February 2, 2021

Jimmy Kimmel Live: COVID Vaccine Protests, Desperate Biden Conspiracies & Impeachment Round 2

February 2, 2021

Michigan's GOP candidate for governor says he'd cancel contracts with Dominion Voting Systems on

Michigan's GOP candidate for governor says he'd cancel contracts with Dominion Voting Systems on 'day one'


Austin Chenge, the Republican businessman and Army veteran from Grand Rapids who's mounting a campaign against Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2022, says he would cancel the state's contracts with Dominion Voting Systems on "day one."

Dominion Voting Systems make the voting machines that are at the center of a debunked conspiracy theory alleging widespread election fraud, either because of computer glitches or something more sinister. One of the most prevalent claims alleges a computer glitch in Antrim County, Michigan, that flipped thousands of votes for Donald Trump to Joe Biden. While a tabulation error did occur in Antrim County, the problem was the result of human error, and the mistake was quickly caught and corrected. Trump wound up winning in the county with 9,748 votes while Biden won 5,960, according to the certified results.

The conspiracy theory has been repeated by Trump, his lawyers, and witnesses in the weeks following the election, and Dominion has countered with defamation lawsuits, including a $1.3 billion suit against Trump's lawyer and former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani. Melissa Carone, Giuliani's "star witness" from Michigan, has also been sent a cease-and-desist letter from Dominion, and the conservative website American Thinker apologized for publishing false claims about Dominion after being served a letter by its lawyers, admitting "These statements are completely false and have no basis in fact."

Nevertheless, fueled by Trump's insistence on repeating the conspiracy theory, thousands of his supporters marched on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, resulting in a bloody clash that left at least five dead.

Read more: https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2021/02/01/michigans-gop-candidate-for-governor-says-hed-cancel-contracts-with-dominion-voting-systems-on-day-one

February 2, 2021

Worthy dismisses 1,681 cases involving violations of Gov. Whitmer's lockdown order

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced on Monday that her office is dismissing all of its cases stemming from violations of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s lockdown order.

Worthy said there “is not a legal basis to proceed” with the 1,681 cases after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in November that Whitmer did not have authority to issue the executive order.

“Governor Whitmer’s leadership has prevented many of our citizens from contracting COVID-19,” Worthy said in a statement. “However, considering the Supreme Court’s decision, WCPO will no longer use criminal prosecution to enforce the Governor’s Executive Order. It is my earnest hope that people will continue to wear face masks, social distance, quarantine when warranted.”

The cases include ordinance violations and misdemeanors for alleged violations of the executive order.

Read more: https://www.metrotimes.com/news-hits/archives/2021/02/01/worthy-dismisses-1681-cases-involving-violations-of-gov-whitmers-lockdown-order

February 2, 2021

Former employees file suit against Lansing pot farmer

A federal lawsuit seeks to recoup unpaid wages and hold a Lansing-based marijuana cultivator accountable for allegedly breaking several labor and discrimination laws.

Two former employees of RGR Industries, which does business under the name Iliad Epic Grow at 921 Terminal Road in Lansing, sued the company and its owner, Richard Ruzich, earlier this month in the Western District federal court in Grand Rapids. Among the allegations: Former staffers Dominic and Jessica Price claimed they weren’t paid for at least several weeks of work.

The lawsuit also labels the company’s finances as a “mess” and maintains that Jessica Price was paid far below the rate at which her male counterparts made for the same amount of work.

“Their jobs were extremely labor intensive such that the nature of their work routinely required a significant time commitment from them each week,” the lawsuit states. “The Prices regularly worked between 40 and 55 hours (or more) each work week for RGR during their employment.”

Read more: https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/former-employees-file-suit-against-lansing-pot-farmer,15502

February 2, 2021

Republican lawmakers push to make Texas' anti-abortion laws among the most restrictive in the nation

by Shannon Najmabadi, Texas Tribune


Republican lawmakers, buoyed by a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court and the trouncing of state-level Democrats in the November election, are pushing to reclaim Texas’ role as the vanguard among states restricting access to abortion this legislative session.

Legislators have promised to back a so-called “heartbeat bill” that would bar abortions before many women know they are pregnant. Anti-abortion advocates have urged them to challenge the Roe v. Wade decision that established the right to an abortion. And Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said at a “Texas Rally for Life” event in January that there is more “we must do to defend the unborn.”

With the GOP in control of state government and “a favorable backstop from the courts, it’s going to be a no-holds-barred approach for Republicans on abortion,” said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston.

They’re wasting no time.

On one of the first days of the session, a freshman lawmaker attempted to stop the House from naming bridges or streets without first voting to abolish abortion. The amendment failed, but was supported by more than 40 lawmakers, about half of the Republicans in the House.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/01/texas-abortion-laws-legislature/

February 1, 2021

Musings: How to Beat Greg Abbott

Last week’s social media showdown between Governor Greg Abbott and a refreshed but angry Beto O’Rourke still has Texas abuzz, but maybe not for the right reasons.

No doubt, for erstwhile Texas Democrats, the prospect of having O’Rourke bring his magic to the top of another ticket is undoubtedly tempting. Still, the reality remains that on paper, Abbott has a long and strong electoral record in Texas.

Abbott’s 2018 victory over former Dallas Sheriff Lupe Valdez was his worst performance on a statewide ticket this millennium, despite O’Rourke nearly beating Ted Cruz just above him on the ticket. Even still, he managed to trounce a perpetually out-of-her-element and underfunded Valdez by 13 points.

