The Abandon Harris Campaign launched on Thursday in Dearborn as a continuation of the Abandon Biden Campaign.

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

The campaign aims to change the policies of Vice President Kamala Harris regarding Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza — seeking a permanent ceasefire and an arms embargo.

Michigan Co-chair Farah Khan says the Abandon Harris campaign is looking for actual policies, not just words and inaction.

“We will hold the Harris Biden administration accountable for their role in this atrocity,” Khan said at a press event outside the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn on Thursday. “Accountability means more than words. It means actions. We must be clear — they have had their chance, and they have failed us.”

Listen: Interview with Farah Khan, co-chair of Abandon Harris for Michigan

The Gaza Health Ministry reports that over 41,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed and more than 95,000 injured during Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since Oct. 7 — the day Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people in Israel, taking 250 hostages.

Campaign leaders say the Abandon Harris movement is active in at least nine states — including swing states like Michigan. Dr. Hassan Abdel Salam, national co-chair of the campaign, says they are asking voters not to vote for either party’s candidate.

“Our vote is magnanimous,” Salam said. “It’s a moment for democracy to triumph, for us to change the political landscape.”

The campaign plans to endorse a third party candidate soon.

Reporting by Nargis Rahman, WDET

Other headlines for Friday, Sept. 13, 2024:

• Henry Ford Hospital held a groundbreaking on Thursday for its $2.2 billion Detroit campus expansion, anchored by a new 1.2 million-square-foot hospital facility on the south side of West Grand Boulevard
• The city of Detroit’s Youth Affairs Team and Detroit ACE are hosting an artist showcase on Friday, Sept. 20, called “Young, Gifted and Woke.”
• Usher’s Past Present and Future Tour is continuing its run through the Motor City Friday at Little Caesars Arena. On his way there he stopped by the Boys and Girls Club of Detroit to help highlight the lack of access some youth have across the country to quality after-school programs.

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

A new study from the University of Michigan shows that Black stroke patients arrive at the hospital significantly later than their white counterparts.

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

Published Sept. 5 in collaboration with Brown University, the research included data from more than 600,000 patients in the American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines Stroke Registry from mid-2015 through 2019.

The study revealed that it took on average 28 minutes longer for Black patients with stroke symptoms to receive emergency care. Researchers also found that EMS workers were roughly 20% less likely to notify emergency departments ahead of a Black patient’s arrival compared to a white patient.

The disparity was most prevalent in areas with a high poverty rate. 

Regina Royan, one of the lead researchers on the study, says getting a stroke patient to the hospital quickly is crucial for positive health outcomes. 

“The therapies that we have for stroke are really effective, but they are only available within a short time frame from the time that symptoms start,” Royan said.

Royan says there has been significant effort to making health care inside hospitals equitable, and it’s time to bring those efforts outside the hospital as well.  

“This is a disparity that must be addressed, as Black Americans have a higher prevalence of stroke, get strokes younger and die at greater numbers from the condition,” said Royan in a news release.

Other headlines for Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024:

•  Michigan Attorney Dana Nessel announced charges this week against 11 people stemming from pro-Palestinian protests on the University of Michigan’s campus in May.
• Detroit Police Chief James White confirmed to BridgeDetroit on Wednesday that he is one of eight finalists in the running for CEO of the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network.
• The American Arab Chamber of Commerce is hosting its “East & West Mezza Fest,” a culinary tour of Dearborn, from 5 to 9:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 13.

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

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) has approved new air permits for Marathon Petroleum’s Detroit refinery after a public comment period earlier this year.

The permit changes will allow Marathon to operate the refinery — located at 1001 South Oakwood — at “full capacity,” and set new pollutant emission caps for the facility. Previously, the refinery was limited to producing an average of 140,000 barrels a day.

Andy Drury, an environmental engineer with EGLE, says the department will require Marathon to continue air quality monitoring through at least 2030.

“One of the bigger things is Marathon has been doing ambient air monitoring at their facility, and they have agreed based on the comments to continue for at least six more years,” Drury said.

