentioned those cities as part of his argument that higher gas prices because of his Iran war are a “small price to pay” to keep the country safe. But Democrats seized on the remarks, some insisting that Trump was calling for Iran to attack U.S. cities.

Barrett was asked whether Trump’s words were acceptable. Given the opportunity to echo the White House explanation that Trump was offhandedly mentioning a worst-case scenario he was trying to prevent, Barrett offered no defense.

“Nope,” he said flatly.

Many Republicans prefer a more generalized stiff arm

Reflecting the complex electoral balance, most Republicans have attempted to separate themselves without naming any firm difference with the president.

Running for a promotion to the Senate, Iowa U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson tried in her debate Wednesday against Democrat Josh Turek to reconcile her earlier promises to be a Trump ally in Congress’s upper chamber. She said it would be “really easy” to keep her word and still be bipartisan — a buzz word she’s already been featuring in her campaign.

“I’ll be President Donald Trump’s ally when it is important for Iowa, but I will push back on him — he knows this, because I talk to him regularly — on things that are wrong for our state,” she said. “That’s true no matter who’s in the White House. That’s true no matter who is governing and who has the gavel.”

That’s the same path Jackson took in Georgia, as he pivoted away from Trump by embracing outgoing Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican who has clashed with the president, starting with Trump's false claims that he won Georgia in the 2020 presidential election.

“I will stand up to anybody, just like Brian Kemp has done,” Jackson said.

Another Republican House member, Mike Lawler of New York, made a point of name-checking a Democratic colleague, New Jersey’s Josh Gottheimer, and discussing bills they’d work on together. It was part of his argument that he’s able to challenge Trump and the party line.

“When I agree with the president I say it. When I disagree with the president, I say it,” he said in his closing remarks.

Hinson, meanwhile, referenced bills she’s worked on in the House that have been signed into law by both President Joe Biden and Trump.

But she also avoided criticizing Trump when asked about the president sending Affordable Care Act rebate checks to some Americans and promising a $5,000 bonus after the midterm elections if Republicans retain control of the House and Senate.

She said she “cares very deeply” about making sure Congress maintains the power of the purse and thinks it’s important to “live better within our means.”

Democrats pounce on either approach

Regardless of the Republican efforts, Democrats have continued peppering them with attacks and retorts about Trump. The most heated moments came when Democrat Cait Conley repeatedly said Lawler always voted with Trump.

“No matter how many times you say 100% of the time,” the congressman answered, “it’s provably false.”

When Rogers conceded in his back-and-forth with El-Sayed that the administration “probably” made errors in its mass deportation strategy, the Democrat answered swiftly.

“He said it was probably not right. I mean, it’s definitely not right,” El-Sayed said. “They killed two people.”

And while Georgia’s Jackson seemed uncomfortable talking about Trump, Bottoms was more than happy to mention him.

“I’m not running to be his favorite governor,” she said. “I’m running to work on behalf of people like you."

Associated Press reporters Joey Cappelletti in Washington; Hannah Fingerhut in Des Moines, Iowa; and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.

Michigan slipped once again this year in college readiness, as measured by how well high school students perform on the SAT.

According to the latest results, only a fourth of 11th graders in Michigan are college ready, a slight dip from 26.6% last year. A decade ago, it was 35%.

“It’s true that SAT scores are only one predictor of college readiness,” said Charlotte Pierce, senior policy analyst at EdTrust-Midwest, which released a report earlier this year about the need for more rigorous coursework. “However, these results align with other concerning opportunity gaps we see across Michigan schools, particularly those serving students with the greatest needs.”

The decline in college readiness comes as the state continues to struggle in other academic performance measures, including low reading scores and an absenteeism rate that remains above 27%.

Success in college is critical as Michigan strives to remain competitive. The state’s goal is that 60% of its population have a post-secondary credential by 2030. As of 2024, less than 52% had one, according to one report.

The College Board, the group behind the SAT, says a student is college ready if they score above a certain level on the math test and the reading and writing test.

Statewide, 26.5% of students met the math benchmark during the 2025-2026 school year and 52.1% met the reading and writing mark.

In interviews with Bridge, high school principals and others acknowledged the low scores, but cautioned that the SAT is only one metric to measure student success.

“A student might not score college ready, but if they’re hard workers and we’ve made them leaders and good individuals that work hard, they’re going to be ready to go off to college,” said Sarah Allen, principal at Grayling High School. “That one score doesn’t necessarily determine if they are or are not — although I understand we have to have a benchmark that we strive for.”

The College Board defines college ready as having a 75% chance of getting at least a C “in first-semester, credit-bearing college courses” in specific subjects.

