By Craig Mauger, Chad Livengood, Beth LeBlanc, MediaNews Group

Lansing — A group of seven Michigan House Republicans introduced bills this month that would exempt land owned by people without children in public schools from property taxes that benefit public schools.

The legislation, which has little to no chance of passing the state Legislature this term, would lead to significant funding cuts for K-12 schools in the coming years. However, the supporters of the proposals contended that it was unfair to require property owners who don’t directly use public schools to fund them.

“It’s fundamentally unjust to force people, including seniors, empty-nesters, those who pay for private school, and those without children, to subsidize a government education system they do not use,” Rep. Steve Carra, R-Three Rivers, argued in a press release. “This is especially unfair because our broken system spends a record amount of money, yet results continue to plummet.”

The exemption, under Carra’s proposal, would be phased in starting with a 40% drop in taxes in 2027 and then expanding by 15 percentage points annually until the school-connected property taxes were eliminated in 2031.

Among the other six lawmakers who co-sponsored the measures were Rep. Matt Maddock, R-Milford, vice chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Rep. Jim DeSana, R-Carleton, who also serves on the appropriations panel.

About 72% of Michigan households do not have a child in government schools, according to Carra’s press release.

In 2023, about $10.8 billion of property tax money went to schools or the State Education Tax, which benefits the School Aid Fund, according to the Michigan Department of Treasury.

Jess Newman, deputy political director for the advocacy group United for Respect, labeled Carra’s proposal an “unconscionable bill” and “a move to defund our public schools.”

“The result for our communities will be nothing short of devastating,” Newman added. “Families are already stretched thin by rising housing, health care and child care costs. Making parents shoulder the cost of education alone would be unbearable.

“We all benefit from healthy, well-funded schools, whether or not we have children attending, and this move will only further widen inequities between wealthy and low-income districts.”

Newman is part of the Invest In MI Kids campaign, which is seeking to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in 2026 that would impose a 5% tax on income over $500,000 to increase funding for K-12 schools.

House GOP leaders sent the property tax exemption bills to the Government Operations Committee. In addition to the House, the Democratic-controlled Senate would have to approve them for them to become law, and Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would have to sign them.

Democrats in the Senate and Whitmer have promoted their efforts to increase K-12 school funding over the years.

Senator asks for AG convention opinion

State Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, has asked Attorney General Dana Nessel for an official opinion on whether it’s legal for political parties to hold early nominating conventions to make binding picks of candidates for attorney general, secretary of state and other statewide offices.

Both Michigan Republicans and Democrats have scheduled nominating conventions for the spring of 2026, as a strategy to give their nominees an early start on the fall campaign. The parties have done the same thing previously.

However, Michigan law says each political party must nominate a candidate for lieutenant governor, secretary of state and attorney general at fall conventions after the August primary.

“It has come to my attention that one of the state’s major political parties intends to convene a separate ‘endorsement convention’ several months prior to the August primary election,” McBroom wrote to Nessel “Under the adopted party rules, only a person who has (a) obtained prior endorsement at that separate “endorsement convention” and (b) paid a fee of $10,000 to appear before the ‘endorsement convention; may be considered for nomination at the post-primary state convention.”

McBroom specifically asked Nessel to decide whether a political party may lawfully conduct an endorsement convention that “purports to bind, limit or otherwise condition the constitutional authority of the post-primary state convention to nominate candidates for attorney general and secretary of state.”

Duggan moving downtown

After 12 years of living in the Manoogian Mansion on the banks of the Detroit River, outgoing Mayor Mike Duggan is going to get a better view of downtown Detroit each morning.

Duggan and his wife, Dr. Sonia Hassan, are moving into a rental condo in the 33-story Book-Cadillac Hotel building on Washington Boulevard.

The one-time Livonia resident confirmed his post-mayoral residency plans in a Dec. 18 interview with The Detroit News editorial board.

“My wife and I are looking forward to being able to just walk out to dinner downtown like normal people, which we will be able to do in two weeks,” said Duggan, who is running for governor next year as an independent.

With his eyes set on moving into the governor’s residence in Lansing in 2027, Duggan said he and his wife got a one-year lease in the Book-Cadillac, which houses both luxury condos and a Westin hotel.

Duggan has lived at the Manoogian Mansion on the city’s east riverfront since he was first elected mayor in 2013. Detroit’s official residence for the mayor is named after its one-time owner, the late construction materials magnate Alex Manoogian, who donated it to the city in the mid-1960s.

A nonprofit group reportedly spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on improvements to the 4,000-square-foot home while Duggan has lived there.

Duggan told The News he expects Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield to make additional improvements to the century-old mansion.

“It’s in good shape now and Sheffield (will) fix it up even more,” Duggan said. “… It is a great place to live. I will miss the house.”

Andy Levin’s new (ad)venture

Former U.S. Rep. Andy Levin appears to be living his best life — and perhaps pinching himself.

Instead of trying to mount a comeback in Michigan politics, the former two-term congressman from Bloomfield Township has bought a cross-country skiing and snowshoeing resort in northern Ontario.

In a Dec. 20 post on LinkedIn, Levin divulged that he and his wife, Mary Freeman, are the new majority owners of Stokely Creek Lodge in Goulais River, Ontario, about 25 miles — or 41 kilometers — north of the International Bridge connecting Sault Ste. Marie with its sister city of the same name in Canada.

“We’ve been snowshoeing, skiing, canoeing and hiking in the Algoma region of Ontario since before we were married. In fact, I proposed to Mary on snowshoes high atop the Awausee Trail in Lake Superior Provincial Park,” Levin wrote.

