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Tag: Michigan

  • New York Stock Exchange exec mulling Michigan Senate bid

    New York Stock Exchange exec mulling Michigan Senate bid

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    Tuttle is only in the early stages of exploring a run. But his interest comes as Republicans have so far struggled to field any serious contenders for the seat. Democrats, meanwhile, have united quickly behind Rep. Elissa Slotkin, a strong fundraiser who ousted an incumbent GOP representative in 2018. Her launch spooked a slew of other prominent Michigan Democrats out of the race, though a handful of other potential candidates are still considering jumping in. The state went for President Joe Biden in 2020 but former President Donald Trump won it in 2016.

    With his work based in Manhattan, Tuttle splits his time between New York City and Michigan. He is from Milford, Mich. in Oakland County and maintains deep ties to the state. He was the commencement speaker last year at Eastern Michigan University, his alma mater.

    Tuttle, 41, has considered a run for Congress in the past. And he’s been somewhat politically active too. In his role as president of the NYSE Institute, he hosted Speaker Kevin McCarthy in April on Wall Street when he visited the stock exchange to give a speech on the debt limit. Tuttle conducted a brief question-and-answer session with McCarthy afterward.

    A timeline for Tuttle’s decision was not clear. But he has spoken with Republicans in D.C. and Michigan about a possible run and the National Republican Senatorial Committee has shown interest in his candidacy.

    “John Tuttle is a strong potential recruit in Michigan,” NRSC Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said.

    GOP Rep. John James, who won a Michigan House battleground seat last fall, declined to make a third run for Senate in 2024. (He lost to Stabenow in 2018 and Democratic Sen. Gary Peters in 2020.) Former Republican Rep. Peter Meijer is considering a run. Meijer lost his Grand Rapids-based House seat in 2022 after voting to impeach Trump, which could also be a liability in any Senate primary. Another potential GOP candidate is Kevin Rinke, who lost a primary bid to be the Republican nominee against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2022.

    While Tuttle would have the funds to support a campaign and a major network of potential donors to tap, he is a political neophyte. Senate Republicans have actively been looking to recruit candidates who have fundraising prowess or large personal wealth after being vastly outraised by Democrats in the midterms.

    Through his work, Tuttle knows former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) and her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, who is CEO of the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. Loeffler joined the Senate in 2020 after she was appointed by Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp. But she lost to Democrat Raphael Warnock in a runoff election the following year, under attacks that her personal wealth made her disconnected from the needs of the state.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Shooter at Michigan State who killed three had no ties to school, officials say

    Shooter at Michigan State who killed three had no ties to school, officials say

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    The man who stormed on to Michigan State University’s campus and shot three students to death before killing himself bought the ammunition fired during the attack only a few hours earlier, investigators announced on Thursday.

    Additionally, authorities said, the murderer had no personal or professional connection to the school, making his motive a mystery to them, despite his leaving a note which – among other things – complained about feeling rejected and not having sex during the last decade.

    Such details were contained in a statement from the police force at the university in East Lansing, Michigan, summarizing what officers have learned about 43-year-old Anthony McRae since he went on campus and killed students Arielle Anderson, Alexandria Verner and Brian Fraser.

    The killer loaded at least 13 handgun magazines with 9mm ammunition that he bought shortly before 4.50pm on 13 February. He put one magazine each in two handguns that he bought legally a month apart around the fall of 2021 but never registered, the police’s statement said. He used a Michigan identification as well as a social security card for the purchases, which he could make lawfully once he was discharged from a probation stint that he served after pleading guilty in 2020 to a misdemeanor weapons charge.

    In part illustrating how much devastation a gun-wielding intruder can inflict even when not armed with a rifle, officers concluded that McRae fired about 20 times while murdering Anderson, Varner and Fraser as well as critically wounding five others at two separate buildings once he entered Michigan State’s campus at about 8.20pm. He left campus and eluded police until about 11.50pm, when officers found him in the adjacent city of Lansing, minutes after they publicly released a surveillance photo of him and asked for help in tracking him down.