Key updates to the permit include the removal of outdated regulatory references, an extension of the air monitoring program, and increasing the height of a refinery stack to 35 feet.

More: Union workers strike at Detroit Marathon refinery

Jeff Tricoff, a relief operator at Marathon’s Detroit refinery and a member of  Teamsters Local 283, was among several residents who expressed concerns about increased capacity at the facility at a public hearing hosted by EGLE in May.

“As workers, we know that operating everything at 100% has to be done effectively and efficiently and done by experienced people,” Tricoff said at the meeting. “Right now we are in a labor dispute with our current contract having expired on Feb. 1, and Marathon is preparing to bring in temporary workers to take our position.”

Just last week, refinery workers represented by the union voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The new permits were approved on Sept. 10.

Marathon also operates an asphalt terminal at 301 S. Fort St., and a light products terminal at 12700 Toronto St., both in Southwest Detroit.

WDET’s Jenny Sherman contributed to this report.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a last-ditch federal lawsuit Thursday in an effort to get his name off Michigan’s presidential ballot. That’s as local clerks are already finalizing ballots for printing.

Kennedy exhausted his appeals in Michigan courts before turning now to federal courts — even though the state’s legal deadline to get ballots to printers is passed. Angela Benander, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, told the Michigan Public Radio Network the filing will not change current plans.

“Clerks are currently in the process of printing ballots to ensure absentee ballots will be delivered to voters by the federal deadlines,” said Benander. She said those deadlines ensure absentee ballots are in the mail to overseas and military voters in time for them to be returned and counted.

The Michigan Supreme Court on Monday held Kennedy’s name would remain on the ballot, which settled the matter in state courts.

Kennedy has had mixed results in having his name stricken from ballots in states where he has already qualified. He suspended his campaign last month and endorsed former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

Michigan Secretary of State said Kennedy waited until it was too late to withdraw as the nominee of the Natural Law Party of Michigan. Kennedy sought and accepted the minor party nomination as a way to get on the Michigan ballot. Withdrawing now would leave the party without a presidential candidate.

But in the lawsuit filed Monday with the U.S. District Court for Michigan’s eastern district, Kennedy argued the state is violating his constitutional freedom of speech and freedom of association rights.

“Keeping Mr. Kennedy off the ballot will also cause no harm to the public,” said Kennedy’s filing. “Conversely, leaving Mr. Kennedy’s name will serve only to mislead voters, upend election and ballot integrity…”

In the filing, Kennedy also complained that he is being held to a different standard than President Joe Biden, who exited the presidential race on July 21 and cleared the way for Vice President Kamala Harris to be nominated.

But there is a critical distinction. Biden was in the race and the presumptive nominee prior to stepping aside. But he was never formally nominated and, thus, never accepted the nomination.

Harris was waiting in the wings when Biden withdrew his name from consideration following a disastrous debate performance against Trump. She was formally nominated by the Democratic National Convention on August 6th, which placed her on Michigan’s ballot.

The state will now have an opportunity to respond to Kennedy’s lawsuit and motion to remove his name. But the court does not have to accept the case or take any other action.

Michigan Republicans and Democrats exchanged barbs Monday over Chinese investment in the U.S. — and in Michigan in particular.

Michigan Republicans accused prominent state Democrats of providing a “safe zone” for companies fronting for the Chinese Communist party.

The criticism is tied to recent projects involving companies planning manufacturing investments in Michigan.

The main criticism involves a planned electric vehicle battery plant near Big Rapids. The company behind the project, Gotion, is a U.S.-based subsidiary of a Chinese company. The articles of association of the parent company say it must “carry out party activities in accordance with the constitution of the Communist party of China,” but a spokesperson for the company has said there’s distance between the Chinese government and the company’s business decisions.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former congressman Mike Rogers accused his Democratic opponent, Representative Elissa Slotkin, of playing a role in attracting the project to west Michigan.

