Northern Michigan school districts forced into an extended shutdown due to massive ice storms this spring will have a waiver from attendance mandates under a law signed Monday by Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

“Many Michigan families are still reeling from the effects of the ice storms that devastated northern Michigan earlier this year,” said Whitmer in a statement released by her office. “I’ve been committed to supporting recovery efforts, protecting Michigan families from additional disruptions to their daily routines. That’s why I’m proud to sign this bill that will remove unnecessary penalties and obstacles for students and schools who are just trying to get by.”

This is one of several storm recovery bills sent by the Legislature to Whitmer’s desk with wide bipartisan support. This measure means school districts will not have to choose between losing state funding or forcing students and staff to stay in school into the heat of summer. That would have added unplanned utility costs as well as the expenses of paying staff salaries and for transportation.

“Had we not passed this legislation, the financial burden to our schools would have been yet another blow to our communities that have already been struggling following the disastrous ice storm,” said Senator John Damoose (R-Harbor Springs).

The ice storms in late March left many districts unable to meet the state’s 180-day school day requirement without extending the school year. The new law allows forgiveness of up to 15 days from the state’s mandated instruction time.

Schools in a dozen counties were forced to close due to ice-covered roads, power outages and other storm-related damage. The waiver applies to schools in counties covered by Governor Whitmer’s ice storm emergency decree. Whitmer has also asked for federal storm recovery assistance. 

In this episode of The Detroit Evening Report, we cover Governor Whitmer at the Mackinac Policy Conference, Pride Month kickoff and a free meditation workshop.

Subscribe to the Detroit Evening Report on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Whitmer outlines top goals before leaving office

The 2025 Mackinac Policy Conference is coming to an end, and Governor  Gretchen Whitmer is outlining her top priorities before leaving office.

Securing a semiconductor plant by the end of 2026, she says, would help Michigan stay competitive in the age of artificial intelligence. Whitmer added that it would also make Michigan an economic magnet — one she imagines could help grow the state’s population. She said she’ll be seeking federal support to make it happen.

Tackling childhood literacy is another priority. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, only a quarter of Michigan’s 4th graders can read at a proficient level.

And of course, the “fix the damn roads” governor emphasized the need for a sustainable, long-term plan to fund road repairs. Whitmer stressed that while challenges remain, bipartisanship is still possible.

Ferndale kicks off Pride Month celebrations

June is right around the corner, which means Pride Month is almost here — and Ferndale Pride is kicking things off on May 31. According to organizers, the event strives to support and uplift all LGBTQ+ communities. Expect live musical performances, drag shows, food, a variety of vendors, and a kids’ area. For more information, visit ferndalepride.com.

Free sound bowl meditation on the riverfront

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and while the month is wrapping up, the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy is hosting a Sound Bowl Meditation Workshop on June 5. It’ll take place at Gabriel Richard Park and introduce attendees to basic techniques and the science behind sound healing. Best of all — it’s free, which is the perfect price for peace of mind. Just bring a yoga mat or blanket. For more information, visit detroitriverfront.org.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the White House are looking at pardoning the two men convicted in the 2020 plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

President Donald Trump told reporters on Wednesday that the men convicted in the kidnapping plot were victims of “a railroad job.”

Whitmer shared her reaction to the news with WDET’s Russ McNamara at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Thursday, saying she’s not happy that the justice department — and the president — are even considering pardons.

“When the man took a shot at Donald Trump when he was on the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, I was one of the first office holders on either side of the aisle to condemn it,” Whitmer said. “Anything short of condemning political violence does a disservice to every American.”

Whitmer has been a frequent visitor to the White House this year, asking for federal aid for this spring’s ice storms and helping to secure a new fighter mission at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base.

She said she would be “incredibly disappointed” to see the administration take that action, and that she “certainly will be conveying that to the White House.”