    McRae shot himself as police approached and died by suicide, according to authorities, who used spent shell casings to determine how many shots the killer fired. He had a backpack with 10 loaded magazines and nearly 140 rounds of loose ammunition, along with a total of more than 20 rounds in the magazines in his pistols as well as a magazine in his coat’s chest pocket.

    Officers found a handwritten note on McRae which was headlined “Why? Why? Why? I’ve been hurt,” according to a copy of the screed that was released in the police’s statement on Thursday. The note claimed that McRae staged the attack in coordination with others, but state and federal investigators have not found any evidence to suggest that was true.

    The note also mentioned fatigue at “being rejected” and complained about not having had sex in 10 years. It doesn’t explicitly describe McRae as a believer of the misogynist involuntary celibate – or “incel” – movement, which is primarily online and blames women for proponents’ lack of sexual and social status.

    But the rhetoric in the parts of the note certainly calls to mind the movement, which experts have linked to dozens of killings and less lethal attacks in the last decade, including the stabbing and shooting rampage that left six people dead in Santa Barbara, California, in 2014.

    Investigators were also careful to note that McRae had not attended Michigan State, had not known anyone at the campus and had not applied to work there in recent history. A relative later told CNN that McRae toward the end of his life had been living either at his father’s home or in local shelters for the unhoused.

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    “There is no conclusive motive as to why McRae targeted Michigan State University,” the statement from the school’s police force said.

    The murders carried out by McRae came weeks before an intruder with two rifles and a handgun shot three nine-year-old students and three adult staffers to death at a Christian grade school in Nashville, Tennessee, on 27 March. Police shot dead the intruder in that case.

    As of Thursday, the killings at Michigan State and Nashville’s Covenant school were among more than 170 mass shootings so far this year in the US, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The archive defines a mass shooting as any with four or more victims who are killed or wounded, not including the shooter.

    The spate of mass shootings has reignited calls in some quarters for Congress to pass legislation aimed at holding firearms manufacturers liable for violence committed with their products as well as to require background checks for gun-related sales, among other measures.

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    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Former Michigan House speaker charged with accepting bribes for cannabis licenses

    Former Michigan House speaker charged with accepting bribes for cannabis licenses

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    “[The marijuana industry has] been held out as an equalizing opportunity,” U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Michigan Mark Totten said at a press conference Thursday. “Yet what we’ve learned today is that one of its key leaders … acted corruptly and did so at a moment that mattered most for those who want to get ahead in this industry.”

    The background: Johnson served as a state representative from 1999 to 2004, including three years as House speaker. After leaving office, he ran a lobbying firm in Lansing, before serving as the chair of the Michigan marijuana licensing board from 2017 to 2019, according to court documents.

    Johnson was “at the heart of this corrupt scheme,” Totten said, outlining cash payments and other perks like private chartered flights through Dalaly’s companies.

    The investigation, which started in 2017, was spearheaded by the FBI.

    “Rooting out corruption is exceptionally difficult,” FBI special agent Jim Tarasca told reporters. Tarasca thanked forensic accountants and computer forensic examiners who helped determine the money trail and digital evidence to support the charges.

    For years, the FBI has been warning states about the threat of public corruption posed by the cannabis industry. Local officials have been charged with similar crimes from California to Massachusetts, and corruption allegations targeting state officials in Arkansas and Missouri have been swirling for years.

    More details: Dalaly operated a company that was seeking a medical marijuana license from the board. Pierce and Brown lobbied on behalf of another company that was seeking a license. Johnson not only voted in favor of those companies obtaining licenses, but also provided “valuable non-public information about the anticipated rules” surrounding the medical marijuana program, court documents allege.

    Pierce and Brown attempted to hide payments to Johnson by funneling them through various companies that Johnson controlled, Totten explained. These payments came out of their client’s retainer fees, according to court documents.