For example, a student who is college ready in math by the SAT has a 75% chance of earning at least a C in algebra, statistics, precalculus or calculus, according to the College Board. “It’s important to note that college readiness is a continuum — students scoring below the SAT benchmarks can still be successful in college, especially with additional preparation and perseverance,” the College Board says on its website.

College ready or not, Michigan high school students are graduating at a record rate. The four-year graduation rate in 2025 hit 84%. Meanwhile, about 54.6% of graduates enroll in college within six months.

Emily McEvoy, director of data and assessment at the Anchor Bay School District, pointed to state data that shows that more students earn college credit within a year or four years of graduating high school than the share of students deemed college ready.

“For that reason, I would argue that college credit attainment is a stronger indicator of whether Michigan students are prepared to succeed after high school. While SAT results provide useful information about academic preparedness at a single point in time, actual college performance provides evidence of what students can accomplish in real-world postsecondary settings.”

Still, Michigan scores are trending downward.

An unexplained drop

In the last decade, Michigan students’ college readiness has dropped from 34.9% to 25.3%, according to state data. In that time, the test switched from paper to online, the pandemic deeply disrupted school and some colleges made submitting test scores optional.

It’s unclear what led to the drop in scores.

Students’ socioeconomic status has long correlated with test scores. Statewide, only 11.5% of students who are economically disadvantaged are considered college-ready compared to 36% of students who are not economically disadvantaged.

US News & World Report ranks Michigan 32nd for college readiness. Michigan is one of only a handful of states that require juniors to take the SAT. Many other states use the ACT.

As Michigan leaders wrestle with how to measure success in educating K-12 students for life after high school, other states are also making changes.

Massachusetts eliminated a high stakes test that was used to determine if a student graduates and New York is aiming to end a similar type of test and phasing in new graduation requirements. Meanwhile, Indiana is implementing new graduation standards aimed at giving students needed skills.

How high are the stakes?

The SAT, administered to juniors, is one of three components of the Michigan Merit Exam, which “provide a measure of individual performance based on Michigan’s high school content standards as well as college and career readiness.” The scores are also used in Michigan’s school accountability system.

While the majority of colleges are test-optional, some Michigan high schools are taking steps to help their students prepare for the test.

At Grayling High School, the vast majority of juniors take a test prep course for one trimester, where teachers “try to talk through the importance of the test, even if you’re not going to college” and keep students motivated to persist through the test, said Allen, the principal.

Later this month, ninth, 10th and 11th graders will take the PSAT/NMSQT, a practice test that allows the district to track students’ progress over time and gives students options to qualify for scholarships.

In Belding High School in Ionia County, juniors also take a prep course.

While the state does not require a test preparation course, high school principal and assistant superintendent Michael Ostrander said many schools offer them because it helps the school’s metrics, helps the student get into the college they want and potentially earn scholarships.

Brandy Johnson, president of the Michigan Community College Association, told Bridge that if a student isn’t ready for college but enrolls in college, they may need more support to pass their entry-level courses.

That ultimately could mean it takes longer for a student to graduate and if they drop out, “that doesn’t help us get closer to 60 by 30,” said Johnson, referring to the state’s goal of getting 60% of working age adults with a college degree or skills certificate by 2030.

Steven Snead, supervisor of curriculum and assessment at Oakland Schools, told Bridge the SAT results should be used for districts to look at curricula, coaching for teachers and “perhaps, most importantly, listen to students.”

“Big data like SAT doesn’t really answer questions for practitioners on the ground but it can be a direction pointer to say, ’hey, take a look at this over here, look at your own local data, look at your own local curricula because there might be some issues we need to address. And again, my encouragement to everybody, we all have work to do.”

If not SAT, then what?

Bob Kefgen, associate director for government relations at the Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, said leaders should also consider how many students are close to meeting proficiency and how many students are deemed college ready in one subject rather than both.

“I think we are, as a state, not doing perfectly, but doing far better than what people think of when they see a statistic of only 25% of students are college ready when they graduate. That statistic is misleading.”

Meanwhile, the Michigan Department of Education pointed to several other stats on student achievement.

State Superintendent Glenn Maleyko “has been very clear that Michigan needs to improve student achievement on assessments, however, there are other metrics besides SAT scores that need to be considered to tell the complete story,” said MDE spokesperson Bob Wheaton.

Among them: an increase in students taking and scoring well on Advanced Placement tests, participation in dual enrollment, early middle college and career technical education programs. “These programs are producing thousands of credentialed, college-credit-earning students each year — a direct contribution to the state’s Sixty by 30 goal. When we look beyond one test score, we see a system that is providing students with multiple, meaningful opportunities to access college, careers and high-wage, high-demand occupations.”

Allen looks at pass rates for students who take Advanced Placement courses and if students who are participating in work-based learning programs are doing well. Similarly, Belding schools looks at if students are participating in dual enrollment, career and technical courses, Advanced Placement and getting internships.