The former congressman described the lodge in the foothills above Lake Superior as “a mix of unfussy, down-home comfort with high standards.”

Levin and Freeman still run their Detroit-based energy-efficiency consulting firm, Lean & Green Michigan. In his announcement post, Levin suggested they might use the resort to host retreats for progressive political allies.

“As we move into the holiday season in a world plagued with violence, greed and corruption, I’m grateful for the curveballs life throws our way.” Levin wrote. “Watch out: some of them just might open doors to adventures you didn’t even know you wanted to undertake!”

Whitmer calls Michigan troops

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday called Michigan National Guard troops deployed to Germany, Kuwait and the southeast border to wish them well ahead of the holidays and New Year’s.

More than 800 Michigan National Guard members are serving away from their families and homes of the holidays, according to the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.

“As we celebrate the holidays and gather with family, friends, and loved ones, I encourage every Michigander to take a moment to acknowledge the selfless sacrifices that these individuals make every day and pray for their safe return home,” Whitmer said in a statement Tuesday.

The members she spoke with over video calls included those from the 217th Air Operations Group, 110th Wing, from Battle Creek; Alpha Company, 3-126 Infantry Battalion from Detroit; Bravo Company, 3-126 Infantry Battalion from Wyoming; and the 1430th Engineer Company from Traverse City, according to a statement from the governor’s office.

Pure Michigan plate wins in a landslide

The basic white Pure Michigan license plate will continue to carry the mantle of being the most popular license plate design in Michigan into 2026. The license plate adorns about 8.3 million vehicles and trailers, accounting for about 71.5% of license plate sales in Michigan, the Secretary of State’s office said last week.

Among the state’s standard plate options, the blue and yellow Water-Winter Wonderland plate is the second most popular, with 1.27 million plates or 10.9% of plates issued, and the multicolor Mackinac Bridge plate comes in third, accounting for 10.7% of plates issued at 1.25 million vehicles and trailers.

About 453,000 of the discontinued white, green, and blue Spectacular Peninsulas plates remain in circulation, as well as about 218,000 green and white Water Wonderland plates.

About 122,586 university fundraising plates are still on the road, with Michigan State University topping the list at 55,413 and the University of Michigan in second with 28,194.

The University of Michigan-Flint came in last with 536 fundraising plates in circulation.

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 the Pure Michigan account on X, formerly Twitter.

On Christmas Eve, the state’s tourism organization posted a bird’s-eye view of a snow-covered Mackinac Island, proving the island is much more idyllic when covered in snow during the winter than when it’s filled with politicians and lobbyists in the spring for the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

clivengood@detroitnews.com

eleblanc@detroitnews.com

 

By Anne Snabes

asnabes@detroitnews.com

The Michigan Department of Transportation has awarded $133 million in grants to upgrade transit vehicles and facilities across the state, including $59.8 million for the Detroit Department of Transportation.

MDOT said the funds, which will go to more than 20 transit agencies in Michigan, will help modernize the state’s bus infrastructure, reduce traffic congestion and “help people travel more efficiently and affordably.”

The Detroit Department of Transportation is receiving the largest grant, receiving $9 million in state match funds and $50.9 million in federal funds. The agency announced last month that it would use the federal money to purchase 53 new buses.

The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation, which serves Metro Detroit’s suburban communities, meanwhile, will get $1.56 million, which includes $312,375 in state match funds and $1.25 million in federal funds.

“These competitive grants strengthen Michigan’s thriving intermodal transportation network connecting our communities,” said Jean Ruestman, administrator of the MDOT Office of Passenger Transportation, in a press release about the grants across the state. “Both grant programs have innumerable positive social and economic impacts ranging from improving mobility to advancing green innovation in public transit.”

The federal funding comes from the Federal Transit Administration’s Grants for Buses and Bus Facilities Program and Low or No Emission Grant Program, the latter of which is funding the 53 new Detroit buses. Those buses will be in addition to 76 buses awarded over the last two years in Biden administration grants, bringing Detroit’s total new bus purchases to 129 ― or 44% of the entire fleet, according to the city of Detroit.

One-third of the Detroit Department of Transportation’s buses were routinely in disrepair as of 2024. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan attributed part of the issue to the city getting behind on purchasing new buses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Bus operators, passengers and some mechanics who work on buses said last year that the shortage of working vehicles affects the entire system’s ability to operate. Some said part of the problem is hiring mechanics without enough experience. At least one expert said the pandemic upended public transportation in many big cities.

SMART Chief Marketing Officer Bernard Parker said the agency is receiving grant funds to purchase new vehicles for three of its community partners: the North Oakland Transportation Authority, the OPC Social and Activity Center, and the Pointe Area Assisted Transportation Services.

“These grant funds allow SMART to put resources directly into the hands of our community partners,” he said in a statement. “By supporting local agencies with reliable vehicles, we’re helping them extend their reach and better connect people to services and opportunities.”

Some of the grant recipients are transit agencies in rural areas, including the Cadillac/Wexford Transit Authority. It is receiving over $6 million for various projects, including expanding its bus garage and offices, constructing a bus wash facility and purchasing 14 new vehicles.

Meanwhile, the Capital Area Transportation Authority, which serves Greater Lansing, is receiving $8.7 million to buy new hybrid buses to replace older buses that have reached their useful life. Jackson Area Transportation Authority is receiving $2.37 million for hybrid buses.