“I can tell you as a member of Congress for those seven terms, never once — never once — did I see an elected official sign a non-disclosure agreement for any issue, let alone a company that is tied to the communist party of China,” said Rogers.

A spokesman for Democratic Senate candidate Elissa Slotkin called Rogers’ allegations a “false attack,” insisting Slotkin has never signed any agreement involving a project connected to the Chinese government.

Slotkin has introduced legislation giving the federal government additional authority to investigate Chinese-backed business dealings in the United States.

Democrats counter that Republicans are trying to distract from Rogers’ own history of working with U.S. companies that have partnered with Chinese businesses.

Rogers worked as a security advisor for AT&T and a risk analyst for Nokia (a Finnish company) while those companies had loose ties to the Chinese telecom company Huawei.

Rogers has defended his business dealings since leaving Congress, insisting his record shows he has long fought against Chinese intellectual property theft and other threats to the U.S.

Rogers and Slotkin are running to succeed retiring U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow.

Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat could prove pivotal for deciding which party will control the Senate.

One of the worst parts of World War II is coming to metro Detroit this month. And it’s scheduled to keep coming into January.

Each week about 25 semi-trucks will haul low-level radioactive waste from New York to a disposal site in Wayne County’s Van Buren township.

It’s by-products from the Manhattan Project, which created the atomic bombs dropped in Japan that ended World War II.

It’s also the latest in a series of toxic material shipments sent to Michigan raising concerns among some members of Congress and other officials.

That includes Wayne County Executive Warren Evans. He says there’s a disconnect between federal agencies that regulate hazardous waste, the company that owns the Van Buren disposal site and Michigan’s government.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that we would be the location of choice so often for this toxic material.”

-Wayne County Executive Warren Evans

Listen: Warren Evans on toxic atomic waste coming to Wayne County

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Warren Evans: I don’t believe that they level with us about what they’re doing. My trust level for them is almost zero. And it doesn’t lead to good results or good communications back and forth. The only time we hear about these waste issues is when a reporter writes a story and we read about it and they become automatically defensive. I’m concerned about the lack of notice (that shipments are coming to Michigan.) That leads me to be concerned about the level of hazardous waste in the material and the amount that’s coming and how it’s being transported.

Quinn Klinefelter, WDET News: The Army Corps of Engineers has said they’re not required to notify anybody if they’re sending waste to a facility that’s allowed to take those kinds of shipments, which the one in Van Buren is. So when you say you don’t think that they’re leveling with you, what do you think needs to be changed?

WE: They said they’re not “required” to. What the heck does that mean? Does it mean there’s a prohibition about doing it? They’re hiding behind a rule that doesn’t require them to do it. But good public policy does require them to do it, them or somebody, I think. Hiding behind a rule that doesn’t make you do it just tells me the rule doesn’t make any sense and you’re not concerned about the reaction of the public’s health concerns about this. If that’s the way you feel, then I’m troubled by the whole thing.

QK: You’ve had a couple of town hall meetings about this and other toxic waste that came from the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment. What are you hearing from residents about the situations?

WE: It’s real clear that residents don’t want it here. And what we hear from the federal agencies is how safe they claim to be and what the rules and federal regulations are. That’s not what people are asking for. They are asking for clear answers about why so much of it is coming here and just how safe is it? It’s troubling to me, because the agencies are answering questions in a very bureaucratic way. “This is regulation 207 and we’re required to do that.” It’s double-speak to me. People are asking about the health concerns that they have, the health concerns that they’re afraid of in the future. They are asking for solid, honest answers. Part of that would be alleviated if there was more discussion about the actual hazardous waste, the toxicity of it, how it’s being transported and how it is being kept in the landfill. That would help people determine whether the safety valves are there or not there. When you hear the agencies talk about it, they say they have a stellar track record for keeping us safe. And every year you hear about catastrophes that occur and violations that occur at these different waste treatment places. Those two notions don’t square in my mind or the minds of anybody else that has any sense.