“Are we giving them experiences that prepare them for life after high school?,” said assistant superintendent and high school principal Michael Ostrander. “Because college is for some, but it’s not for all. And you know, any standardized test can’t really measure communication skills. It can’t always measure problem-solving skills. It can’t measure collaboration skills. And those are things that we want students to be prepared for.”

Snead, of Oakland Schools, also sits on the board of the Michigan Assessment Consortium. He said the state has a good balance of ways to test students.

How can the state improve? He said he wants to see Michigan continue to spend on early literacy efforts and provide opportunities for high schoolers to explore science, technology, engineering and math options. He also wants investments in teachers, project-based learning for students and efforts for equitable funding.

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This story was originally published by Bridge Michigan and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't hear a challenge to a school district's ban on shirts with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,”

The phrase is a jab at former President Joe Biden with a coded reference to profanity. A Michigan mother of two says the school's ban is a First Amendment violation.

The school told her sons to take off the sweatshirts she bought them for Christmas in 2022.

Lower courts upheld the ban, finding the veiled vulgarity of the phrase allows schools to ban it. It functions as a stand-in for “F-— Joe Biden."

The woman's attorneys argued that the decision wrongly gives school officials wide latitude to squelch political speech based on their personal ideas of what is vulgar. The phrase itself doesn't contain any swear words or sexual implications, they said.

The school district urged the justices to reject the case, arguing that messages with lewd implications have no place in school, even if they touch on political topics. There has been evidence that some students wore clothing that read “Make America Great Again” or had messages supporting President Donald Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Biden, a Democrat.

The phrase originated in 2021, when people in the crowd at a NASCAR race chanted the obscenity directed at Biden and a TV sports reporter said they were calling out “Let’s Go, Brandon," apparently believing they were chanting for driver Brandon Brown, who had just won a race.

Frankie Llerandi, 21, has been unable to land a single internship in his three years at Michigan State University.

He will graduate in the spring with an economics degree and an interest in data analytics, but true adulthood seems maddeningly far away. Most of his cousins have not been able to buy a house or start a family deep into their 30s.

Kira Saiti, a 19-year-old sophomore, is more upset about the broader world than her own future. Every time she looks at her phone she sees images of violence and horror, both in the Middle East and closer to home.

“It’s kind of hard to look at that and say, ‘This world is a great place,’” she said.

Julian Bautista, 20, saw his chosen profession of environmental work decimated by Trump administration cuts, pushing the junior to decide he will leave the United States to find work in the Netherlands when he graduates. He considers what remains his home country for the next 18 months to be a failure of democracy led by what he sees as corrupt politicians.

“Throughout my life, we’ve either stagnated or declined, we haven’t improved,” Bautista said.

For many of their classmates on campus and elsewhere around the country, the present looks bleak and the future uncertain at best. Their anxiety is fueling a restlessness with a national political system that they worry is no longer capable of improving their lives or no longer interested in helping.

Two years ago, grim economic vibes helped Donald Trump win a far larger share of young voters than is typical for a Republican — 47%, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of the electorate. Now, anxiety about artificial intelligence and the Iran war has been added to the mix, powering a wave of disruptive candidates on the opposite end of the political spectrum who have been embraced by college students.

Llerandi, Saiti and Bautista all support a slate of progressive, antiestablishment Democratic candidates in Michigan who are pledging to shake up the status quo. Among them are Abdul El-Sayed, a former public health official running for U.S. Senate, and Will Lawrence, a liberal activist trying to unseat Tom Barrett, the Republican congressman who represents the swing district that includes the university.

The future looks bleak for many students

Anxieties about the job market, homeownership and adulthood are widespread across the campus, even among those who are not deeply involved in politics.

“It’s just something to laugh at, but, you know, I really do want a house when I’m older,” said Praveen Amunugama, a 21-year-old biochemistry major who plans to go to graduate school in hopes the job market improves over the next two years.

His friends feel the same way.

“They want to be able to afford things, raise a good family,” he said.

Despite the economic angst among young people, at first blush the picture does not look that bad for them. The unemployment rate for those age 22 to 27 is 7.2%, higher than the broader rate of 4.1% but lower than some other moments of economic calm.

A 2024 study found members of the younger generation known as Generation Z are poised to be wealthier than millennials, who themselves are wealthier than the prior generation despite the persistent sense of economic doom that accompanied their entry into the job market during the Great Recession.

Kevin Corinth, the economist who co-authored that study, said he understands Gen Z angst, given modern uncertainties, especially the prospect of AI reshaping various industries and data showing younger people are taking longer to leave home and start families.

“For previous generations, if you took certain paths you were likely to succeed, to do better than your parents,” said Corinth, who is at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank. For young people now, he acknowledged, that path is not as clear.