By Ben Warren, Max Reinhart, MediaNews Group

Freezing rain and ice created hazardous conditions Friday in southeast Michigan, causing flight cancellations and vehicle accidents across the region.

The National Weather Service had issued a winter weather advisory for Metro Detroit north through the M-59 and Interstate 69 corridors, including St. Clair, Washtenaw, Genesee, Saginaw, Tuscola and Sanilac counties.

According to the weather service’s storm report map, Saginaw recorded the most freezing rain on Friday, with just over a quarter-inch. Detroit got about 0.14 inches.

The agency received reports of downed tree branches in areas including Bay City and Port Huron.

The ice accumulation caused several accidents, including multiple crashes on I-75 near Saginaw. The Michigan Department of Transportation’s Bay Region, which covers the Mt. Pleasant, Saginaw, Flint and the Thumb areas of the state, reported at least six crashes that temporarily closed lanes along the freeway on Friday.

Among them were collisions on the Zilwaukee Bridge, which was closed in both directions, according to MDOT. WNEM Saginaw reported that multiple semi-trucks jackknifed on the Saginaw River span due to slippery conditions.

By 11:30 a.m., both directions of the bridge had reopened to traffic, MDOT reported.

On Facebook, Saginaw County 911 Central Dispatch wrote that I-75 was “completely shut down” in both directions due to the crashes. The agency warned drivers to avoid the area if possible and drive carefully.

Traffic on the Mackinac Bridge slowed to 20 miles per hour due to ice on the bridge deck, according to the Mackinac Bridge Authority website.

As the rain arrived early Friday, more than 40 flights scheduled to depart from Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus have been cancelled, according to its flight status website. The cancellations may impact travelers returning home from the Christmas holiday.

“Currently, we’re not experiencing icy conditions at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. Flight delays or cancellations are determined by the airlines,” Cortez Strickland, a DTW spokesperson, wrote in an email.

“In anticipation of icy conditions, our Airfield Operations and Maintenance teams have pre-treated the runways and taxiways. Crews will continue to monitor the situation.”

Ice continued to fall in some areas into the early afternoon hours, according to NWS data.

“Untreated surfaces will be coated with ice, and we should see more freezing rain throughout the day,” said Kevin Kacan, a meteorologist with the NWS Detroit office.

“The big thing is travel. Any roadway not treated with salt can be slick and dangerous to drive on.”

Temperatures in southeastern Michigan just cracked the freezing point Friday afternoon. In Detroit, which tends to be the warmest point in the region, highs peaked at 34 degrees Fahrenheit around 4 p.m.

On Saturday, temperatures will continue to hover around freezing, up to 35. But it will warm up more on Sunday, with a high of 49, according to the NWS.

Both branches of the West Bloomfield Township library were closed on Friday due to the rain, according to an email from the library system.

Power outages were reported across the area after ice accumulated on tree limbs and other surfaces.

The Consumers Energy power outage map showed that more than 4,000 customers lost power Friday morning along the I-75 corridor near Prescott in Ogemaw County. The map reported the cause of the outage as “storm damage.” By Friday evening, more than 25,000 Consumers customers were still without power, mainly in the central part of the Lower Peninsula. As of Saturday mid-morning, Consumers showed 14,667 customers without power from 303 outages, mostly in central Michigan.

Early Friday afternoon, nearly 30,000 DTE Energy customers were without power across southeast Michigan. By the evening hours, that number was down to about 13,000 with Lake Orion and other parts of northeast Oakland County among the hardest hit in the region.

bwarren@detroitnews.com

mreinhart@detroitnews.com

By Charles E. Ramirez, cramirez@detroitnews.com

The Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills is waiving the admission fee to its museum through Jan. 2.

Officials for the center said they are offering free general admission to encourage reflection, learning, and community engagement during the holiday season, and especially after a mass shooting during a Hanukkah celebration last week in Australia.

“In the wake of the antisemitic attack in Australia, we’re again reminded how hate left unchecked can escalate to violence,” Eli Mayerfeld, the center’s CEO, said in a statement Friday. “We remain committed to educating, engaging, and empowering people of all backgrounds to stand up against hatred. If the cost of admission has ever been a barrier, we hope this opportunity encourages everyone to visit.”

The center invites visitors to explore its redesigned core exhibit, which centers on the personal experiences of Holocaust victims and survivors, many of whom rebuilt their lives in Michigan. It features immersive video testimony, archival footage, and artifacts to bring personal stories to the forefront and preserve these voices for future generations. The redesigned exhibit opened in early 2024.

The museum’s hours of operation are 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday. Special programming, including additional public tours and survivor presentations, is held daily between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. The center is closed on Saturday.

Admission is $8 for adults, $6 for senior citizens and college students, and $5 for students with identification.

Located at 28123 Orchard Lake Road north of 12 Mile Road, the Zekelman Holocaust Center was founded in 1984 and receives about 100,000 visitors annually.

By Max Reinhart, mreinhart@detroitnews.com

A Florida-based lending firm is suing a Michigan organization that administers retirement plans for government employees, claiming it deceptively convinced them to contribute tens of millions of dollars to an ill-fated coffee-growing venture in Hawaii.

In the lawsuit, filed Monday in a court in Polk County, Florida, AgAmerica alleges that between 2022 and 2024, the Municipal Employees’ Retirement System of Michigan (MERS) conspired with associated firms to get millions of dollars in loans to correct a long list of construction issues and sanitation violations at their Kona Hills coffee plantation.

AgAmerica claims it was led to believe the money would be used strictly to buy and grow coffee trees.