QK: So you still have some concerns when state environmental officials say that they’ve tested this latest waste coming from the Manhattan Project, that it’s within the limits that the site is permitted to take? And there’s only seven similar sites in the country, so you just gotta grit your teeth and bear with it?

WE: Yeah but that doesn’t really make sense. There’s a significant amount of it that’s coming and there’s certainly no legal prohibition against dividing it into some different landfills. Why does it all have to come here? Particularly since the waste is rated at a level that would allow it to go to many other landfills — and many other landfills that are closer to New York than here. They can talk all day about how this landfill provides added security. But if the waste is rated low enough that it can go just about anywhere, then why don’t you send it just about anywhere?

QK: I have heard that it was somewhat cheaper to dispose of it in landfills here as opposed to other places. Have you heard that same reasoning?

WE: Absolutely. And I think that that, in and of itself, calls for a state solution. It appears to me that there are two solutions that we ought to be working on as a community. One is, we ought to act legislatively, get our legislature to refuse to take it. In other words, change the rules about Michigan being able to take the hazardous waste. That’s why it’s coming out of New York, New York won’t take it. That’s one option. That’s a pretty drastic one, but a significant one. The other one is to raise the tipping fees such that it is not so profitable for those who want to deliver the waste here. I think both of those are solutions that bear some close scrutiny and, I think, support.

There are many states that are less populated than Michigan. Wayne County is the largest by population county in the state of Michigan. It doesn’t make sense to me that we would be the location of choice so often for this toxic material. Nobody wants it. There’s no financial advantage to the county for accepting it. The disadvantages are creating a further health care risk. And we’re already rated poorly in the state of Michigan in terms of health indicators.

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name will be on the state’s presidential ballot.

This appears to settle the legal battle and allows local clerks to start printing absentee ballots to mail to overseas and military voters. Kennedy is the nominee of the Natural Law Party of Michigan. But he tried to remove his name from the ballot after suspending his campaign and endorsing former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

The case pitted Kennedy against election officials in the Secretary of State’s office who determined Kennedy flouted Michigan’s deadlines and election standards.

The order in the case was unsigned but in written statements, there was clearly a division between justices nominated by the Democratic and Republican parties.

Justice Elizabeth Welch, who was nominated by Democrats, wrote in a concurring statement that Kennedy had plenty of time to withdraw and his late exit left the Natural Law Party of Michigan without a nominee after Kennedy sought and accepted the convention nomination.

“Plaintiff waited more than four months before asking defendant to remove his name from the ballot. When plaintiff made his request, defendant faced a deadline for ballot printing that was two weeks away,” she wrote. “Additionally, the Natural Law Party, which opposed plaintiff’s efforts to remove himself from the ballot, had no opportunity to field a candidate and faced considerable prejudice.”

In a dissenting opinion, two Republican-nominated justices said the decision will only add to election turmoil.

“The ballots printed as a result of the Court’s decision will have the potential to confuse the voters, distort their choices, and pervert the true popular will and affect the outcome of the election,” said Justices Brian Zahra and David Viviano. “In short, the Court’s ruling will do nothing to rebuild the public’s trust in the fairness and accuracy of our elections.”

There was some urgency to the case since the deadline to finalize ballots was last week so absentee ballots can be sent to military and overseas voters.

A court majority also ruled in a separate, unsigned opinion, that a paperwork error on petitions will not bar academic and activist Cornel West from the Michigan presidential ballot as an independent.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan public school reading scores have been taking a hit. MichMash host, Cheyna Roth, and Gongwer News Service’s Zach Gorchow find out why with Peter Spadafore who’s with the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity. 

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

In this episode:

• The latest Michigan public school reading scores and why they are are so low
• The lasting effects of the pandemic on students
• Policy interventions to help students improve their education

Results from this year’s Michigan Student Test of Educational Progress (M-STEP) were released this week, showing that 39.6% of third graders across Michigan passed the state’s English language arts (ELA) test, compared to 40.9% in 2023.

Spadafore, who serves as executive director for the Michigan Alliance for Student Opportunity, said the results were concerning but not surprising.  