Kathryn Edwards, a Texas-based economist, noted that unemployment among recent college graduates is at 5.6%, higher than at most other times in recent history other than the Great Recession. Combined with historically high housing prices and rising costs for essentials such as food and healthcare, that is a challenging environment for young people.

“It's pretty bad for them,” Edwards said, adding that young people are picking up on broader warning signs in the economy. “So many aspects of our current economy, I think young people have gotten right.”

They are also fully exposed to the new form of job hunting: AI-powered, digital and done almost exclusively online, where it is hard to discern real job openings from fake ones.

“Think about the amount they get spammed and scammed, and there are tons of fake jobs out there,” said Marla McGraw, assistant dean of career management in Michigan State's business school. “They’re always coming in here going, ‘Is this real?’”

She spends a lot of time trying to buck up disenchanted students.

“Our message right now is the job market is tough, but you’re tougher,” McGraw said.

Students say political leaders are falling short

Young Americans' optimism about the job market has plummeted since 2024 and the gap between their view of the economy and those of their elders is greater than almost anywhere in the world, according to a Gallup survey earlier this year.

They are less likely to be engaged in politics and less likely to think it is important to vote, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll found. They also are less likely to be concerned about political violence.

That dissolution of beliefs in traditional political values worries Karlee VanAntwerp.

The 21-year-old Michigan State senior is also head of the local chapter of Turning Point, the group for young conservatives whose founder, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated last year. VanAntwerp has been horrified to see Kirk's killing repeatedly, and sometimes menacingly, mocked online.

“Gen Z tends to be more extreme with their views,” VanAntwerp said. “It makes it hard to work with people of different political beliefs, because even if you're in the middle, they assume you're crazy.”

VanAntwerp sees that feeding into the despair many of her generation feel about real change ever happening.

“One administration does a bunch of stuff, another administration comes in and wipes it all out,” said VanAntwerp, who is also working for Barrett's campaign. “It feels like we always go in circles. That contributes to the political temperature being so high, because people feel nothing changes.”

Her politics are the polar opposite of many liberal students who gathered to hear Lawrence, Barrett's Democratic challenger, talk in a classroom one recent evening, but there was a similar desire for dramatic change. Lawrence sympathized with the glum feelings of early adulthood and urged the students not to succumb to despair.

“When I was a little younger I wanted to drop out of society, and it was organizing that gave me a path in life,” Lawrence said.

After the candidate left, however, Bautista still sounded on the verge of despair. He talked about how online influencers he trusts deride Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York as “mini-mes” because, Bautista contended, they are just watered-down versions of Trump.

“Our leaders are representing us less,” Bautista said. “People are desperate for big stuff.”

Federal immigration officers were about a half-mile away when a man who was illegally in the U.S. crashed a car at high speed and died in Michigan last weekend, authorities said Thursday, attempting to rebut any claim that they were in hot pursuit.

The death of Mario Coronado Juarez has angered friends and activists, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has directed state police to investigate the Sunday morning crash in Grand Rapids.

Juarez, a native of Guatemala, apparently was not the specific target of officers. But he was driving a car that was registered to another person who was also in the U.S. illegally and wanted back in Guatemala, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.

“As officers attempted the stop to confirm the identity of the driver, the driver of the vehicle fled at a high rate of speed,” DHS said. “In the interest of public safety, ICE officers immediately discontinued the enforcement action."

“A short time later, officers saw smoke nearly half a mile from the attempted stop and discovered the vehicle had crashed into a tree and caught fire,” DHS said.

The agency said officers tried to help Juarez and put out the fire before Grand Rapids first responders arrived. Juarez, who was in his 30s, died at the scene.

ICE officers have followed and arrested people believed to be targets who turn out to be someone else. But as the agency rapidly expands with the hiring of 12,000 officers, its long-held practices are getting more scrutiny.

In Evanston, Illinois, a U.S. citizen was left bloodied on the side of the road Sunday after a confrontation with immigration officers who mistook him for a fugitive, police said. Homeland Security said the man initially refused to identify himself despite “lawful commands.”

Grand Rapids Mayor David LaGrand supports a state police investigation of Juarez's death. The city police department said it had no role Sunday until called to the crash site.

“While we don’t know what Mario was thinking and feeling, we know that his death happened in the context of a national effort to create fear among our immigrant neighbors,” LaGrand said.

Juarez was supporting a wife and three children by working in construction in Grand Rapids and saving money to build a home for them in Guatemala, where they live, said Gema Lowe, an immigrant rights activist.

She led a chant of Juarez's name at a plaza outside city hall Tuesday and said he had died because of ICE's “vicious persecution of immigrant workers.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Hillary Scholten, who represents Grand Rapids, sent a detailed letter to ICE that included a request that any video recorded by officers be preserved.