    David Griem, an attorney for Brown, said his client cooperated with the FBI “like a good citizen” before even hiring a lawyer and that he didn’t “know any of the big fish in this case.”

    Attorneys for the other defendants did not immediately return requests for comment.

    What’s next: All four defendants are expected to be arraigned and have plea hearings in the next one to two weeks, Totten said.

    The investigation is ongoing, and Tarasca asked any members of the public who have information related to the charges to contact the FBI.

    The four defendants pledged to cooperate with the ongoing investigation.

    Johnson and Dalaly face a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

    In his plea deal, Johnson agreed to forfeit the $110,000 in bribes and the U.S. Attorney’s Office agreed not to oppose his request for a reduction in offense level, which would impact his sentencing.

    Pierce and Brown face a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Whitmania: Dems eye Michigan gov’s sister for battleground House race

    Whitmania: Dems eye Michigan gov’s sister for battleground House race

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    Reelected last year as a Board of Education trustee for the Katonah-Lewisboro school district, Gereghty graduated from Duke University’s business school and serves as a small-business consultant. She’s a neophyte to congressional politics, though. And she’s unlikely to have the field to herself.

    Democrats see the Hudson Valley seat as one of their best pickup opportunities in next year’s election, given that the district remains deeply blue — voters there favored President Joe Biden by 10 points in 2020 — despite the GOP’s gains during last year’s midterms. It’s still early in the cycle, but party strategists say recruitment here and in several other New York battlegrounds will be their top priority for 2024.

    The New York-based seats are of particular interest to House Democratic leaders, given their Biden-friendly lean and proximity to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ district.

    House Majority PAC has already signaled it’s willing to spend heavily in the state, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has singled out Lawler’s seat among several other New York districts that the party aims to flip next year to try to return to the majority. And Jeffries, along with Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), has called for an after-action report on the 2022 elections in New York and the party’s shortcomings.

    Republicans remain confident in Lawler, however, given his high name ID and lifelong roots in the community. They expect the first-term incumbent to attract plenty of party support — fundraising and otherwise — ahead of next November in light of his high-profile win last year.

    Asked about the potential challengers, a spokesperson for Lawler’s campaign said the New York Republican is focused on policy issues like reducing congestion pricing, lifting the SALT cap and bringing down energy prices. “His focus is, and will continue to be, serving the people of the Hudson Valley and getting things done that improve their quality of life,” said Chris Russell, Lawler’s chief strategist.

    On the Democratic side, some more familiar names could enter the mix against Lawler. Former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) has publicly expressed interest in a run but is still undecided, according to two people familiar with his thinking.

    Jones is likely to make a decision in the next month or two, one of those people said. (Jones represented a large part of the district before it was redrawn in 2022, though he ultimately ran and lost for a New York City-based district instead.) He has stayed active in local politics and is set to headline a local party dinner later in April.

    “I’ve been encouraging him to run. I think he can win it and we can take that district back,” said Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.), who is a friend of Jones. “I really, quite honestly, think he got the short end of the stick in 2022.”

    Former Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), the onetime DCCC chief who lost the seat by roughly 1,800 votes last November, also hasn’t ruled out a bid, according to a person close to him. Several Democratic members and strategists, though, were privately skeptical he would jump into the race.

    So far, Gereghty is generating perhaps the most buzz among New York political circles. While she has a limited public presence so far, her sister, Gretchen Whitmer, is one of the most popular figures in Democratic politics and won reelection in a swing state last year by 11 points.

    Since redistricting reforms gave Democrats control of both chambers of Michigan’s state legislature and the governorship for the time in 40 years, they have been on a legislative tear, enacting protections for LGBTQ residents and anti-gun violence laws as well as codifying abortion rights.

    And Gretchen Whitmer isn’t the family’s only political stalwart: Their father served in the administration of former Gov. William Milliken, a Republican, and her mother was a state assistant attorney general. Her family is also close to the Dingells, including Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), who has been helping Gereghty with the early stages of her New York run.