“… Instead of using the funds for the approved purpose of planting and developing coffee trees, they used a significant amount of the financing to redress the undisclosed … issues and violations of Hawaiian law,” the complaint states.

MERS CEO Kerrie Vanden Bosch called AgAmerica’s allegations “baseless and without merit.”

“While this specific investment experienced a loss, it was more than offset by strong gains in other private market investments,” Vanden Bosch said in an email to The News. “… We are confident that the facts will come to light through the court process. We remain dedicated to our mission and to the long-term financial security of those who serve Michigan’s communities.”

MERS manages pension funds for cities, counties and townships in Michigan.

According to AgAmerica, MERS was at the top of the corporate hierarchy managing the Kona Hills project. MERS allegedly oversaw Domain Capital Advisors, a private equity firm, which oversaw Kona Capital, which ran operations at the Kona Hills coffee plantation, located in the Holualoa area in Hawaii County, on the state’s largest island.

In 2021 and 2022, before the defendants sought funding from AgAmerica, Hawaii’s state public works and health departments visited the Kona project site, where inspectors found issues with flooding and drainage, as well as sanitation violations, including illegal cesspools and wastewater discharges onto the ground, the suit alleges.

Other issues at the site included environmental, legal, permitting, stormwater, wastewater, flooding and construction concerns, according to the complaint.

The issues needed to be corrected for the project to move forward. Fixing everything would cost about $16 million, AgAmerica claims.

When Domain came to AgAmerica to seek a loan, the company provided misleading financial projections that did not account for the extensive problems with the site, the suit claims. AgAmerica said MERS had knowledge of the violations as well.

Based on the allegedly fraudulent information provided, AgAmerica issued an almost $30 million loan.

The problems at the site in Hawaii weren’t disclosed to AgAmerica until MERS terminated Domain as the asset manager for the Kona Hills project and replaced them with Ospraie Real Assets, according to the complaint. Officials with Ospraie told the lender that the project was in dire financial straits due to the problems.

AgAmerica then approved a second tranche of more than $10 million to try and salvage its investment.

In January 2025, the lender learned there were serious problems with the coffee harvest and it would take tens of millions of additional dollars to make Kona Hills successful, according to the lawsuit. MERS and Osparie then dropped out of the project, Kona defaulted on its loans and AgAmerica foreclosed on the property.

Officials at Domain did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Efforts to reach other defendants weren’t immediately successful.

MERS manages more than $16 billion in plan assets, the complaint states. According to the company’s website, it administers retirement plans for more than 150,000 government employees from more than 1,000 Michigan municipalities.

Kona Hills, established in 2016, owns and operates about 1,983 acres of coffee plantations in Hawaii, having started planting coffee trees around 2018, according to the complaint.

Mark McCormick of California and Carolyn Seabolt of Georgia also are named as defendants in the suit. McCormick is identified in the lawsuit as the president and CEO of Kamco Land Co., another defendant which allegedly helped manage operations at the plantation; Seabolt is named as chief operating officer of Domain.

The lawsuit accuses MERS and the other defendants of fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation, as well as conspiracy.

AgAmerica is seeking a jury trial and judgment for an unspecified amount in damages.

By Craig Mauger, cmauger@detroitnews.com

A Michigan judge ruled against marijuana businesses in the state Monday, rejecting their arguments that a new 24% wholesale tax on their products, imposed by the Legislature as part of a road-funding deal, should be immediately blocked.

The Michigan Cannabis Industry Association has contended that the new tax should have required supermajority support from lawmakers during votes in October, which it didn’t get, because the policy amends a ballot proposal that voters approved in 2018 to legalize recreational marijuana and set a 10% tax on retail sales.

However, Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel said in her 28-page decision Monday that the new wholesale tax bill was “consistent” with the text of the ballot proposal, which recognized “other taxes.”

“Plaintiffs have not met the stiff burden of demonstrating that they will likely succeed on the merits,” Patel wrote of not granting a preliminary injunction against the new law.

For now, her ruling allows the new 24% tax to go into effect Jan. 1.

But it wasn’t an outright victory for the Legislature and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration.

Patel said there “remain questions of fact” whether the 24% wholesale excise tax interferes with the purposes of the 2018 ballot proposal. Patel noted the businesses had argued that voters “purposefully selected the 10% excise tax on retail sales to keep retail prices reasonable” and to diminish the illicit market.

“Discovery will be required to develop the evidence needed to support the parties’ positions in this regard,” Patel wrote, rejecting the state’s pursuit of a summary judgment against the businesses on the matter.

Patel set a scheduling conference for Jan. 13 but referenced “the high likelihood that both parties will seek an appeal to the Court of Appeals.” Whitmer appointed Patel to the Court of Appeals in 2022.

In reaction to the decision, Rose Tantraphol, spokeswoman for the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association, said the organization plans a “swift appeal.”

“We don’t believe the Court of Claims made the right call,” Tantraphol said. “While we are deeply frustrated by this ruling, I can tell you this: The fight is far from over.”

The wholesale tax was at the center of a road-funding compromise that ended a months-long budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the Capitol in October.

The nonpartisan Michigan House Fiscal Agency has projected the wholesale marijuana tax would create about $420 million in additional revenue for roads annually.

Under the state Constitution, to amend a voter-approved policy, three-fourths of the lawmakers in the House and Senate would have to support the change. While the new wholesale tax wasn’t added directly to the voter-approved law, the lawyers argued the tax’s passage effectively amended it.

The 24% new tax didn’t get three-fourths support in the House or Senate. In the Senate, only 19 of the 37 lawmakers supported it.