Mike Rogers stood outside Cody High School on Detroit’s west side on a recent drizzly morning and decried Michigan's decline in reading achievement.

“This is the civil rights issue of our lifetime,” said the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in the open-seat race in November.

It had the look and sound of a Democratic campaign policy event, set in one of the nation’s Democratic-voting strongholds.

The contest has quickly become a focal point in the fight for Senate control, and Rogers is working to appeal to segments of Michigan's Democratic electorate. It's a key to what the former congressman sees as his path to defeating progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed this fall.

Rogers lost his first bid for Senate two years ago by barely 19,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million cast. This time, he is betting he can win over some Democrats and independents, particularly Black and Jewish voters who may be turned off by El-Sayed's positions, which are to the left of his party’s establishment, notably on U.S.-Israel relations. At the same time, Rogers must rally Donald Trump loyalists to turn out to vote, even though the president isn't on the ballot.

“He is threading a needle,” said Bobby Schostak, Rogers' campaign finance chairman.

Rogers is reaching into heavily Democratic Detroit

Rogers' event outside Cody was part of his promotion of a nonprofit program to boost literacy in Michigan's largest city. A few days later, he promoted a home construction plan in downtown Detroit, where many thousands of lots remain vacant almost 20 years after the Great Recession.

Rogers' campaign sees opportunity in racially and culturally diverse Wayne County, home to Detroit, where roughly three-quarters of the population is Black.

In the 2024 Senate race, then-U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a Democrat, won the county by more than a 2-to-1 margin over Rogers, or 264,000 votes. Squeezing even a couple more percentage points there in November could be enough for Rogers to win. His team is optimistic in part because in this year's Democratic primary, U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens beat El-Sayed in the county.

El-Sayed has faced resistance from some of Detroit’s older and more establishment-aligned Black Democrats, who favored Stevens' longer-standing ties to Black churches and work on the Obama administration's auto industry rescue plan.

Some local Black activists also faulted El-Sayed, who if elected would be the first Muslim senator, for supporting the “uncommitted” campaign in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary. Some Black Michigan Democrats believe the effort, aimed at pressuring the Biden administration over Gaza, cost then-Vice President Kamala Harris in her campaign as the first Black woman to be a major party presidential nominee. Trump beat Harris by 1.4 percentage points in the state.

Harris plans to campaign with El-Sayed in Michigan on Tuesday, and the Congressional Black Caucus has endorsed El-Sayed.

Democratic leaders have dismissed Rogers' efforts at inroads.

"I don’t think anyone’s buying it,” the state party chair, Curtis Hertel, said of Rogers' efforts to court Black voters in Detroit. “I don’t think (Rogers) has a connection in those communities, I think he’s going to have a hard time.”

Some Jewish Democrats are siding with Rogers

Rogers has also leaned into the defections by some Democratic Jewish voters, an influential group particularly in Oakland County, Michigan's second most-populous county.

A day after the August primary, a prominent Democrat, Detroit-area business leader Brian Hermelin, called Schostak, Rogers' campaign finance chairman, asking how he could help. Within 10 days, Rogers was headlining a fundraiser hosted by the Hermelin family and attended by about 130 people, mostly Democrats, Schostak said.

El-Sayed opposes U.S. military aid to Israel and has called the U.S. ally's military campaign in Gaza a "genocide,” an accusation rejected by the Israeli and U.S. governments. The former public health official also has angered some Jewish Democrats with statements he made after the March attack on Temple Israel, Michigan’s largest Jewish congregation.

El-Sayed's suggestion that “hurt people hurt people” was interpreted by some as justification for the attack. El-Sayed later apologized for his response, but the remark helped push some influential Jewish Democrats toward Rogers.

Oakland County commercial real estate broker Benji Rosenzweig, who is Jewish and tends to vote for Democrats, plans to vote for the Republican.

“As a Jew, my family doesn't feel safe with Abdul El-Sayed,” Rosenzweig said.

Michigan is a potential Republican firewall

The seat is open because Democrat Gary Peters is not seeking reelection. If Rogers wins, Republicans would retain their Senate majority even if Democrats pick up as many as four GOP-held seats in November.

Ad spending reflects the stakes. More money has been spent in Michigan — almost $125 million since the Aug. 4 primary — than in any other state where Republicans have a chance at gaining a seat, according to the advertising-tracking firm AdImpact. That is spending by El-Sayed, Rogers and allied groups.

The race has jumped to the top of the Trump political team's priority list.

No Going Back, a new entity linked to Trump's MAGA Inc. super PAC, early this month spent $18.5 million to air ads and reserve advertising time in Michigan, the most the group has committed to any 2026 Senate race so far, according to AdImpact.