    The Detroit Free Press reported in 2020, as the governor’s star began to rise, that Gereghty saved Whitmer’s number in her phone as “The Woman from Michigan” — a reference to the derisive nickname that Gretchen Whitmer earned from then-President Donald Trump.

    Michigan, the Whitmers’ home state, is known for its political dynasties, such as the Levins, the Conyers, the Dingells and the Kildees. But the Mitten isn’t alone there: Indiana GOP Rep. Greg Pence captured an open congressional seat in 2018 while his brother Mike was serving as vice president. And Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) served in Congress with his brother, Lincoln. On top of that, countless children have replaced their parents in office.

    But famous relatives don’t always propel their families to electoral success. One recent example: Levi Sanders, the son of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), was trounced in a 2018 Democratic primary for a New Hampshire House seat.



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Michigan strikes right-to-work law detested by unions

    Michigan strikes right-to-work law detested by unions

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    Republicans, however, said the move would backfire by discouraging employers from locating or expanding in the state.

    “Dramatically transforming our policies to harm workers and job providers will hang a ‘Closed for Business’ sign at our state’s borders and take Michigan off the list for future projects,” House Republican Leader Matt Hall said in a statement earlier this week during the vote on final passage.

    The anti-union law’s repeal is a particularly significant symbolic victory given the special place Michigan holds in the organized labor movement.

    “For us, being the home of labor and getting attacked 10 years ago was a gut punch to workers across Michigan,” state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, the sponsor of MI SB34 (23R), told POLITICO. “We are a state so steeped in union activism and union history that we knew this was a policy that our constituents wanted for the last 10 years as well.”

    Even with the move, more than half the states in the country have right-to-work laws on the books. The Michigan Legislature’s repeal is the first since Indiana did so in 1965, before reverting in 2012. (Missouri voters in 2018 blocked a right-to-work law passed by Republican lawmakers.)

    Proponents of such laws say they allow workers to freely choose whether to support union causes and make states attractive to businesses. It also saps membership and financial power from labor unions — a key part of the Democratic coalition — another reason right-to-work appeals to Republican lawmakers and conservatives.

    Michigan’s law was highly contentious when Republicans pushed it through during the lame-duck session following the 2012 election, with unions rallying thousands of people to the statehouse in protest of the legislation. The state’s then-governor, Republican Rick Snyder, at the time pointed to voters’ overwhelming rejection of a state constitutional amendment that would have enshrined collective bargaining rights as validation of the GOP’s actions.

    “It was a quite a heavy victory,” for opponents of the constitutional amendment, said Patrick Wright, the vice president for legal affairs at the conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “It became a lot easier for people to think about it and take those votes.”

    Michigan’s repeal was years in the making and is just one of several high-profile progressive issues statehouse Democrats have taken on in the months after narrowly gaining unified control of the legislature for the first time since the 1980s.

    The effort was helped by several factors unique to the state, though by the same token could make it hard for union backers to replicate Michigan’s example elsewhere.

    For one, Michigan’s law was far less entrenched than others — some of which date back to the 1940s or have been written into state constitutions — and the memories of the 2012 defeat remain relatively fresh in Democrats’ minds.

    “I just remember being so incredibly distraught, outraged, and feeling helpless about not being able to do anything about it and the way in which it was done,” said state Rep. Regina Weiss, a former teacher who sponsored the repeal legislation. “That was the first time I was really starting to pay attention to what was happening in state politics in Michigan.”

    Weiss is among the more than 40 percent of state House Democrats — 24 out of 56 — who have been members of a union, according to data from the Michigan AFL-CIO.

    Repeal backers also credited the successful 2018 ballot initiative to create an independent redistricting commission as integral to making it possible for Democrats to gain control of the Legislature, as opposed to a state like neighboring Wisconsin, where district lines were drawn to favor Republicans.

    “That’s the difference between having a legislative majority that has your back and wants to expand workers’ rights, as opposed to being in the minority and having a legislature that was to suppress workers’ rights,” Ron Bieber, the head of the Michigan AFL-CIO, said in an interview.