The Michigan Cannabis Industry Association represents about 400 licensed marijuana businesses. Last year, Michigan’s recreational marijuana retail sales came in at about $3.2 billion, according to monthly reports from the Cannabis Regulatory Agency.

By Charles E. Ramirez, cramirez@detroitnews.com

A meteorite was spotted over northern Michigan’s sky on Sunday, according to a company that chases storms and follows the weather.

The fireball was seen over Michigan at about 6 p.m., Michigan Storm Chasers said Sunday on its Facebook page and on X. The southwestern Michigan company also shared video of the shooting star captured by its network of weather- and sky-watching cameras.

Company officials said the meteorite was part of the Geminids meteor shower visible this week.

The Geminids meteor shower peaks in mid-December every year, according to NASA. Its meteors first began appearing in the mid-1800s, and the shower is one of the major ones seen annually.

During its peak, 120 Geminid meteors can be seen per hour under perfect conditions, NASA said. The Geminids are bright and fast meteors and tend to be yellow in color.

Michigan Storm Chasers officials also said the object broke apart over the area between Traverse City and Gaylord.

“Our weather camera network of now 90+ cameras doesn’t let anything sneak by,” the company boasted. “At least ten of our cameras tonight (some live on our YouTube channel 24/7) caught the meteorite as it approximately broke apart somewhere over the Kalkaska county region.”

The American Meteor Society in the State of New York said it received 81 reports about a fireball seen over Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ontario, Canada, and Tamil Nadu, India on Sunday.

This isn’t the first time reports of meteorites created a buzz around Michigan.

A meteor about the size of a cargo van flew over southeast Michigan in January 2018. Meteorite hunters found bits of the space rock on a frozen lake near Hamburg, Michigan. Some of them were taken to the Field Museum in Chicago to be examined by scientists.

By Melissa Nann Burke, mburke@detroitnews.com

A compromise draft of the annual defense policy bill released late Sunday maintains authorization to spend $14 million for infrastructure upgrades at Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County ahead of the arrival of two new airframes, the F-15EX fighters and KC-46 tankers.

The provision had been included in version of the National Defense Authorization Act passed by the Senate in October. The House is expected to take up the compromise text Thursday or Friday.

The $14 million is allocated to provide $9 million for design of the runway improvements needed at the Harrison Township base, $2.8 million for taxiway “alpha” improvements and $2.4 million for the “bravo” runway improvements design, according to the bill text. The runway work is part of a realignment project at Selfridge estimated to cost $124 million.

Democratic Sens. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township and Elissa Slotkin of Holly secured the funding over the summer as members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The text also includes $4.4 million for the Camp Grayling All-Domain Warfighting Training Complex.

The broader National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 includes an $8 billion increase in the Pentagon’s topline budget, a 3.8% pay raise for military members, puts limits on future troop reductions in Europe and South Korea and authorizes $400 million for Ukraine security assistance, according to bill summaries.

The authorization for funding at Selfridge follows President Donald Trump’s directive earlier this year for the Air Force to send 21 F-15EX aircraft to Selfridge starting in 2028 to replace the aging A-10 Thunderbolt II squadron that is set to be retired at the base on Lake St. Clair northeast of Detroit.

Trump in doing so overruled the Air Force in a gesture that the president said should “save this place.”

The NDAA compromise prohibits the Air Force from retiring the “Warthog” Thunderbolt II “early” in fiscal 2026, including those at Selfridge ― something that Michigan’s delegation had pushed for in a letter this fall to leaders of the Armed Services panels.

The lawmakers’ aim in retaining the provision in NDAA is to minimize the gap between the time when the A-10s will roll out of Selfridge and the replacement flying mission, F-15EX fighters, is supposed to arrive in 2028 in an effort to maintain the workforce of pilots and maintenance staff for the aircraft.

Led by U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett, a Charlotte Republican, Michigan lawmakers in late October wrote in the letter asking for the NDAA to use the Senate’s language that required the Air Force to maintain a minimum fleet size of 162 A-10 aircraft and prohibited the early retirement of the A-10s without the approval of Congress.

“This would basically do a transition between the two (platforms) without a significant or sizable gap between them,” Barrett told The Detroit News of the effort in October. “And that’s the big issue we’re trying to stop. Now that we have the commitment for the new F-15EX aircraft, we don’t want the A-10s to go dormant early and present a gap.”

The lawmakers have fretted that a gap of a year or two between flying missions would potentially see the staff at Selfridge devoted to pilot training, maintenance and other tasks reassigned or placed elsewhere without the aircraft at the base.

Idaho’s congressional delegation also joined the Michigan delegation’s letter, including GOP Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, whose state hosts an A-10 squadron at Gowen Field that is set to be replaced with F-16s.

The Air Force has long planned to divest the aging A-10 Thunderbolt fleet to spend instead on next-generation aircraft. The Maryland Air National Guard, based in eastern Baltimore County, deactivated its last remaining A-10s in September, sending most to a boneyard in Arizona and two to Selfridge in Harrison Township.

A general picked to serve as the next chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, Kenneth S. Wilsbach, this fall reiterated the Pentagon’s plans to send a squadron of F-15EX fighter aircraft to Selfridge on time in 2028, assuming the required infrastructure upgrades are complete.

Wilsbach said the Air Force would have to train the new crews and maintenance personnel as they transition from the A-10 to the F-15EX, a process that could take six to 18 months.

“So we’ll have to work on that timing,” Wilsbach said at the time.

Michigan’s delegation and state officials lobbied for over a decade for a fighter mission to replace the A-10 Thunderbolt II squadron at Selfridge.

By Luke Ramseth, lramseth@detroitnews.com

New car prices didn’t spike after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs in the spring, as some experts and dealers projected.

But prices on many models are now pushing notably higher — and analysts said carmakers recouping Trump’s higher import costs is a key factor.

Consider a recent analysis that found automakers are implementing more aggressive price increases on 2026 model-year vehicles compared to when 2025s were hitting dealership lots last year.

Cloud Theory, which tracks car inventory on dealer websites across the country, found the average marketed price increase on 2026 models was nearly $2,000, compared to an approximately $400 uptick during last year’s model year changeover. This year, 23 models have at least a $2,000 price hike; last year there were just nine.

“What I think is different this year is you have a lot of cost increases that are $1,000 or $1,500 or more, $2,000 or more,” said Rick Wainschel, Cloud Theory’s vice president of data and analytics, whose analysis looked at 2026 models with at least 2,000 vehicles in inventory.

“I think that’s a big change and a big shift that’s occurred, and it’s hard to point to any other catalyst for that (except for) tariff costs that the OEMs have had to absorb for the last eight months, and will likely have to absorb going forward,” he said.

Any increase comes on top of average car prices that were already hovering around $50,000. Pair that with stubbornly high interest rates, and the average monthly car payment is now $766, according to Edmunds.com Inc., up more than 3% from a year ago. A record share of subprime borrowers has been falling behind on their auto loans this fall.

Yet the huge car sticker price increases tied to tariffs — which analysts originally warned might tally anywhere from an extra $5,000 to $15,000 per vehicle — haven’t come to pass.

Among the reasons: competitive pressures between rival automakers, concern over blowback from Trump, large pre-tariff vehicle inventories that gave companies a lag time before pricing adjustments were needed, as well as policy adjustments that reduced the pain of the tariffs themselves.

Automakers opted to absorb many of the extra costs in the near term.

But if you’re shopping for a new car right now or plan to in the coming months, experts said it is likely tariffs will cost you in one way or another, even if it’s tough to discern exactly how. Automakers haven’t been eager to publicly disclose any connection between tariffs and their pricing adjustments.

Vehicle destination charges — those mandatory fees for transporting the car to the dealership — are rising, revealing one area where automakers “might be trying to make up a little bit of the costs,” said Erin Keating, an executive analyst at Cox Automotive Inc.

There are also signs of automakers pulling features out of certain models in a bid to trim costs while holding the same sticker price, a phenomenon known as shrinkflation. And then there are indications of carmakers offsetting their tariff costs with higher 2026 model-year MSRPs.

“Automakers really held their prices throughout the ’25 model year, and we’re starting to see a bit (of an impact) in ’26,” said Stephanie Brinley, an auto analyst with S&P Global Mobility. “But it’s being wrapped up in different ways, so it’s very difficult to suss out.”

Car companies often adjust pricing on new model-year vehicles, whether due to minor repackaging of features and trim levels, or full overhauls that include new technology and freshened sheet metal. Brinley said that means there’s no clear way for consumers to figure out where those extra tariff costs might’ve been tacked on.

Keating agrees the tariff impacts have been hard to pin down. Average car prices have been rising steadily much of this year — with September reaching an all-time high above $50,000 — but she said some of that uptick would have been expected anyway because of normal inflation.

The analyst now feels confident those initial shocking projections of price hikes in the 10% to 15% range aren’t going to happen: “The market just won’t bear it,” she said.

Automakers appear to be settling into their new normal under Trump. They’ve secured at least some tariff relief on parts and vehicles imported from certain countries, while simultaneously feeling the benefits of Trump’s moves to loosen federal vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards.

A September J.P. Morgan report estimated combined tariff costs on vehicles and parts will amount to $41 billion in the first year, rising to $45 billion in year two and $52 billion in year three.

The bank expects automakers and consumers to ultimately share the burden equally, which could lead to a 3% increase in new vehicle prices: “This will hit consumers hard,” the report said, “especially as many are already struggling to afford new vehicles.”

Wainschel, the Cloud Theory analyst, said average prices listed on dealer websites have only increased a few hundred dollars per vehicle since the tariffs took effect in early April. But that’s because automakers have pushed an increasing number of affordable models and trims into the market, which has helped hold the overall average price down.

If the current mix of vehicle types listed for sale was the same as it was back in April, Wainschel said, average prices would, in fact, look approximately $1,300 higher now: “So there are some things that are masking the increases that are taking place, the segment mix being a big part of it.”

Brendan Harrington, president of Autobahn Fort Worth in Texas, which sells Porsche, BMW, Mini, Volvo, Volkswagen, Jaguar and Land Rover brands, said big price hikes didn’t occur early on as companies fretted over losing market share.

But now, carmakers are beginning to make larger changes in response to tariffs, he said, including trimming back slower-selling models and increasing MSRPs where they can. He said Porsche and Land Rover are two examples of brands that have upped prices in response to tariffs.

And carmakers are also passing through higher destination charges, he said — increases that are adding $200 to $300 to the cost of a car. Tariffs also are contributing to steadily rising costs for Harrington’s parts and service departments.

“Until now, every OEM has really tried to hold the line,” he said. “But we are seeing prices now come up.”

By Craig Mauger, cmauger@detroitnews.com

Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall said Friday he’s considering pursuing a new state commission or fee schedules to limit what hospitals can charge for their services, as part of a bid to lower health care costs.

The Kalamazoo County Republican made the comments during an appearance on WKAR’s “Off The Record” overtime segment while discussing his caucus’s priorities for the upcoming year. The speaker referenced the Michigan Public Service Commission, which currently gets to approve or alter rate increases proposed by gas and electric utilities that have monopolies within their service territories.

“I am looking at potentially proposing a new … public service commission, but for the hospitals, to regulate their price increases,” Hall said.

He added later, “We might need fee schedules.”

Hall’s comments came amid reports of rising health care costs nationwide and a push by some political candidates to focus on lowering medical bills and insurance premiums paid by their constituents. However, a new government panel to intervene in hospitals’ financial decision-making would represent a significant change for an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Michigan residents.

Annual health spending in the U.S. increased by 62% from about $3 trillion in 2014 to about $4.9 trillion in 2023, according to data tracked by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, said Friday that his group “is always willing to engage in discussions that can improve affordability and reduce government intervention.”

“Hospitals remain committed to addressing rising healthcare costs,” Peters said. ”Insurance premiums are ultimately determined by insurance companies, not hospitals, while independent analyses show that prescription drug costs and administrative expenses are driving insurance premium inflation.”

The website of McLaren Health Care, which has 12 hospitals, describes billing, costs and charges as “very complex.”

“The price a patient sees on their hospital bill reflects not just the specific care team who treated them, but also overall operational costs that keep the hospital running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” the McLaren website says.

The Detroit News reported in October that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan was hiking its small group insurance premiums an average of 12.4% next year for its Blue Care Network HMO plans. In the individual market, state regulators allowed Blue Cross to hike its premiums by 24%, as three insurers stopped selling so-called “Obamacare” plans in Michigan.

In an interview in October, Tricia Keith, Blue Cross’s CEO, referenced a study by the RAND Corp. that concluded hospital mergers gave the health systems more negotiating power with insurers, increased patient volume for services, reduced competition and contributed to increased health care spending.

“We are concerned with (hospital) consolidation because there are a number of studies that have come out and shown — the RAND study, for instance — that hospital consolidation does drive up prices,” Keith said.

More: Q&A: Blue Cross CEO Tricia Keith on what’s driving double-digit health insurance increases

During his public television interview on Friday, Hall said something has to be done to lower health care costs.

“We see these big Taj Mahals they’re building,” Hall said of new facilities built by Michigan hospital systems. “I’m just saying it’s out of control.”

Some hospital executives, including Henry Ford Health CEO Bob Riney, have defended new medical facilities. Henry Ford Health is currently erecting a new $2.2 billion hospital across West Grand Boulevard from its flagship Detroit hospital, where the tower dates back to 1915.

“I would ask people to think about the inefficiencies in the design of a building that was designed to be a hospital over 100 years ago,” Riney said. “… If anyone has shown a great use of a building for a hundred-plus years, it’s us.”

More: Q&A: Henry Ford Health executives defend rising costs of care, new Detroit hospital

Democrats in the Michigan Senate have approved bills to create a new state board with the power to study prescription drug costs and set maximum caps on prices if they’re determined to be too expensive for patients.

The Senate voted in favor of those bills in April, but the Republican-controlled House has not acted on them.

Sen. Darrin Camilleri, D-Trenton, said the ideas Hall floated Friday seemed somewhat similar to the Senate’s plan for the Prescription Drug Affordability Board.

“We have a great plan that’s sitting in the House chamber and that’s been sitting there for many months,” Camilleri said.

Camilleri added that Hall has continued to attack Michigan’s hospitals. In September, Hall called for the ouster of Brian Peters, the leader of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association, after the group criticized the House GOP’s budget plan.

By Max Bryan, mbruan@detroitnews.com

Birmingham has filed a lawsuit in Oakland Circuit Court to block the sale of The Community House after its nonprofit operator announced plans to cease in-house operations in 2026.

The Community House Association announced Nov. 3 that operations in its 1930 building at 380 Bates St. will not be required as the association transitions into the Birmingham Area Community Foundation, which will provide scholarships for students and support for smaller area nonprofits. The association said in the announcement that the new owners of the building are “yet to be determined” but that current operations would cease July 1, 2026.

In response, the city filed a lawsuit on Nov. 25 “to enforce deed restrictions” that it alleges require the building “to be held exclusively as a community center for use by the residents.”

“(A sale) would permanently deprive the residents of the City of Birmingham of a unique civic and charitable asset intended for their benefit,” including 33 full-time and 16 part-time employees, the facility’s childcare program, event rentals and programs, the lawsuit reads.

The association executed a trust in 1930 to be held for the building and its operations. The trust prohibited a sale or transfer to a private interest if the association were to be dissolved, the lawsuit states.

In response to a 1989 petition to modernize the trust, the state required the association to hold The Community House in accordance with the 1930 trust. It required them to convey the land and any construction on the property to the city if The Community House were to be dissolved, the lawsuit states.

The city claims in its lawsuit that The Community House must be transitioned into either “a Birmingham charitable, benevolent, or educational organization” chosen by nearly all of the trustees or given back to the city to be used as a nonprofit community center.

Alison Gaudreau, president of The Community House, said that the organization communicated to the city could submit an offer for the building but “responded by filing a lawsuit.”

In a statement to The Detroit News, Gaudreau acknowledged there are “strong emotions” about The Community House’s future.

“There are many assumptions being made about what is happening with the sale of the building,” said Gaudreau in a statement. “We agree with the city that the building should be used for charitable purposes and those are the only conversations we are having with potential buyers. We are only speaking with non-profit organizations who would continue to use this space to benefit the community.”

The city asks in the lawsuit for Oakland County Circuit Court to issue an injunction between The Community House and its potential sale on grounds that it would violate deed restrictions and court orders.

“A private sale would permanently terminate the property’s nearly 100-year role as a public, nonprofit community center and would irreversibly extinguish the public’s beneficial interest, which is harm that cannot be remedied by monetary damages or subsequent litigation,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit was filed eight days after Birmingham Mayor Clinton Baller announced at a city commissioners’ meeting that the commission “will use each and every available means” to keep the building “a community asset.” The commission was scheduled to discuss the city’s lawsuit in closed session during its Monday meeting.

For more than a century, The Community House has hosted debates, served as a gathering place and has provided programs, events and partnerships with other nonprofits. a lawsuit on Nov. 25 “to enforce deed restrictions” that it alleges require the building “to be held exclusively as a community center for use by the residents.”

By Jennifer Pignolet, jpignolet@detroitnews.com

The three newest additions to the Detroit Zoo are working on their roars.

The zoo on Monday announced the birth of three healthy African lion cubs to 9-year-old lioness mom Amirah and dad Kalu.

“As a first-time mom, she has been wonderfully calm, attentive and nurturing, spending her days bonding closely with her little ones in a cozy, quiet den,” the Detroti Zoo said in an announcement.

A fourth cub was stillborn, the statement said, a “natural part of life for many wild species.”

The healthy cubs were born Nov. 23 and 24.

“African lions are vulnerable to extinction and endangered in some regions due to habitat loss, declining prey, disease and human-wildlife conflict,” the zoo said. “Welcoming these cubs is not only heartwarming — it’s a meaningful milestone in the Detroit Zoo’s commitment to conservation and the future of this iconic species.”

Amirah and her cubs will remain in their den away from the public for the time being, the zoo said. The other members of the pride, Kalu and Asha, will be free to roam in and out of their outdoor habitat during this period. The zoo said it anticipates it will be a few months before guests are able to view the cubs, when they are more mobile and able to roam larger spaces.

“We can’t wait to share more updates, photos and milestones as this joyful new chapter unfolds!” the zoo said.

The announcement comes less than a week after the zoo announced the birth of a baby giraffe.

By Melissa Nann Burke, mburke@detroitnews.com

Washington ― U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin has been assigned around-the-clock police protection, her office said, following calls by President Donald Trump on Thursday morning that the Michigan lawmaker should be arrested and possibly put to death over a video that she made with other Democrats.

Slotkin told NBC News that she has received “hundreds and hundreds, if not, you know, closer to 1,000 threats” since the video first picked up traction in the news earlier in the week and then Trump suggested on Thursday that her message was “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!”

Now, a U.S. Capitol Police officer is following Slotkin around everywhere she goes to ensure her safety, her office said late Thursday.

The Holly Democrat had posted online the video recording of Democratic veterans in Congress on Tuesday. The video features Slotkin and five other lawmakers who contended that the Trump administration is pitting the uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against U.S. citizens, and urged them not to follow unspecified illegal orders: “Don’t give up the ship.”

Trump accuses Slotkin, other Democrats of ‘seditious behavior, punishable by death’

Trump lashed out at the Democratic lawmakers on Thursday in a torrent of posts on his Truth Social platform.

“It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL,” Trump wrote. “Their words cannot be allowed to stand – We won’t have a Country anymore!!! An example MUST BE SET.”

The second-term Republican president followed up with other posts about the Democratic lawmakers: “This is really bad, and Dangerous to our Country. Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???”

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, told reporters Thursday that he’d requested extra security for Slotkin and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who was also in the video. Schumer railed against Trump’s language toward the lawmakers on the Senate floor, saying the president’s language “is an outright threat, and it’s deadly serious.”

“When Donald Trump uses the language of execution and treason, some of his supporters may very well listen,” Schumer said.

The other Democrats in the video with Slotkin besides Kelly were U.S. Reps. Jason Crow of Colorado, Chris Deluzio and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania, and Maggie Goodlander of New Hampshire.

Trump’s social media comments suggesting Slotkin and the other Democratic lawmakers could face execution for their remarks prompted the president’s spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, to argue the lawmakers had encouraged service members “to defy the President’s lawful orders.”

At a White House briefing Thursday with reporters, Leavitt said “no” when asked whether the president wants members of Congress executed.

“The president expects his Cabinet officials in the administration to follow the law and to demand accountability and hold people accountable for their dangerous rhetoric,” Leavitt said. “And I would just add that if this were Republican members of Congress who were encouraging members of the military and members of our United States government to defy orders from the president and from the chain of command, this entire room would be up in arms. But instead, it is the other way around, and I think that’s quite telling.”

 

Saline quarterback Tommy Carr, the grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, has switched his college commitment to the Wolverines.

He had been committed to Miami of Ohio.

Carr (6-foot-3, 195 pounds) is ranked a three-star prospect by 247Sports. He is ranked the No. 7 player overall in Michigan in 2026 and the No. 29 quarterback nationally in the 2026 recruiting class.

Saline’s run in the Michigan high school football playoffs ended Friday night with a 42-28 loss to Detroit Cass Tech in a Division 1 regional final. Carr led Saline to a 10-2 record this season, passing for 2,797 yards and 37 touchdowns

Carr is the younger brother of Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr and the son of former Michigan QB Jason Carr.

Michigan’s 2026 recruiting class has 25 commitments and is ranked No. 10 nationally by 247Sports.