The ads show the split-screen tack Rogers and his allies are taking in reaching out to atypical Republican voters while working to inspire the Trump base.

Rogers' campaign organization is airing ads, many of them with him direct to camera, promoting him as the son of a middle-class family, a collaborator during his time in Congress and interested in bringing down costs, notably for healthcare.

The super PACs supporting his candidacy are swinging the hammer. For instance, the super PAC associated with GOP Senate leadership is airing ads noting El-Sayed's past association with left-wing streamer Hasan Piker and the candidate's support for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Rogers has walked a fine line on Trump

The division of messaging reflects that Rogers' team is wary of Trump's low approval, especially on handling the economy, and wants to be seen among the broad swath of Michigan voters as not beholden to the president.

As he says in one ad, “Michigan comes first.”

Yet he has shifted closer to Trump.

After the 2020 election, Rogers was unequivocal that Democrat Joe Biden defeated Trump for the White House, and Rogers he criticized Trump's unfounded claims of widespread fraud. But in July, after Trump's primetime address recycling the disproven claims, Rogers praised Trump's “commitment to transparency."

He has not shied away from the rhetoric that appeals to Trump's supporters, but delivers it in a less edgy tone.

Speaking to the Republican midterm convention in Dallas on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Rogers referenced “radical Islamic terrorism.” He also said El-Sayed had “chosen Hasan Piker as his running mate."

Piker, who in 2019 said the U.S. “deserved 9/11,” had hosted El-Sayed on his livestream and later campaigned with him at rallies during the primary. El-Sayed has since disavowed Piker’s controversial statements and ended plans for joint campaigning, but has not categorically repudiated him nor apologized for appearing with him.

Not once during Rogers' convention speech did he mention Trump, as so many speakers did over the two-night event.

Instead, Rogers closed by echoing a quote attributed to Michigan native Todd Beamer, among the passengers aboard United Flight 93 before its crash in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

Jabbing a finger toward the audience, Rogers said, “America, let's roll."

DETROIT (AP) — An F-16 fighter jet from Texas crashed in rural Michigan during a routine training exercise on Thursday, and the pilot ejected safely, a military spokesman said.

Local authorities ordered people within one mile of the crash site in Grand Traverse County to evacuate.

Sgt. Derek Gutierrez, a public affairs specialist with the 149th Fighter Wing, said the pilot was receiving medical treatment at a local hospital. Gutierrez declined to release details about the pilot’s identity or any injuries, citing military policy.

Michigan State Police said no other injuries were reported.

The plane was participating in training exercises at a National Guard base in Alpena, about 190 miles (305 kilometers) north of Detroit.

Witnesses reported hearing a loud crash, and images posted to social media showed a dark plume of smoke in the air.

Grand Traverse County Emergency Management posted on social media telling people to "evacuate away from the intersection of Co Rd 633 and Jefferson Pl."

"Follow instructions from emergency personnel," the post continued.

Michigan State Police said the evacuation was because of "a hazardous chemical spill related to the plane crash."

Wendy Sobeck said she and her husband heard a “very loud crash” down the road, minutes from their rural home.

“We thought there was a car accident outside our house. We saw big billowing black smoke. We couldn’t tell what it was, so my husband got into his pickup truck and saw what happened,” Sobeck said. “You could see the plane debris in the field. Explosions kept happening.”

Fred Sobeck, 65, said he drove down the road and saw a “big fireball in the field” near a house and a camper, which were not hit.

“Police told me to get out of there because of explosions,” he said.

Local authorities set up a shelter at Kensington Church on Secor Road, about 5 miles from Traverse City. "If you have evacuated and need a place to go, Kensington Church and the American Red Cross are there to assist residents," the local emergency management agency said.

The jet was one of several F-16 aircraft from Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, taking part in the Michigan training exercises, Gutierrez said.

The military began flying the first F-16s in 1979. There have been at least 14 “Class A mishaps” involving F-16s since 2000, according to the Air Force Safety Center. The Class A mishap designation is generally used when the damage totals more than $2 million, when an aircraft is destroyed or when a service member is killed.

In December, an F-16C Fighting Falcon with the Air Force’s elite Thunderbirds demonstration squadron crashed in the Southern California desert, and the pilot in that crash was also able to eject safely.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Western Michigan and its conference have insisted Michigan should not have been given an extra second in its dramatic win over the Broncos two weeks ago.

The NCAA agrees, but said it can't do anything about it.

The NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee announced Wednesday that proper replay protocols weren't followed in Michigan's Hail Mary win, altering the outcome of the game.

The committee also reiterated what the NCAA said last week: It doesn't have the authority to overturn the result.

“The committee consulted with national officiating leadership regarding the instant replay protocols,” the committee said in a statement.