“I think like every observer around Lansing and across the state, we were disappointed in the numbers, but also not entirely surprised to see the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Spadafore. “The state superintendent talks a lot about the impact of virtual instruction. When we were not able to be in classrooms having an impact on those early learners when we’re trying to get at them, soon and quickly to grasp those early reading skills.”

Lansing is hard at work to pass laws to remedy this issue. But Spadafore said they need to make sure they pass the correct laws to intervene with the reading levels.   

“It’s important that they move the bills when they’re right now. They’re overly prescriptive and change a whole lot of state law when really what we’re seeing is if we would have a better screening tool to identify students reading disabilities and characteristics of dyslexia, I think that’s when, we could be supportive of legislation.” 

Spadafore says it will take collaboration between educators, lawmakers, the union, parents and more to help reading levels improve.

More from WDET:

• Rep. James tries to drum support for federal education tax credit legislation
• Detroit Evening Report: Detroit Education Narrative Collective offering up to $5,000 in grants to craft education stories
• Detroit Evening Report: Gov. Whitmer launches new education-focused department MiLEAP

More from Gongwer News Service:

• M-STEP Scores Show Student Economic Advantage Gap Still Prevalent

A recent study from three children’s hospitals has found that patient information relating to racial and ethnic designations is significantly inaccurate.

Mott Children’s, Helen DeVos, and the Children’s Hospital of Michigan participated in a study led by University of Michigan’s Dr. Gary Freed to identify and address racial and ethnic inequities in health care.

Dr. Freed found that between 22 and 59% of electronic medical records have inaccurate information about race and ethnicity. He says these errors may have impacted certain populations being either over or underrepresented health care.

“If we’re not accurately describing certain populations, any analyses that we’re doing about those populations may be wrong,” Freed said.

Dr. Freed hopes that his pioneering work with this study encourages other health care systems to conduct their own studies to identify and address disparities in their racial/ethnic patient records.

WEMU is a member of the Michigan Public Radio Network serving Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County. To read more from WEMU, visit wemu.org. 

There’s a new record store in downtown Petoskey. It’s called Hexagon Records and it’s one of the few places in northern Michigan devoted to selling vinyl.

Michael Griggs has two record players connected to some old speakers that he found at a garage sale.

His store is on Howard Street in Petoskey. It’s up stairs in a 700-square-foot space. Inside there’s a stuffed raccoon mounted to the wall, framed posters of the 70s sci-fi classic ‘Solaris,’ and tons and tons of records.

Between his personal collection, what he has in storage, and what he sells at the shop – it all totals around 20,000 vinyls.

One of his favorite sections is called “Difficult Concepts.”

“Some of it’s like, you know, kind of like that, the new music, kind of the new classical music, like Stockhausen and stuff like that,” Griggs said. “And, you know, there’s some unusual like this, this extremely bizarre record from Hungary.”

There’s some newer artists on display too. Sealed LPs from Beyonce, Chappell Roan and Tyler, the Creator are next to classic artists like Yes!, The Smiths and The Smashing Pumpkins.

Records are priced anywhere from $5 dollars to $150 dollars.The rarest is an album by the ‘60s psychedelic band Maze.

“I think there’s a fairly decent chance that I own one of the best copies of it in existence,” he said. “Yes, so I think that record is probably worth in the, maybe the $1,000 range?”

Griggs is 51. He opened in June after he was laid off from a corporate job in the health care industry. He worked at record stores in the ‘90s and owning one has always been a dream of his. Griggs said getting laid off was good news.

“This doesn’t feel like work and the buying, cleaning and cataloging of records, definitely scratches some sort of OCD itch in me,” he said. “I think it’s good for me, mental health wise, kind of to be kind of immersed in something that I can kind of give myself over to.”

Griggs is sharing his passion with people of all generations. He said his customer base trends younger, but during our conversation, an older couple came in with some sealed records they were looking to sell. Everything from Perry Como to Harry Belafonte. But unfortunately:

“These really aren’t worth anything,” Griggs said. “Age doesn’t really mean anything to record value. It is interesting that these are still sealed. That said it would be very difficult for me to sell most of these.”

