Anna Liz Nichols, Michigan Advance

Towards the beginning of session Thursday, Michigan state Rep. Julie Brixie (D-Meridian Township,) stood up and announced on the House floor that she had just come from the parking ramp that representatives use and a black BMW had its hood open, lights on and engine running. Security footage later released by House Republicans shows Brixie plastic-wrapping that vehicle, which belonged to Rep. Matt Maddock (R-Milford).

Brixie told multiple media outlets Thursday that Maddock’s car had been parked partially in her spot.

“My good colleague from the 51st district parked in two spots, including mine, to make sure no one hit his fancy car. I Saran wrapped it to give it an extra layer of protection,” Brixie said in a statement to media outlets. ...

It is the Trump administration’s strategy to pick off individual schools one-by-one, pulling research funding and threatening student visas until institutions are beaten into submission, supporters of a resolution to establish a “Mutual Defense Compact” for Big Ten universities said during a University of Michigan Faculty Senate meeting Thursday.

The hope is that creating an alliance between the 18 universities in the Big Ten Conference to defend “academic freedom, institutional integrity, and the research enterprise,” as the resolution reads, will make schools stronger together.

Just this week, the faculty senate at fellow Big Ten school Michigan State University adopted such a resolution, as have Indiana University and the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. ...

by Anna Liz Nichols, Michigan Advance

February 14, 2025

A surge of patients in Michigan are considering new contraceptive options following the election, according to physicians in the state. ...

Vice President Kamala Harris joined Detroit-born singer Lizzo in Detroit Saturday for the first day of early in-person voting to tell Motown they hold the key to the election.

Detroit has an opportunity to make a difference in this close presidential election, Lizzo said, adding that all the best things are made in Detroit: coney dogs, Faygo and Lizzo.

Insults to Michigan’s largest city, like the one Trump made last week in Detroit saying that if Harris wins, “the whole country will end up being like Detroit,” make no sense, Lizzo said. ...

In November’s presidential election, where the results will likely come down to a few thousand votes in battleground states like Michigan, Bernie Sanders told the Michigan Advance on Saturday that the 2023 United Auto Workers (UAW) strike has played a key role in mobilizing voters.

Sanders, who stood in Detroit alongside union leaders on day one of the UAW’s historic six-week strike against the “Big Three” Detroit automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — said in a phone interview that the union’s success sent a clear message to politicians that the that the status quo for the working class is “not acceptable.”

“What the UAW did is, I think not only win a very good contract for its own members, but it inspired millions and millions of working class people all over this country,” Sanders said, noting polling during the strike reflected majority support from Americans for striking workers across automotive plants around the country. ...