“Based on that information, the committee agreed that the instant replay protocols were not followed in the contest’s second-to-last play,” the statement continued. “Had the protocols been followed, the outcome of the game would have been different.”

Michigan, now ranked No. 19, won the September 5 game 13-12 on a Hail Mary pass after the replay official had put 1 second back on the clock when Wolverines quarterback Bryce Underwood’s first try was incomplete.

The Mid-American Conference initially accepted the Big Ten's explanation of what happened at the end of the game, but joined Western Michigan in asking for the result to be overturned.

A few hours later, the NCAA said the result would stand, noting its playing rules do not have a protocol for overturning the outcome of a game and the oversight committee does not have the authority to do so, which it confirmed again on Wednesday.

“The playing rules governing the result of a contest are clear: once the referee declares a contest to be final, no appeal of the outcome is permitted, according to (rules),” the committee said.

Abbott Laboratories will pay $385 million to resolve claims tied to an investigation of contamination at a baby formula factory in Sturgis, Michigan, the largest in the country, which led to the supply shortages in 2022.

Problems at the facility prompted a lawsuit by the Justice Department and recall of powdered infant formula at the facility.

The recall covered several infant formula brands, including Similac, and squeezed inventory that had already been strained by supply chain disruptions and stockpiling during COVID-19 shutdowns.

The settlement, which Abbott says does not represent any finding of fault or liability, also pertains to lawsuits filed by certain relators and the Attorneys General of several states.

Abbott said on Monday that tests by government regulators of unopened product from the homes of the infants under investigation at the time of the 2022 recall were negative for Cronobacter sakazakii, a bacterium that can cause illness in infants. The company also said that no unopened, distributed Abbott infant formulas have ever tested positive for Cronobacter sakazakii.

The Justice Department under President Donald Trump closed its criminal investigation into the matter.

The Biden administration eased import rules for foreign manufacturers, airlifted formula from Europe and invoked federal emergency rules to prioritize U.S. production during the supply shortage.

Abbott closed the Sturgis facility in February 2022 after the Food and Drug Administration began an investigation. The plant was reopened by June of that year.

In a defeat for the Trump administration, a federal court on Friday ruled that the Energy Department exceeded its authority when it forced a Michigan coal-fired power plant to stay open past its scheduled retirement date last year.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright had said the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell plant was needed to ensure reliable electricity in the region and used emergency powers to keep it operating. Environmental groups and three states — Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota — went to court to try to overturn orders keeping the plant online.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the states and the groups, saying there was no real emergency under the law.

The section of the Federal Power Act that allows emergency orders “is essentially a narrow, last-resort backstop," Appeals Court Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel.

By reversing the Campbell plant's “long and carefully planned retirement ... the results are disruptive," Pillard wrote. There was “no ‘emergency’ within the meaning” of the statute, she added.

The Michigan case is one of several legal disputes that have emerged across the country as the Trump administration uses emergency powers to force a half-dozen coal-fired plants from closing. The orders are raising ratepayer bills, critics say, and adding air and water pollution that could otherwise have been avoided.

Keeping the Michigan plant open cost at least $135 million in 2025 alone, officials said.

Ted Kelly, U.S. clean energy director at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the court ruling rejected the Trump administration’s nationwide effort to force “unreliable, aging coal plants that are bleeding money and polluting communities to stay online.”

The Energy Department's “unlawful actions attempted to make families and businesses in the Midwest wastefully pay hundreds of millions of dollars for a coal plant that should have been shut down over a year ago,” Kelly said Friday. The Campbell plant and other aging sites are “incredibly expensive, dangerous to our health and break down frequently,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Department of Energy issued a statement that included unsubstantiated claims.

"The Energy Department's emergency orders, including at Campbell, prevented blackouts and likely saved hundreds of lives during peak capacity events this past year. The Energy Department’s emergency orders were essential for keeping the lights on during Winter Storm Fern," the spokesperson said.

The statement continued, "At the peak of the storm, coal generation in impacted regions increased 25% compared to the same time last year. In Michigan, the J.H. Campbell Coal Plant in Michigan operated at over 650 MW every day between January 21-February 1. Rest assured, the Department of Energy will continue to protect and defend energy security for all Americans."

Michael Lenoff, an attorney with Earth Justice, one of the groups that sued the Energy Department on the issue, said the department's claims about prevented blackouts and saved lives are demonstrably false, based on data from the Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator – the regional electric grid that includes Michigan.

"At the most grid-stressed times during Winter Storm Fern, Summer 2025, and Summer 2026, MISO had unused available excess generation far exceeding the amount of power being supplied by the coal plants subject to [DOE] orders," he said.

Lenoff also disputed that keeping Campbell operational is necessary for grid reliability. In fact, it's the opposite, he said.