The two men seeking pardons — Barry Croft Jr., 49, and Adam Fox, 42 — were convicted in 2022 of conspiracy for their roles in the alleged kidnapping plot, and are serving a 20-year and 16-year prison sentence, respectively.

On securing a semiconductor ‘fab’ in Michigan

Whitmer also spoke about her stated goal of landing a massive microchip factory for Michigan before the end of her term at the start of 2027. She shared that while federal support would be needed to get the project “over the finish line,” she remains optimistic about getting it done before she leaves office.

“With so many pressures right now in our economy around tariffs and all the chaos, diversifying our economy and landing a chip fab — a plant — it’s so important to all the things that we as Americans rely on and want to do in the future, and this is something that I think would be a huge win for Michigan.”

–WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report

Use the media player above to hear the full conversation.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer would like to cap her second term by landing a massive microchip factory for Michigan before she leaves office at the start of 2027.

Whitmer delivered a brief address from a pristine, high-tech training lab at Kettering University in Flint, where she set the “ambitious, but attainable goal.”

“This would be a transformational, once-in-a-century investment,” she said. “It would change the destiny of an entire region and state – making it an economic magnet for ambitious families to move here and to put down roots, and it’s exactly what we need.”

She said landing chip factory, colloquially called a fab, would build on Michigan’s industrial legacy by bringing a semiconductor supply chain to the state.

“We cannot sit on our hands while other states and countries, without our manufacturing advantages, pass us by,” she said.

The Democratic governor said thousands of construction and modern factory jobs are at stake. The governor did not name a specific project or outline a plan, but she mentioned speaking to President Donald Trump at a White House dinner about a project in Genesee County, which is creating an advanced manufacturing zone.

“It’s nearly 1,200 square acres and it is a perfect opportunity to attract the type of investment that the governor was talking about today,” said Tyler Rossmaessler, executive director of the Flint & Genesee Economic Alliance. “Something that would create thousands of jobs, create good-paying jobs, provide billions of dollars of investment.”  

Whitmer has faced pushback from Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature on her signature business incentives program. Critics say state incentive programs have lacked transparency and failed to deliver on promised jobs. House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Twp.) has proposed moving money from the Strategic Outreach and Attraction Reserve fund to pay for roads. Progressives have also line up against the incentives, arguing public money should not be spent on corporate welfare.  

“There are some on the far left and the far right in Lansing who say we should unilaterally disarm, just get rid of those tools and let the jobs go to Georgia, Kentucky, Arizona or, god forbid, Ohio,” said Whitmer. “I say, hell no.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed bills Wednesday to give state officials another month to file asset and financial disclosure reports as the state tries to fix its filing website. Without the new law, the filing deadline would be Thursday and many officials would be in violation.

“Michiganders deserve to know how their government is working for them,” Whitmer said in a statement released by her office. “That’s why I’m proud to sign Senate Bills 99 and 100, so we can cut confusing red tape, help more Michiganders run for office, and increase transparency in our government.”

The reports are required under a 2022 voter-approved amendment to the Michigan Constitution, although it’s up to the Legislature and the governor to adopt laws to comply with the constitutional provision. The proposal also made changes to Michigan’s term-limits amendment.

The filing process for the reports has been bedeviled by system crashes and other problems that would prevent lawmakers from meeting the deadline and have made it difficult for the public to access the records.

Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater) said the fix is long overdue and complained that the Secretary of State’s office kept making changes to the disclosure forms.

“Let’s not forget as we’re [passing the bills to push back the filing deadline] that the reason we have to is because Secretary of State [Jocelyn] Benson could not read the law, she could not understand the law and she could not manage a department to implement the law and run a basic website that allowed us to plug in the information,” he said in a speech prior to votes to finalize the bills.

A spokesperson for Benson said her department “has been working nights and weekends to make sure the online system is ready” by the deadline.

The new law moves the deadline to June 13, specifies a form to be used and allows filing by email while the problems are fixed.