Therein lies the rub for Abbott and the GOP strategists boldly thumping their chests and claiming to be spoiling for an opportunity to take on O’Rourke. While Abbott has scored some resounding victories, he hasn’t been tested anywhere near as seriously as O’Rourke tested Cruz, or 2018 candidates Mike Collier and Justin Nelson tried Lite Gov. Dan Patrick and indicted AG Ken Paxton, respectively.

Read more: https://texassignal.com/musings-how-to-beat-greg-abbott/

February 1, 2021

A citizen's guide to expelling Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz is one of the major proponents of the “Big Lie” that Donald Trump really won the election, and clearly played a role in inciting the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol. “I think Ted Cruz would want us to do this,” said one of the insurrectionists. Even after the insurrection left several people dead, including a Capitol police officer, Cruz still joined seven other Republican senators in voting against certifying the election results.

Ted Cruz isn’t up for reelection until 2024, but is there any way to get him out of office before then? Well, yes. The Senate can expel its own members per the Constitution, and it’s happened to 15 senators.

Of those 15, all but one were expelled for supporting the Confederacy. The first and only non-Confederate senator to be expelled was William Blount, a land speculator who conspired with the British to seize territory from Spain in the 1790s. Since expulsion has mostly been used against seditionists, it’s a fitting punishment considering Ted Cruz’s actions.

The process begins when senators refer a complaint to the Senate Ethics Committee. In the case of Ted Cruz, this has already occurred. Should the Ethics Committee decide to take up the matter, they will form an investigatory subcommittee that will hold hearings and gather evidence. Once that is done they will vote on whether the senator in question committed the actions they are accused of and then they will vote on recommendations. The report and its recommendations, which may include expulsion, are then referred to the entire Senate body for a vote.

Read more: https://texassignal.com/a-citizens-guide-to-expelling-ted-cruz/

February 1, 2021

Beaumont Hospital Staffers Horrified After Patient Dies During Routine Colonoscopy

The inevitable tragedy Beaumont Health chairman John Lewis and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel were warned about occurred last Thursday in the early afternoon: A 51-year-old man walked into the colonoscopy suite at Beaumont’s flagship Royal Oak hospital at 13 and Woodward thinking he’d be undergoing a routine screening and heading home a few hours later.

Instead, the patient, the sole caregiver for his elderly mother, wound up in Beaumont’s basement morgue.

Veteran employees at Beaumont's Royal Oak campus are both angered and saddened by the death, which they say was an expected medical catastrophe resulting from COO Carolyn Wilson’s money-saving decision last April to award Texas-based NorthStar Anesthesia, a controversial low-cost outsourcing firm, a contract to manage anesthesiology services at the flagship hospital and previously one of the busiest surgical centers in the country.
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NorthStar’s Royal Oak contract began Jan. 1. The company is controlled by The Cranmere Group, whose previous CEO Jeffrey Zients resigned in December to co-head President Biden’s transition team and will oversee the administration’s Covid response.

Read more: https://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/27205/starkman_beaumont_hospital_staffers_horrified_after_patient_dies_during_routine_colonoscopy

February 1, 2021

White Detroit tenants sue landlord for not renting to Blacks

When more than a dozen renters new to Detroit’s up-and-coming Islandview neighborhood met last year to consider forming a tenants’ union, they were struck by the realization that in addition to sharing a landlord, they almost all shared the same skin color: White, in a neighborhood that’s predominantly black.

That discovery is now the basis of a federal lawsuit brought by three of the tenants last month, alleging landlords Reimer Priester and Alex DeCamp racially discriminated against Black prospective and existing tenants by either refusing to rent to or attempting to evict them, thereby “unlawfully (depriving)” the non-Black tenants of “the social and professional benefits of living in a racially integrated society.”

The suit, which one expert calls unusual and a longshot, aims in part to force the landlords to correct the alleged behavior. Just 20 percent of Priester and DeCamp’s 35 rental units in Detroit’s Villages area are occupied by Black tenants, the landlords say, when Census estimates show the zip code is 80 percent Black.

“We’re aware that (they’re) not alone in these practices, but as non-Black residents we wish to stand with the greater community against discriminatory practices that Black residents have faced for decades,” said Jo Messer, a 32-year-old who’s lived in one of the duo’s single-family rentals since 2016 and is the only current tenant suing. “Part of the goal is to get them to come to the table to talk to the greater community about what’s needed, what they want, what’s accessible ... rather than impose their vision.”

Read more: https://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/27249/white_detroit_tenants_sue_landlord_for_not_renting_to_blacks

February 1, 2021

Billions of 17-year cicadas are about to emerge and swarm Michigan

Brood X cicadas, like this one from 2004, will emerge in the billions in 2021 for the first time in 17 years. (Photo by Paul Savage | The Times of Trenton)


Billions and billions of Brood X cicadas are about to emerge from the ground and swarm much of the East Coast, including parts of Michigan. We haven’t seen these bugs with the big red eyes since 2004.

From North Carolina to Connecticut and all the way into Michigan, humans will be outnumbered by the insects by about 600 to 1. Essentially, they will be all over the place, but won’t make it everywhere in Michigan.

“They’ll be only in the extreme lower southeast peninsula. Ann Arbor is about as far north as they come,” said Howard Russell, an insect/arthropod diagnostician at Michigan State University. “Nearby, they occur pretty much throughout Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. They’re in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and quite a few other states. This is the most widespread brood.”

These are some of the world’s longest-living insects and while they stay underground, the bugs aren’t actually asleep. They go through different growth stages before coming to the surface to mate.

Read more: https://www.mlive.com/life/2021/01/billions-of-17-year-cicadas-are-about-to-emerge-and-swarm-michigan.html