Griggs said they would fare better selling them online and offered to help do that.

Soon after the couple left, Ryan Cassidy, a younger musician from Petoskey came in. He’s a singer-songwriter inspired by alternative rock from the ‘90s and The Beatles. His CD is for sale at Hexagon. Cassidy said it’s a huge deal to have a record shop in Petoskey.

“Because we used to have to travel to Traverse City,” he said. “That’s the closest thing that we had, so to have something here right downtown, it’s huge. We needed it, there’s a big clientele for it, that’s for sure. It’s coming back, big time.”

Griggs wants more local musicians to sell their music at his shop. He gives all the money back to the artist. So for Cassidy, it could be 10 bucks in his pocket, but today it’s store credit for some Alice Cooper.

According to Billboard.com 2023 was the 18th straight year for growth in record sales. Vinyl albums sold in the U.S. nearly totaled 50 million. Griggs said there is an appetite for tangible media amid the plethora of streaming services.

“Streamed music is just really ephemeral. And the physicality to physical media is, like, there’s something that obviously does something for people,” he said. “And it’s not just a generational thing. And part of it is the, you know, just the design and art of album covers, that sort of thing.”

Griggs has also noticed people buying more what he calls “zombie media” – things like cassettes and VHS tapes. He might carry those some day as well.

Griggs said he has repeat customers and his sales are consistent. His approach to the business is pragmatic, but he’s been waiting to give this a shot for a long time.

“I’m under no delusion that I’m going to make, you know, become a millionaire doing this,” he said. “But I all I want is just to make enough money to live off of because it’s such a fun business to be a part of. Being able to talk to people all day about music is, you know, really fun.”

Griggs has other plans in the works, too. He’ll be hosting live music nights at Malted Vinyl, a cocktail bar in Petoskey where people can play vinyl. And eventually, he’ll have his own listening station at Hexagon so curious customers can try out some of the records.

Interlochen Public Radio is part of the Michigan Public Radio Network. To read more stories from IPR, visit interlochenpublicradio.org.

The Michigan Democratic Party is facing a lawsuit over the race for its University of Michigan Board of Regents nomination.

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

The race was decided at the party’s Aug. 24 nominating convention in Lansing.

According to official party results, civil rights attorney Huwaida Arraf lost her bid for the party’s nomination for the U of M Board of Regents.

But Arraf said there were irregularities she’d like explained. She said her lawsuit is because party leaders haven’t provided election data she’s been asking for.

“If there’s something [that] happened that we don’t understand, then just tell us,” Arraf told reporters during a press call Thursday.

Arraf’s claims include that more people voted in the race than were credentialed and that the party barred her campaign from observing the vote tabulation process during the August convention.

One source of confusion was the party’s weighted voting system in which “each county’s (or portion thereof) delegates within a multi-county Congressional District Convention, caucus, or meeting, or at the State Convention, have a voting strength proportional to the number of Democratic voters from that county (or portion) at the last General Election relative to the total number of Democratic voters in the District or the state, regardless of how many delegates are present at the convention, caucus, or meeting.”

A press release sent by Arraf’s campaign earlier this week included screenshots that the campaign said show email exchanges with party chair Lavora Barnes listing out raw vote totals and weight equivalent.

In her lawsuit, Arraf is asking Michigan’s 30th Circuit Court in Ingham County to bar the race results from being finalized to the general election ballot until “a full and transparent investigation or audit of the University of Michigan Regents vote-counting process” takes place.

In a statement, a Michigan Democratic Party spokesperson said, “We are waiting to review the complaint filed with the Ingham County Clerk and look forward to following the proper legal process.”

Arraf had entered the race later than her two opponents, whom were already serving on the board and seeking renomination. She came in with support of pro-Palestinian activists.

While talking to reporters, Arraf acknowledged she very well may have lost the race. But she accused the party of sending the wrong message to her supporters by not being transparent.

“Encouraging young people, encouraging minorities, encouraging historically disenfranchised people to get involved in the voting process, what we hear over and over and over again is, ‘What does it matter? My vote doesn’t count anyway.’ And this is exactly the message that they’re getting now,” Arraf said.

According to court records, Ingham County Judge James Jamo has sent a first hearing in the case for Friday at 9 a.m.

Reporting by Colin Jackson, MPRN

Other headlines for Friday, Sept. 6, 2024:

•  The city of Detroit is now accepting applications from senior citizen homeowners who wish to apply for a discount on their Solid Waste Fee for their home.
• This Sunday will be the last day to check out the Michigan Science Center’s “Above and Beyond” exhibition offering a 360-degree view of Earth in Orbit.
• The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners is seeking applications for the BOPC Youth Advisory Panel. Applications are due Sept. 30.

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

Those planning to vote in-person during the general election this fall may be presented with a unique variety of “I Voted” sticker designs created by Michiganders.

The Michigan Department of State announced Wednesday it has selected nine winning designs from the state’s first ever “I Voted” sticker design contest, which will be made available for clerks to hand out to voters at the polls on Nov. 5.

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson congratulated contest winners in a news release issued Wednesday, adding that she was “overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and creativity from the people of our great state.”

“Now,” she says, “let’s use the same energy in casting a vote this November. I encourage every eligible voter to make a plan now to have your voice heard – vote with an absentee ballot, at an early voting site, or on Election Day – and feel proud to wear a sticker designed by a fellow Michigander.” 

More than 480 designs were submitted during the contest, which launched in May, and over 57,700 public votes were cast for the winners, according to the state.

Three winning designs were selected from three separate categories: elementary/middle school (grades K-8), high school (grades 9-12), and general entry — open to Michigan residents of all ages.

Submissions received were narrowed down to 25 semifinalists from each category by the Michigan Collegiate Student Advisory Task Force before the contest opened up for a public vote.  

Check out the winning designs from each category in the photo gallery below.

For more information about voting and elections in Michigan, visit michigan.gov/vote. 

A Michigan Court of Claims judge acted quickly Tuesday to deny Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s request to be removed from the state’s presidential ballot. That’s after Kennedy suspended his campaign last week to back Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Kennedy wants a court to reverse the determination of election officials in the Secretary of State’s office that he missed the deadline for removing his name as the nominee of the Natural Law Party of Michigan. Kennedy is trying to end his candidacy in Michigan and other swing states where he could siphon support from former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee.

“Plaintiff, a public figure, does not want to represent to the citizens of Michigan that he is vying for their votes for the position of President of the United States,” said Kennedy’s legal filing. “Keeping his name on the ballot against his wishes compels this speech and subjects him to derision, anger, reputational harm, and loss of good will by those who would vote for him based on this speech and later find out their vote was wasted and in vain.”

Kennedy argued the deadline cited by the state elections bureau applies only to down-ballot races and not to candidates for president.

Court of Claims Judge Christopher Yates dispatched the case very quickly, noting the urgency of resolving election-related questions this late in the cycle. Yates wrote the law is “clear and conclusive” that election officials in the Secretary of State’s office are not empowered to go along with Kennedy’s “self-serving act”

“Elections are not just games,” he wrote, “and the Secretary of State is not obligated to honor the whims of candidates for public office.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel praised the ruling.

“Michigan election law in this instance is unambiguous and the Department of State made the correct decision,” she said in a written statement. “…The law does not apply less because a candidate changes their plans. I appreciate the Court making a quick and wise ruling on this matter.”

Kennedy’s Michigan attorneys did not reply to a request for comment or plans to appeal.

If history is any guide, it is highly unlikely that Kennedy would win Michigan’s 15 electoral votes. The last third-party candidate to win Michigan was former President Teddy Roosevelt, who left the Republican Party to run as the candidate of the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party in 1912. That helped Democratic nominee Woodrow Wilson unseat Republican incumbent President William Howard Taft.