“Ultimately, we want this to be accessible,” said Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), a bill sponsor who also chairs the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee. “We want legislators to have ease of filling it out and we want the public to have the ease of accessing it.”

Moss said a smoothly operating system is necessary to give the public a view into sources of income and assets that might present a conflict of interest.

“So that if somebody introduces a bill you can easily go into this database, this publicly available database, look up the lawmaker and say, hey, this person is introducing this bill, but they’ve got a financial interest to introduce this bill,” he told the Michigan Public Radio Network. “Then you’d be able to call it out and then voters would be able to make their decision about it.”

But a spokesperson for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the department is concerned provisions in the new law will actually reduce transparency.

“Specifically, these bills do not require officials to describe the value of their assets, investments, and liabilities,” said Department of State Chief Communications Officer Angela Benander in an emailed statement.

“Michigan is behind nearly every other state in requiring transparency from lawmakers and public officials,” she said. “We should be doing everything we can to make our state a leader for government transparency and accountability.”  

In this epsiode of MichMash, host Cheyna Roth and Gongwer News Service’s Alethia Kasben and Zach Gorchow sit down with State Senator Mallory McMorrow to discuss why she’s running for Michigan’s open US Senate seat.

Plus, people have grown accustomed to remote work since the pandemic, but is it here to stay? We discuss how remote work has affected state government employees and whether Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will have them return to in-person work full time.

Subscribe to MichMash on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, NPR.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode:

• Is remote work here to stay for state government employees?
• Discussing the cost of remote work
• State Senator Mallory McMorrow on her run for Michigan’s open US Senate seat

Democrats nationally have been struggling to form an identity since the recent presidential elections. McMorrow said that while establishment Democrats may not be meeting the moment, newer voices could help give the party a stronger sense of direction. 

“My sense is that the Democratic Party needs a shakeup, but that’s not going to come from the party itself,” she said. “It is going to come again from candidates and people, in every state across the country, running the types of campaigns that are going to reshape what this party is, how it presents itself.”

In addition to McMorrow, former Wayne County Health Director Abdul El-Sayed and 11th Congressional District Representative Haley Stevens are also running for the state’s open senate seat as Democrats. The election will take place Nov. 3, 2026.  

A recent report from the state health department says big federal spending cuts threaten Medicaid benefits for 700,000 people in Michigan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive order in April asking the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to conduct a study into how Medicaid cuts would affect Michiganders.

The report found that Michigan could lose $1.1 billion dollars a year in funding. Michigan hospitals could also lose billions of dollars, resulting in  hundreds of millions less for nursing homes.

“Medicaid provides a lifeline to 2.6 million Michiganders, and the huge, proposed cuts will terminate coverage for our neighbors, family, and friends who need it most,” said Whitmer in a statement.

Republican leaders say Medicaid is off the table, but many budget experts say GOP spending targets can’t be met without touching health care. 

Other headlines for Wednesday, May 7, 2025:

• The United Auto Workers union held rallies in Trenton and Warren this week to demand Stellantis move production work to the U.S., and Michigan in particular.
• Detroit City Councilmember Gabriela Santiago-Romero says she is certified to appear on the August primary ballot. The city elections department disqualified her over a late fee it said she failed to pay.
  Santiago-Romero contested the penalty, saying she did pay it, and that her disqualification was due to a clerical error.
• Construction crews have begun building the Detroit Grand Prix racetrack around the Renaissance Center. Race organizers say it’ll take about a week less to set up for the race this year thanks to a new wall and fence design. The races runs May 30 through June 15.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is responding to critics of her meetings with President Donald Trump by answering that they’ve yielded results. Whitmer, a Democrat serving her final term as governor, and widely considered a possible future presidential contender, says she still has fundamental disagreements with President Donald Trump. She also says face time with Trump, including a now-famously awkward Oval Office encounter, was worth it to win 21 new fighter jets heading to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.