"Campbell’s output since the orders began on May 23, 2025, demonstrates its unreliability and the dangers to grid reliability of relying on old coal plants. For instance, on June 23, 2025, the grid’s most stressed day that summer, Campbell Unit 1 suddenly dropped offline in the middle of the day. Meanwhile, Campbell Unit 2 was already offline that day, had been offline since May 23, and has barely been able to stay online during the entire term of the 202(c) orders."

The Department of Energy did not say if it will appeal the vacating of its original order to the U.S. Supreme Court.

There is another factor that could keep the dispute from being resolved for some time. The Court of Appeals order applies only to the DOE's first order in the Campbell plant case. Subsequent orders – the most recent of which was issued less than a month ago – have renewed the directive that Consumers Energy keep the plant running. Lenoff said if the DOE does not rescind those orders, his and other groups will sue again.

In a statement, Consumers said the plant is still running while it reviews the court ruling.

"While that happens, we are continuing to comply with the current 90-day Department of Energy order that keeps the Campbell plant operating. Ultimately, we will follow the law and work to ensure that everyone who benefits from power from the Campbell plant across the Midwest pays their fair share."

Editor's note: Consumers Energy is among Michigan Public's corporate sponsors.

The Toledo Blade will print its final edition at the end of the year, unless a buyer steps in before then, according to an email sent by the nearly 200-year-old paper’s current owners to its staff on September 8.

Block Communications, which has held The Blade since 1925, reached the “extremely difficult decision” due to financial considerations, president and chief operating officer Jodi Miehls informed staff, as reported by the paper.

“The Block Family’s continued investment to keep the Blade open is no longer an option,” Miehls wrote. “The financial losses the Blade has endured for years are simply not sustainable.”

Miehls’ notice came after negotiations over a contract late last month.

The NewsGuild, which represents Blade’s staff, said that its Toledo chapter voted down a proposed contract in a 46-25 vote.

“The Company’s proposal would have axed seniority, halved severance for its most experienced employees, and allowed the outsourcing of all Guild work,” said Lillian King, Blade features writer and Toledo NewsGuild bargaining chair. “All content at The Blade could be created or edited with Al, with no protections for journalists or requirements to disclose Al usage to its readers.”

Instead of returning to the bargaining table last week, the NewsGuild said that the Block Communications board decided to sell or shutter the paper.

Block Communications similarly cited financial losses when it announced in January that it would cease publishing another newspaper, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. But about two weeks before it was to shut down in May, Block announced that the nonprofit Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism would buy the newspaper and keep it open.

A team of reporters from The Blade won the Pulitzer Prize in investigative reporting in 2004 for articles about an elite Army platoon accused of killing unarmed Vietnamese civilians in 1967. Reporters at the newspaper also were finalists for the prestigious journalism award in 2000, again for investigative reporting, and in 2006 in the public service category.

Among the newspaper’s alums was Mildred Wirt Benson, better known to legions of Nancy Drew fans as Carolyn Keene, the original author of the mystery books featuring the plucky amateur detective.

Detroit area reporter Larry Vellequette grew up in Toledo and came of age working at The Blade. He joined April Baer on Stateside to talk about what place the paper occupied in metro Toledo and in journalism throughout the years.

"For decades, the blade was this shining, little outperforming newspaper in a small Midwestern city," Vellequette said. "From a pay standpoint, it's pay rivaled that of you know, the the Cleveland Plain Dealer, much larger paper, Chicago. In this little town. It was a very wonderful place to work and, and especially to, to start a career."

The Blade was founded in 1835 — two years before Toledo was officially incorporated as a city — and says it is the city’s oldest continually operating business. Paul Block Sr., a newspaper mogul, took over the paper in August 1926.

An advertisement printed the day after Block was introduced to the newspaper staff said the date “will long be remembered by us as the beginning of a new era of good will in our association with the Toledo Blade,” along with a list of all of the newspaper’s employees, according to the paper.

“Block Communications Board of Directors and the Block Family are truly disappointed to have reached this point,” Miehls said in Tuesday’s email, just over a hundred years later. “Unfortunately, the realities facing local journalism have left us in this situation.”

Vellequette believes that if The Blade ceases production, it will be a loss for the city and for journalism.

"I think that Toledo, like so many cities, it suffers without a newspaper," he said. "Because you don't have somebody covering the local townships, for example, like we used to. You don't have somebody, you barely have somebody covering City hall. [...] These decisions that are so, so influential and impactful upon our lives are happening now in the dark because newspapers across the country, which traditionally covered these boards and local boards and local politicians have disappeared because people decided that if it was on their phone and it was free, why should I pay for it? [...] It is a tragedy beyond tragedy."

This story was originally published on September 8, and was updated to include an interview with journalist Larry Vellequette that aired on Stateside on September 17.