    Michigan is also the home of several big-name Republican donors, such as financier Ron Weiser and the DeVos family, who have bankrolled right-to-work and other conservative causes and galvanized opponents.

    “When you explain that these initiatives that are backed by Betsy DeVos, or whomever, folks here know that’s probably not a good thing for most working people because that’s not who they’re here for,” Weiss said.

    A spokesperson for the former secretary of Education did not return a request for comment.

    Along with the right-to-work repeal, which applies to private-sector workers, Michigan lawmakers passed legislation MI HB4004 (23R) that would apply to public-sector jobs in the event the U.S. Supreme Court revisited its 2018 Janus decision, which held that requiring non-union public employees to pay agency fees to unions was unconstitutional.

    Democrats also passed a measure reinstating prevailing wage requirements for publicly funded construction projects MI HB4007 (23R) previously repealed by the GOP.

    “Michigan in 2023 is not the same as Michigan in 2012,” Bieber said.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Michigan State struggles with uncertain return to classes

    Michigan State struggles with uncertain return to classes

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    On Monday, Díaz-Muñoz and others are set to return to class. The university confirmed Friday in an email to students and staff that campus operations would resume, even as officials have faced pressure to delay the return. There will be no classes for the rest of the semester in Berkey Hall, where two students died, for the rest of the semester.

    Díaz-Muñoz said the university offered to have another professor to teach through the end of the semester. While he has yet to make a final decision, his plan is to go back next week and teach.

    “On one hand, I want to forget it all. But then on the other hand, I think I need to help my students pick up the pieces,” Díaz-Muñoz said. “I think I need to help my students build a sense of meaning.”

    Some in the community, however, aren’t ready for the rapid return. The editorial board of The State News, the student newspaper, wrote Thursday that they wouldn’t attend class next week, either in person or online. More time was needed to heal, the students wrote.

    In the days following the shooting, students across campus were seen packing their belongings to leave East Lansing with all activities shut down for 48 hours and no classes until at least Monday. A petition demanding hybrid or online options for students received over 20,000 signatures as of Saturday. Michigan State has about 50,000 students, including 19,000 who live on campus.

    Díaz-Muñoz understands that some students won’t be ready to return, saying that some will still have “the fear of looking over their shoulder and looking out the window, at the doors.”

    “There are some kids in my class that are graduating this semester. And they need this horrific nightmare to have a better ending than the way it ended on Monday,” Díaz-Muñoz said.

    In an email sent out to faculty Friday, the university said that all students will be given a credit/no credit option this semester, which allows students to receive credit for all classes without it impacting their overall grade point average. The email, written by interim Provost Thomas Jeitschko, asked all teachers to “extend as much grace and flexibility as you are able with individual students, now and in the coming weeks.”

    “We are encouraging empathy and patience and an atmosphere for all to recover at their own pace,” Interim President Teresa Woodruff said Thursday.

    Four wounded students remain in critical condition at Sparrow Hospital, a hospital spokesman confirmed Saturday. One had been upgraded to stable condition on Thursday.

    Dozens of people have died in mass shootings so far in 2023. In 2022, there were more than 600 mass shootings in the U.S. in which at least four people were killed or injured, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

    The shootings at Michigan State happened Monday during evening classes at Berkey Hall and nearby at the MSU Union, a social hub where students can study, eat and relax. Students across the vast campus were ordered to shelter in place for four hours — “run, hide, fight” if necessary — while police hunted for Anthony McRae, 43, who eventually killed himself when confronted by police not far from his home in Lansing.

    Police said he left a note with a possible motive but have not said what it was. He was the lone shooter and had no connection to the victims or to Michigan State as a student or employee, they said.

    Díaz-Muñoz describes hearing “explosions” outside his class before a masked man appeared in the doorway of Room 114 and began open firing. Students hid behind desks and chairs before breaking windows to escape.