The Michigan Public Radio Network spoke with the governor Wednesday about cutting a deal with a president with whom she’s had an adversarial relationship.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Rick Pluta: Why does this Selfridge deal matter, not just to Macomb County, not just to metro Detroit, but to the entire state of Michigan?

GW: Yeah, you know, this is a big deal. So the A-10, which is our fighter mission at Selfridge, is being retired. And the fighter mission matters because we think about Selfridge, it has an economic impact on the state of $850 million a year. There are 30,000 jobs in Michigan that are related to Selfridge directly. And so not having a fighter mission would be a huge problem, not just for Selfridge but for a defense economy that we’ve been building out, advanced manufacturing. We think about aerospace as well as bases in Grayling, Alpena, and in Battle Creek. This has a massive impact on the state of Michigan. So I’ve been working to try to get a new fighter mission at Selfridge every year since I’ve been elected governor, and my predecessors did, as well, and we got it done, 21 F-15 EXs. This is the cutting edge, state-of-the-art planes and it’s gonna have a generational impact on our economy.

RP: How did this come to be? Why now?

GW: Well, you know, after the election — I had been trying to get the Biden administration to do this — after the elections, I said, well, let’s keep going. I’m going to keep trying to work with the Trump administration to get it done. And I was at the National Governors Association dinner at the White House. I raised it at that first opportunity with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that night, as well as when I sat next to Donald Trump at the dinner, you know, and I’ve had many conversations and meetings with the president on this issue. I’ve been relentless on this and they were receptive. And despite the fact that we’ve got a lot of differences and we don’t agree on a lot of things, I take every opportunity to make the case for Michigan, whether it’s about tariffs, Asian carp, or ice storms. Selfridge has been a part of all those conversations every time, too.

RP: As you mentioned, you’ve said you will work with everyone, anyone, but you have gotten a lot of pushback from folks within the Democratic Party about your work with this president. Now that this Selfridge deal is done, what’s next? What are your plans for continuing to work with this administration?

GW: I oppose this administration and a lot of things that they’re doing, whether it’s around their — what they’ve done on — you know, I mean, it’s voluminous, the ways that we disagree, the things that we disagree on — from their tariff policy, the chaos that’s been leaked, to the violation of people’s civil rights, to the potential Medicaid cuts that are coming that are going to impact Michigan hospitals and Michiganders everywhere. That being said, I’ve got a duty to continue to try to get as much done for our state as I can. I’ve got to work with people that I don’t always agree with. I always have, and I always will, try to do what’s right for Michigan and that means continuing the conversation on preventing Asian carp from infiltrating the Great Lakes, getting relief for victims of the ice storm. It means continuing to work to try to get more economic development done in Michigan. So I will both fight back when I need to, and try to get Michigan’s priorities done wherever I can.

RP: Finally, Governor, do you think Democratic voters, that is voters in your party, know that you still fundamentally disagree with President Trump?

GW: Yeah, of course they do. My values haven’t changed. My oath is to serve the people of Michigan. It means standing up for our rights, it means fighting back when they’ve got tariff policies that are making Michiganders lose jobs or their costs go up. It also means getting at the table and being there to get a huge investment like Selfridge over the finish line. I can do both. I will do both, that’s the ethos I’ve always led with.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has appointed a new justice to the state Supreme Court.

Noah Hood will serve a partial term until 2026. He’s filling a seat vacated by former Chief Justice Elizabeth Clement.

Clement was appointed by then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, in 2017. She left the court earlier this year to serve as president of the National Center for State Courts. Justice Megan Cavanagh replaced Clement as the chief justice.

Hood has served on the state Court of Appeals in Detroit since 2022. Before that, he sat on the Wayne County Third Circuit Court for three years. He has also served as a federal prosecutor in Michigan and Ohio.

If Hood chooses to run, he and Cavanaugh will be up for election in 2026.