    After “one to two minutes” of shooting, the gunman turned around and left, leaving behind “destruction and death in my classroom,” said Díaz-Muñoz.

    For Díaz-Muñoz, the terror didn’t end as abruptly. The carnage that occurred in his classroom was “something you saw in a movie,” he said.

    Díaz-Muñoz says he has taken prescription medication as a way to force himself to sleep, only emerging from his room “for a bowl of soup.”

    The assistant professor said that he is sharing his story in hopes of bringing about gun reform.

    “If the lawmakers and the senators saw what I saw, instead of hearing in the news one more statistic. If they had seen those girls and the pools of blood that I saw, the horror we lived, they would be shamed into action,” Díaz-Muñoz said.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Michigan Dems consider faster push on gun laws after MSU shooting

    Michigan Dems consider faster push on gun laws after MSU shooting

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    “We’re going to try to move faster,” Democratic state Sen. Rosemary Bayer said in an interview Tuesday morning. “After years of not getting an inch, now we’re making real plans.”

    “Some of the legislation we have goes back 10 years,” added Bayer, who represented the town of Oxford in 2021, when four students died in a mass shooting at a high school there. “We just haven’t been able to get any traction to do anything.”

    Bayer said that lawmakers updated legislative proposals following the 2022 midterms, knowing they might be able to move forward on it. Even before this week’s tragedy, state Democrats had said gun laws would be among their legislative priorities now that they have complete control of the government. In a roundtable with reporters in December, Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks identified gun violence legislation as a priority for the chambers’ new majorities.

    But this week’s shooting has increased the urgency.

    “One of the models we’ve seen in these horrible tragedies is that we need to act quickly. Even in Florida, they were able to get it done in a red legislature,” said state Sen. Darrin Camilleri, who represents the area south of Detroit. “I think we can do that with a Democratic trifecta. There are conversations we’re having as soon as today to figure out timelines to expedite this process.”

    Whitmer specifically called out all three of Democrats’ gun control priorities in her State of the State speech last month.

    “Despite pleas from Oxford families, these issues never even got a hearing in the legislature,” Whitmer said at the time. “This year, let’s change that and work together to stop the violence and save lives.”

    The MSU shooting occurred on campus in East Lansing on Monday evening, which killed three students and injured five more. The suspected gunman died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound off campus. The Detroit News reported that he pled guilty to a gun charge in 2019.

    It is the 67th mass shooting in America this year alone, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a D.C.-based nonprofit.

    Bayer, who Whitmer called out as a leader on gun control legislation in her address, said that there is a plan to introduce legislation “soon.”

    “We had a schedule that we’re trying to move up even more,” she said. “We were targeting right after the first week of April, that’s what we were planning for, but we want to respond quicker.”

    But Democrats in the state are also cognizant that they have very slim majorities to manage in both the state House and the state Senate. Even a single no vote from a Democratic lawmaker could sink a bill in the state House if no Republican joins.

    “All you need is one Joe Manchin,” said Bayer, referencing the West Virginia senator’s role bedeviling Democrats on Capitol Hill on a myriad of issues. (Manchin has worked with senators from both parties on gun legislation in the past, and he supported the bipartisan law that passed last year following the mass shootings at a school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, N.Y.)

    “With these current events, how could anyone stop it?” Bayer continued. “But I’ve thought that for years.”

    Spokespeople for Whitmer and Brinks did not immediately respond to requests for comment on new legislation. But statements in the immediate aftermath of the shooting expressed despair and outrage and signaled that Democratic leadership planned to push for gun control legislation.

    Brinks tweeted that her daughter, a MSU student, was “answering my texts and calls” early Tuesday morning. Tate’s spokesperson pointed to a statement he issued saying “we can continue to debate the reasons for gun violence in America, or we can act,” adding that he had “no understanding left for those in a position to effect change who are unwilling to act.”

    “This is a uniquely American problem,” Whitmer, who ordered that flags around the state be lowered to half-staff on Tuesday morning, said in her own statement. “We should not, we cannot, accept living like this.”

    Camilleri and Bayer expressed confidence that the party would be able to get all Democrats on board for legislation focused on red flag laws, safe storage and universal background checks. And Bayer said she thought some Republicans could join on some pieces of legislation as well. “We’ve had a couple of Republicans join our caucus on the topic,” she said. “I hope this will help more of them to come over.”

    But beyond that, broader legislation may be much more difficult, the lawmakers admitted.

    “When it comes to some other issues that I’m sure we’ll be discussing, those might be tougher, but the urgency to act is now,” Camilleri said.



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • 3 dead, 5 injured in Michigan State University shooting, Suspect found dead

    3 dead, 5 injured in Michigan State University shooting, Suspect found dead

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    Chicago: Three people were killed and at least five were injured in an on-campus shooting at Michigan State University, the university police have confirmed.

    Meanwhile, police have confirmed that the suspect died by inflicting a gunshot on himself. At a press conference on Tuesday, the investigating police officer said, “The suspect in this incident was located outside of the MSU campus and it does appear that the suspect has died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

    The first shots were fired inside a hall at 8:18 p.m. (0118 GMT) at the north end of campus on Monday night, university spokeswoman Emily Guerrant said at a press conference.

    Gunshots were later heard at a nearby hall, Xinhua News Agency reported.

    The university has sent a message asking students to “secure in place immediately.” “Run, hide, fight,” was heard at the scene.

    Nearly 30 firetrucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles swarmed the campus.

    State representative Ranjeev Puri has released an official statement condemning the horrific incident.

    “What happened in East Lansing is unfortunately far too common. Going to school in America, whether it’s pre-school or college, means risking your life everyday to the threat of a mass shooting. Yet all we have offered up are empty solutions. – traumatising active shooter drills and bulletproof backpacks,” Puri’s statement read.

    (With inputs from IANS)



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  • 3 people dead in Michigan State shootings; gunman also dead

    3 people dead in Michigan State shootings; gunman also dead

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    Hundreds of officers had scoured the East Lansing campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit, for the suspect, whom police described as a short Black man with red shoes, a jean jacket and ball cap.

    Rozman said it was too early to know a motive and whether the man had some type of affiliation with the university. His name was not immediately released.

    “There’s a lot that we don’t know at this point,” Rozman said.

    Two people were killed at Berkey and another was killed at the MSU Union, he said.

    Sparrow Hospital spokesperson John Foren said he had no information on the conditions of five injured people.

    By 10:15 p.m., police said Berkey, as well as nearby residence halls, were secured.

    Before the gunman was found dead, WDIV-TV meteorologist Kim Adams, whose daughter attends Michigan State, told viewers that students were worn down by the hours-long saga.

    “They’ve been hiding, all the lights off in a dark room,” Adams said. “Their cellphones are starting to lose battery charge. They don’t all have chargers with them and losing contact with the outside world is terrifying on a normal day for college kids, let alone when there’s someone out there that they haven’t caught yet.”

    Aedan Kelley, a junior who lives a half-mile east of campus, said he locked his doors and covered his windows “just in case.” Sirens were constant, he said, and a helicopter hovered overhead.

    “It’s all very frightening,” Kelley said. “And then I have all these people texting me wondering if I’m OK, which is overwhelming.”

    Michigan State has about 50,000 students. All campus activities were canceled for 48 hours, including athletics and classes.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Ford to build EV battery plant in Michigan, use Chinese tech

    Ford to build EV battery plant in Michigan, use Chinese tech

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    Ford workers will build both nickel cobalt manganese and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries at the facility, slated to come online in 2026, while CATL will continue to own the technology to create the cells and be contracted to provide some additional services.

    When asked about the political risks of working with a Chinese company, Lisa Drake, Ford vice president of EV industrialization, emphasized on a call with reporters Monday that it’s a “very global marketplace” especially when it comes to EV batteries. She also noted that while LFP technology already exists in the U.S. — although not yet at Ford — the new project will allow the company to de-risk the process in this country, where Ford has control.

    “It’s more control over the technology choice,” said Drake.

    Drake also addressed concerns that the Chinese government could move to block the use of its technology. “We certainly thought through that, and those are provisions and things that we’ve agreed with CATL in the course of our contract work with them,” she said. “Of course, we’ve thought about it, and we’ve taken care of those, the optionality, in the contracts.”

    Ford’s decision to build and operate in Michigan was driven by the newly minted Inflation Reduction Act, Drake said, and company officials said they’re confident the newly produced batteries will qualify for all of the production tax credits under the law, for both the cell and module, as well as commercial and lease customers. But Ford officials said questions remain for outright consumer purchases given there are income qualifications.

    “I think the IRA was incredibly important for us, and, frankly, it did what it intended to do and it allowed the United States to capture 2,500 fantastic technical jobs and all the indirect jobs that go with it, as well as the future growth” said Drake. “A big win for the U.S.”

    Top Biden officials, including Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, have said a surge of federal cash tied to newly passed laws like the Inflation Reduction Act could turn the state into a new hub for pumping out batteries for EVs by 2030.

    More business, more scrutiny

    Ford’s announcement arrives as Republican lawmakers scrutinize efforts to quickly electrify the nation’s vehicles — a push that at the moment leaves the U.S. relying on countries like China for critical minerals. That reality has been flagged on both sides of the aisle as a national security vulnerability (E&E Daily, Jan. 25).

    Ford has moved to emphasize its work to uphold high environmental and human rights standards while also pivoting to dominate the EV and battery market, even as scrutiny around supply chains ramps up on Capitol Hill. Ford officials said they have audited supply chains since 2003 and insisted the company has a zero tolerance policy for child labor or forced labor.

    The company touted the future use of LFP batteries in its F-150 trucks and Mustang Mach-E cars as a more affordable option that will enable vehicles to go long distances. It also offers an alternative that helps address the nation’s ongoing shortage of other critical minerals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in different battery compositions.

    The announcement aligns with plans Ford announced last year to invest more than $50 billion to develop and build EVs, and ultimately produce 2 million annually by the end of 2026. Ford also announced that CATL would supply lithium iron phosphate battery packs for its Mustang Mach-Es and F-150 Lightning pickups in early 2024.

    But questions around links between the nation’s major automakers and the use of forced labor in Xinjiang, China, are also emerging on Capitol Hill.

    The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, passed in 2021 by wide margins in Congress, banned the import of any good made wholly or in part in Xinjiang, under the presumption that its production would involve forced labor.

    International human rights researchers say the region is the center of forced labor systems that chiefly target Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority group.

    Late last year, Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) launched a probe of eight automakers — including Ford — after a British report concluded that virtually every major automaker could be using parts made with Xinjiang forced labor.

    Led by a Sheffield Hallam University professor of human rights and contemporary slavery, the report also raised questions about CATL’s activities in Xinjiang.

    Last year, CATL registered a new jointly owned lithium processing company in the region, it noted. CATL’s new company, Xinjiang Zhicun Lithium Industry Co., subsequently boasted that it would become one of the largest producers of lithium carbonate in the world.

    Wyden in a letter to Ford asked if any of its supply chains and raw materials, mining, processing or parts manufacturing are tied to Xinjiang, how the company maps its supply chains, and whether it’s ever had any goods seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Ford had until Jan. 13 to respond.

    When asked about the senator’s inquiry, Ford in a statement responded: “As we relayed to the Committee, Ford is committed to respecting human rights everywhere we operate and throughout our entire value chain. We will defer to the Committee regarding the release of Ford’s full response.”

    Reporter David Iaconangelo contributed.

    A version of this report first ran in E&E News’ Greenwire. Get access to more comprehensive and in-depth reporting on the energy transition, natural resources, climate change and more in E&E News.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )