A focus group of swing voters in the battleground state of Michigan told media outlet Axios that they&#8217;re sticking with Donald Trump, potentially taking Michigan out of the &#8220;swing state&#8221; category.
The voters, who were culled from a group in Saginaw, Michigan &#8212; right in the heart of the state&#8217;s rural country, in a county that went for former President Barack Obama twice but switched to President Donald Trump in 2016 &#8212; and represented a segment of &#8220;moderate Democrat&#8221; that abandoned the party when it ran Hillary Clinton, largely, it seems, over Trump&#8217;s message of economic populism.
And, Axios found, they have no plans to return to their former political home.
&#8220;Some swing voters here who voted for Barack Obama and then Donald Trump are firmly in Trump’s camp now — and they&#8217;re sick of impeachment,&#8221; <a href="https://www.axios.com/focus-group-michigan-swing-voters-trump-impeachment-183e4fc7-5ecc-41bd-add1-537ed8a2fd8f.html?utm_source=twitter&amp;utm_medium=twsocialshare&amp;utm_campaign=organic">Axios wrote Monday</a>. &#8220;The two-plus hour conversation revealed major warning signs for the Democratic Party in a crucial swing county that will be a pivotal area to win in 2020.&#8221;
For starters, the voters &#8220;hate the fact that House Democrats are moving toward impeaching the president,&#8221; and prefer the President&#8217;s agenda, which they say could &#8220;actually improve their lives.&#8221; Among Trump&#8217;s priorities, they &#8220;like preserving Social Security, cracking down on illegal immigration, and keeping jobs in the U.S.&#8221;
They also like Trump&#8217;s attitude toward the media and his critics, and believe that he&#8217;s the right man for the job if the economy suddenly takes a turn for the worse, even if Trump himself has been throwing curveballs on the issue, like starting a possible trade war with China.
Ultimately, Axios says, Michigan voters are firmly in Trump&#8217;s camp, even if they were just middling on Trump three years ago.
Although they appear to like Trump as a person &#8212; much of Trump&#8217;s attitude and character is baked into their perception of him, and little about his past or his antics comes as a surprise &#8212; part of the fault for their Trump loyalty seems to lie with Democrats whom, Axios seems to think, squandered their opportunity with these voters by focusing less on solving the nation&#8217;s problems and more on impeaching Donald Trump.
&#8220;Instead of working on policies and things that will help the people, they are just working to basically preserve their own position &#8230; [T]hey don&#8217;t really care about you and [me], I don&#8217;t think,&#8221; one focus group participant told the group.
Axios is quick to point out that Saginaw, Michigan, is not necessarily representative of swing state voters &#8212; or even Michigan voters as a whole &#8212; but the results should be concerning for Democrats nonetheless. The message swing state voters seem to be sending to the Democrats is this: your focus is on policies far too far left to resonate in the areas you need to control.
The Axios findings mirror a New York Times/Siena College poll from last month that found former Vice President Joe Biden as the only Democrat who could beat Trump in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) found themselves soundly beaten in battleground states, a result, the Times found, of their progressive platforms.
&nbsp;

Donald Trump Michigan

Poll: Swing Voters From 2016 Are Sticking With Donald Trump

2020 Election

Michigan

Your feel-good story of the week.
A 5-year-old boy in Michigan invited his entire kindergarten class to his adoption hearing so they could be part of his moment. Of course they showed up.
CBS News reported Michael Orlando Clark Jr. “was officially adopted on Thursday and all his friends showed up to the Kent County Courthouse in Michigan to celebrate with him.”
Kent County’s Facebook page posted a photo of Clark’s hearing. His classmates can be seen in the background holding up hearts for support. On Friday, the Facebook page for the county shared a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/KentCountyMI/posts/1750401311751738">heartwarming follow-up</a> for Clark:
<blockquote>Yesterday we brought you the story of Michael. He invited his kindergarten class to his adoption hearing because, in his words, they are part of his family. 
We knew people would love Michael, but we were surprised at how fast and how far this story traveled. 
Michael was on NBC Nightly News and ABC&#8217;s World News Tonight, The Today Show, Good Morning America and hundreds of other media outlets worldwide. 
His story was seen by 12 million people on this Facebook page alone. 
Perhaps the interest in Michael&#8217;s story proves that the things that unite us are far more important to us than the things that divide us. 
We learned this lesson from a five year old who never endeavored to teach. 
He simply let us witness love, effortlessly. 
Thank you, Michael</blockquote>
CBS also shared video from Clark’s special day, showing him smiling ear to ear with his new parents &#8212; Andrea Melvin and Dave Eaton &#8212; and Judge Patricia Gardner as they banged the gavel together to make his adoption official.
&#8220;Sometimes their journeys have been very long, they&#8217;ve included miracle and change for the children and family and incredible community support as you&#8217;re able to see today in Michael&#8217;s adoption hearing,&#8221; Honorable Judge Patricia Gardner said.
&#8220;His whole kindergarten class and school being here to say &#8216;we love you,&#8217; and &#8216;we support you&#8217; and &#8216;we&#8217;ll be here not only today but in all the years in the future.'&#8221;
WATCH:
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After the hearing, Clark enthusiastically <a href="https://www.wzzm13.com/article/life/family/kent-county-adoption-day/69-c037502e-f0ae-4dbb-a1f0-38744b17c127">told WZZM</a>: “I love my daddy. I love my daddy so much.”
His new father could barely contain his emotions.
Each of Clark’s classmates was given the chance to introduce themselves to the Judge and tell her why they were there to support Clark. One of his classmates, identified only as Steven, said, “Michael is my best friend.”
&#8220;We began the school year as a family,&#8221; Clark&#8217;s teacher said at the hearing, according to WZZM. &#8220;Family doesn&#8217;t have to be DNA, because family is support and love.&#8221;
Clark was one of 37 children who were also adopted on Thursday as part of Kent County’s annual Adoption Day, CBS reported.
WOOD TV <a href="https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/adoption-day-secures-forever-families-for-37-kids/">reported</a> that Melvin and Eaton became Clark’s foster parents nearly a year ago.
“We were thinking, ‘How can we build our family?&#8217;” Melvin told the outlet. “And there’s so many options, right, for building a family these days.”
“We asked him and he said ‘You know, the class is kind of my family.’ And he wanted them to be there,” Eaton told WOOD TV.

Hands

WATCH: Adorable Little Boy Invites Entire Kindergarten Class To His Adoption Hearing

adoption

Two previously charged with sexual assault have had their charges tentatively dismissed after the prosecutor in charge of the case resigned over allegations of misconduct.
One of the accused men lived in Detroit’s affluent Oxford suburb. The other was his stepson. The Daily Wire will not name the men because the charges have been tentatively dismissed. Both were investigated in 2015 for the alleged sexual assault of a child under the age of 13. The Detroit Free Press <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2019/11/25/nessel-larry-orr-oxford/4300124002/">reported</a> that the “Oakland County Sheriff’s Office had investigated the cases against [the two men] in 2015 and submitted its findings to the prosecutor&#8217;s office, which ended up not charging the two men because it couldn&#8217;t establish that the crime had occurred.”
But earlier this year, the two men were investigated for the same crime once again. Undersheriff Mike McCabe wrote a letter on September 13 to Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, saying, &#8220;The defendants were thoroughly investigated on the same allegations in 2015 by the Oakland County Sheriff&#8217;s Office, the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, Child Protective Services and the FBI.” McCabe added that after “careful review, it was determined by all four agencies that the case lacked evidence and probably [sic] cause to justify actions by CPS or an arrest warrant” for either of the men. The stepfather, McCabe said, also passed several polygraph tests. Further, the two men were kept in prison for six months due to the allegations. The stepfather was kept in isolation because he was a police officer.
The prosecutor involved in the case this year, assistant Attorney General Brian Kolodziej, resigned in September after it was revealed he had an inappropriate intimate relationship with the victim in another sexual assault case. Kolodziej’s behavior led to investigations into all his other cases. Of those cases, the one involving the Oxford man and his stepson “rose to the level of further investigation and have been turned over to the Michigan State Police to see whether criminal charges can be brought against Kolodziej,” the Free Press reported.
Michigan Attorney General Nessel did not expand on why she filed a motion to dismiss the charges against the two men.
“I am compelled to dismiss the charges in this case following the information we received regarding Mr. Kolodziej’s prosecutorial conduct, which are tantamount to serious violations of our prosecutorial standards,” Nessel said in a statement, as reported by the Free Press.
Chief Assistant Oakland County Prosecutor Paul Walton said the case was too murky to bring charges four years ago.
&#8220;Not based on the evidence we had,&#8221; he told the Free Press, &#8220;We had no evidence of sexual abuse and we had two forensic interviews of the child where there was no disclosure of criminal sexual assault.&#8221;
Kolodziej’s affair also led to Nessel setting aside the plea deal of the man accused of sexually assaulting the woman with whom the former assistant AG had the relationship.
“We are committed to doing everything we can to address the issues caused by Mr. Kolodziej’s employment as an assistant attorney general,” Nessel said, according to the Free Press. “We will submit all of our internal interviews to the Michigan State Police as well as the Attorney Grievance Commission so they may independently determine appropriate actions.&#8221;
The Attorney General added that the dismissals did not mean the office thought the accusers were lying, and said the charges could be brought again if more evidence came to light.

Scales Of Justice

Sexual Assault Charges Dropped After Prosecutor Accused Of Misconduct

Sexual Assault

The county government seized a Michigan man’s property after an accounting error led to him underpaying his property taxes by $8.41. His property was then auctioned and sold for less than he paid for it and for far less than what it was worth. The county kept the profits from the sale.
Uri Rafaeli, 83, purchased a home and property in Southfield, Michigan, which Reason <a href="https://reason.com/2019/11/06/a-michigan-man-underpaid-his-property-taxes-by-8-41-the-county-seized-his-property-sold-it-and-kept-the-profits/">described</a> as “a lower-middle class suburb just north of Detroit.” Rafaeli purchased a three-bedroom, 1,500-square-foot home in the area in 2011 for $60,000, telling Reason it was “good to the state economy, and [at] the same time, it may produce a good rent for my retirement.”
The purchase was recorded in January 2012. Six months later, Rafaeli was told that he underpaid his 2011 property taxes by $496.
“Rafaeli made subsequent property tax payments on time and in full—and, in January 2013, he attempted to settle the unpaid tax debt, according to court documents,” Reason reported. “But he made a mistake in calculating the interest owed, resulting in another underpayment of $8.41.”
For that, Oakland County put his property up for auction along with about 11,000 others. The property seizure was part of a Michigan law pass in 1999 that allows such government acquisitions. The law was supposed to help rehabilitate abandoned properties, but has resulted in county treasurers seizing properties to collect revenue based on their sales.
“In the process, it creates a perverse incentive by allowing treasurers&#8217; offices to retain excess revenue raised by seizing and selling properties with delinquent taxes—even when the amount owed is miniscule, and even when the homes aren&#8217;t abandoned or blighted at all,” Reason reported.
Rafaeli is a victim of the law and is part of a class-action lawsuit that is set to be heard before the Michigan Supreme Court this month.
The county ended up selling Rafaeli’s property for $24,500 – about $35,000 less than he bought it for and more than $100,000 less than it was valued. Rafaeli was not able to pocket the money from the auction; the county kept that for itself.
&#8220;I believed in the power of the U.S. to withstand the difficulties,&#8221; Rafaeli told Reason, &#8220;and I believed in its fairness and dignity in doing business there.”
Rafaeli is represented by attorneys with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which says more than 100,000 properties have been confiscated in Michigan since 2002.
“In thousands of instances each year, the proceeds for a given property sold at auction far exceed the delinquent tax amount and are far less than a delinquent taxpayer&#8217;s equity in the property,&#8221; the law firm said. &#8220;This results in millions of dollars in surplus proceeds and equity for the counties and tax sale purchasers.&#8221;
Reason reported that Wayne County has “funneled more than $382 million in delinquent tax surpluses into its general fund budget since 2012,” thanks to this tactic.
Philip Ellison, a private attorney who has worked on class-action lawsuits regarding this law, told Reason that the process was “government-sanctioned theft.”

Money theft

Michigan Man Claims His Property Was Seized After He Underpaid Property Taxes By $8.41

Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) was recorded lashing out at both her constituents and the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Tuesday evening during a town hall aimed at curbing gun violence.
&#8220;This is why the NRA has got to go,&#8221; <a href="https://pluralist.com/haley-stevens-town-hall-gun-control/">Stevens shouted</a> as pro-second Amendment advocates made their voices heard. &#8220;The NRA has got to go!&#8221; she screamed a second time.
An estimated 200 people attended the hour-long event, which was held at the Multi-Lakes Conservation Association in suburban Detroit. Interestingly, the venue is home to pistol, shotgun, and rifle ranges and many attendees showed up open-carrying their own firearms.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
📢<a href="https://twitter.com/RepHaleyStevens?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepHaleyStevens</a> shouts: The NRA has got to go📢 <a href="https://t.co/Vpnun5vwN5">pic.twitter.com/Vpnun5vwN5</a>
&mdash; Michigan Rising Action (@MIRisingAction) <a href="https://twitter.com/MIRisingAction/status/1179392984518942720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The town hall was organized as a question-and-answer style format and was intended to cover a variety of gun-related topics spanning from protecting victims of domestic abuse to firearm storage, reported <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2019/10/01/haley-stevens-holds-gun-violence-town-hall-at-gun-club/3834884002/">The Detroit News</a>. In addition to Stevens, Michigan&#8217;s House Democratic Leader Christine Greig and Democratic State Rep. Robert Wittenberg were also in attendance.
During the contentious town hall, many of the attendees booed and shouted &#8220;NRA,&#8221; showing their support for the gun rights organization, and some held signs that said &#8220;Vote out Haley Stevens — a liar.&#8221;
The event was hosted by the left-wing activist group Fems for Dems, a grassroots organization focused on electing progressive lawmakers in the state of Michigan.
&#8220;Representative Haley Stevens revealed her true intentions during her unhinged outburst directed at her own constituents,&#8221; Tori Sachs, the executive director of Michigan Rising Action told The Daily Wire. &#8220;[She] may have run as a moderate who would support &#8216;common sense&#8217; gun reform, but it&#8217;s now clear she&#8217;s joined the gun-grabbing radical left trying to completely dismantle the NRA and take away 2nd Amendment rights from law-abiding citizens.&#8221;
&#8220;It makes sense that Haley Stevens would be widely out of touch with her constituents after living in liberal cities like Chicago and Washington D.C., only moving home to Michigan recently so she could run for office,&#8221; Sachs added.
Stevens was elected to the 11th Congressional District in 2018, when Michigan experienced a swing to the left following President Donald Trump&#8217;s surprise victory in the Great Lakes State in 2016. The seat was previously held by former Rep. Dave Trott (R-MI), who opted not to seek re-election after serving for two terms. While Trump won the congressional district in 2016, Stevens was able to flip the consistently red district blue.
Some of Stevens&#8217; Democratic colleagues in the state have been distancing themselves from the anti-NRA outburst as the video continues to circulate online.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got to find a way to restore some sense of community, that we can disagree,&#8221; Rep. Debbie Dingell said on a <a href="https://www.fox2detroit.com/video/611315">local Detroit news show</a> while discussing Stevens&#8217; outburst. &#8220;We all have different life experiences, we have different perspectives, we&#8217;ve had different experiences. Instead of screaming at each other all the time, how do we listen to each other?&#8221;
&#8220;I made some stupid comments about the NRA when I was young, too, because I was afraid of them, and didn&#8217;t understand everything,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;But if we could find a way to listen to each other more and to take some of the drama out.&#8221;

Haley Stevens

WATCH: Democratic Lawmaker Screams At Constituents Over NRA Support

National Rifle Association (NRA)

The National Republican Senatorial Committee has announced they will be dispersing baseball cards trolling Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) — who as of January was still <a href="http://The National Republican Senatorial Committee has announced they will be dispersing baseball cards trolling Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), who as of January was still unknown to 36% of his own constituents, at a Republican leadership conference in Michigan this weekend. The Hill reports that the NRSC released a statement this week, and the committee wants to draw attention to the fact that Peters “remains the most unknown senator in the country because he has failed to stand up for the principles and priorities of Michigan voters.” The conference, which will feature a keynote address by Vice President Mike Pence, aims to bring together “conservative leaders from across America to discuss solutions to the critical issues facing our nation,” according to the organization’s website. Both Secretary of Education Betsy Devos and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will also make speeches at the event. Attendees will also have the opportunity to collect the novelty baseball cards, all of which have Peters’ first name misspelled and also feature a nickname, reports the Hill. Some of the names include “Barry Peters, aka Socialists’ BFF” and “Harry Peters, aka He’s Just There,” and “Jerry Peters, aka The Invisible Man,” notes the news agency. Veteran and Businessman John James announced in June that he would run for the senate seat against Peters in 2020, telling Fox News that he sees it as an opportunity to continue his service and put Michigan first, according to Politico. &quot;I believe that right now nothing has changed. I still have a passion for service, I still have a clear vision, understand that service before self,” said James. In the 2018 midterm election, James ran an unsuccessful Senate bid against three-term Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who went on to win by 7 points, according to CNN. However, Stabenow experienced a far more narrow margin of victory than she has in past elections; in 2012, she won by over 20 points, reports the New York Times. Despite being unsuccessful in politics so far, James exhibits an impressive professional record. The Times notes that, after graduating from West Point, he “spent eight years in the Army, including service in Iraq. He is the president of his family run business, a global provider of logistics support for Fortune 500 companies.” Although James has grown in popularity across the country, he has made Michigan issues a central focus of his campaign. &quot;I plan on using every resource at my disposal...to shed light in the dark spaces of Michigan that have been underrepresented and neglected by Senator Peters,” James told Fox News in June. “I'm going to bring Michigan's issues and take them to Washington, and work with anyone and everyone to make sure we create pipelines of prosperity into our neglected neighborhoods and our forgotten farms,” says James, reports the news agency.">unknown</a> to 36% of his own constituents — at a Republican leadership conference in Michigan this weekend.
<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/462330-nrsc-to-hand-out-baseball-cards-mocking-peters-at-republican-leadership">The Hill</a> reports that the NRSC released a statement this week, and the committee wants to draw attention to the fact that Peters “remains the most unknown senator in the country because he has failed to stand up for the principles and priorities of Michigan voters.”
The conference, which will feature a keynote address by Vice President Mike Pence, aims to bring together “conservative leaders from across America to discuss solutions to the critical issues facing our nation,” according to the <a href="http://www.mackinacgop.com/about/">organization’s website</a>. In addition to Pence, both Secretary of Education Betsy Devos and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will make speeches at the event.
Attendees will also have the opportunity to collect the novelty baseball cards, all of which have Peters’ first name misspelled and also feature a nickname, reports the Hill. Some of the names include “Barry Peters, aka Socialists’ BFF” and “Harry Peters, aka He’s Just There,” and “Jerry Peters, aka The Invisible Man,” notes the news agency.
Veteran and Businessman John James announced in June that he would run for the senate seat against Peters in 2020, telling Fox News that he sees it as an opportunity to continue his service and put Michigan first, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/06/john-james-senate-michigan-1511229">Politico</a>.
“I believe that right now nothing has changed. I still have a passion for service, I still have a clear vision, understand that service before self,” said James.
In the 2018 midterm election, James ran an unsuccessful Senate bid against three-term Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who went on to win by 7 points, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results/michigan">CNN</a>. However, Stabenow experienced a far more narrow margin of victory than she has in past elections; in 2012, she won by more than 20 points, reports the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/03/us/politics/john-james-michigan.html">New York Times</a>.
Despite being unsuccessful in politics so far, James exhibits an impressive professional record. The Times notes that, after graduating from West Point, he “spent eight years in the Army, including service in Iraq. He is the president of his family run business, a global provider of logistics support for Fortune 500 companies.”
Although James has grown in popularity across the country, he has made Michigan issues a central focus of his campaign. “I plan on using every resource at my disposal &#8230; to shed light in the dark spaces of Michigan that have been underrepresented and neglected by Senator Peters,” James told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-james-gary-peters-senate-2020-michigan">Fox News</a> in August.
“I’m going to bring Michigan’s issues and take them to Washington, and work with anyone and everyone to make sure we create pipelines of prosperity into our neglected neighborhoods and our forgotten farms,” says James, according to the news outlet.

John James

GOP Trolls Unknown Incumbent Running Against Businessman John James

Conservatism

Republican Party

Early Monday, thousands of United Automobile Workers (UAW) union members began a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/51813/watch-gm-strike-officially-begins-heres-how-much-james-barrett">national strike</a> of General Motors in what many feared might turn out to be a painful and ultimately costly showdown between workers and management. According to <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/17/white-house-general-motors-strike-1735740">Politico</a>, the Trump administration is trying to save both sides the trouble by intervening in a way that aligns more with the goals of the union, a move that could end up having a significant impact on the 2020 election. The White House, however, denies the claim.
In what is the union&#8217;s first national strike in over a decade, UAW members, including those employed at the GM plant in Flint, Michigan, picked up the picket signs early Monday and called on the company&#8217;s leadership to come to terms with embattled union leaders for higher wages, increased job security, and better health care coverage. The national strike involves around 48,000 UAW members employed by GM.
<a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2019/09/15/uaw-strike-gm-autoworker-contract-talks/2333883001/">The Detroit Free Press</a> reported Monday that the strike could end up costing GM around $400 million a day, while the striking autoworkers would find themselves taking home just $250 a week in strike wages from the UAW&#8217;s $850 million fund. As workers told reporters that they feared the fallout of the impasse, the White House has reportedly decided to step in on the side of the union — or at least that&#8217;s what Politico&#8217;s sources say.
&#8220;The White House is seeking to end the United Auto Workers strike against General Motors with an agreement that would reopen an assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio that GM shut down in March,&#8221; Politico reported Tuesday. The White House&#8217;s efforts would effectively align the administration with the UAW.
&#8220;Federal mediation is always possible, if that&#8217;s what they want,&#8221; Trump told the press Monday, in comments reported by Politico. &#8220;Hopefully, they&#8217;ll be able to work out the GM strike quickly. We don&#8217;t want General Motors building plants outside of this country.&#8221;
Citing &#8220;two people close to the matter,&#8221; Politico names both National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow and White Houst trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro as allegedly being engaged in the discussions.
While the move could end up helping Trump in both Michigan and Ohio in 2020 — both states which were key in his electoral victory in 2016 and in which his approval ratings have been declining — Deputy Press Sec. Judd Deere told Politico that its big &#8220;White House intervenes&#8221; scoop is &#8220;false.&#8221;
&#8220;This story is false,&#8221; Deere told the left-leaning outlet. &#8220;The Trump Administration, including Larry Kudlow and Peter Navarro, are not involved in the negotiations between the UAW and GM. As President Trump has said, we would like to see a fair and speedy conclusion to these talks.&#8221;
In its <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2019/09/16/strike-uaw-workers/2338281001/">coverage</a> of the strike the Detroit Free Press spoke to a number of the striking UAW members, some of whom expressed concern about the potential impact of the walkout.
&#8220;My concern is not just for myself, but for the many other families that are affected by this strike,&#8221; UAW member Ralph Burchart told the Free Press&#8217;s Phoebe Wall Howard. &#8220;Our kids are grown and married, but I have co-workers with younger children who would have a much harder time of it if this is an extended strike. My hope and prayer is that a reasonable contract that benefits both parties would be agreed upon sooner rather than later.&#8221;
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/49407/will-trump-win-latest-trumps-national-and-state-josh-hammer">Will Trump Win? The Latest On Trump’s National And State-By-State Approval Ratings.</a>
This article has been revised for clarity.

donald_trump_gm_gi.jpg

Report: Trump Sides With The Union In GM Strike; White House Responds

Donald Trump

Ohio

Trump Administration

Republican Senate candidate John James responded on Wednesday after his incumbent challenger Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) criticized the combat veteran for his frequent television appearances.
“I’ll tell you what, being unknown by 40 percent of the electorate, after 30 years as a career politician and 10 years in Washington is not a badge of honor,” James responded to host Dana Perino during an appearance on Fox News. “I plan on using every resource at my disposal, whether it be an Apache or a camera, to shed light on the dark spaces in Michigan that have been under represented and neglected by Senator Peters and his like.”
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James announced in June that he was officially launching another bid for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat in 2020. He had previously run in 2018 to unseat long-time incumbent Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), losing in a closer-than-expected race.
“We had to start off from absolutely nothing. We started off on a wing and a prayer,” James said. “We started off with a campaign that knew we wanted to bring glory to god and help our neighbors and love our neighbors ourselves.”
“We had to use a strategy of earned media, social media and word of mouth,” he continued. “We had to put the work in, we had to put the hustle in, and that included using every single resource.”
Michigan is expected to be a top-tier battleground state going into the 2020 election cycle. Then-candidate Donald Trump edged out Hillary Clinton by just over 10,000 votes during the 2016 presidential election — it was the closest presidential race in the state’s history. Prior to 2016, Michigan <a href="https://www.270towin.com/states/Michigan">had not voted</a> for the Republican presidential candidate since 1988.
“I wasn’t the establishment favorite [in 2018],” James said. “But because our grassroots army — who understood that a message of faith and family and god and country and service before self, who understood someone who is a combat veteran who understood national security from a firsthand perspective defending this country abroad, but also a business leader who understands what it takes to grow a company and create jobs in Detroit — that’s who we need representing us on the floor of the Senate.”
James, 38-year-old Army combat veteran, was considered one of the strongest Republicans in 2018 despite losing his race, according to an elections analyst at <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/republicans-just-scored-a-strong-recruit-in-the-michigan-senate-race/">FiveThirtyEight</a>.
Peters’s Senate seat is particularly vulnerable going into 2020 for a variety of reasons, including his lack of name recognition. A <a href="https://morningconsult.com/senator-rankings-q2-19-2/">Morning Consult poll</a> revealed that Peters is the country’s most unknown senator with only 40 percent of Michiganders knowing enough about the junior senator to have an opinion on his performance.
“We need to have people who are able to reach across the aisle, reach across the state, understand where people are coming from and melting into Washington is not an option,” James said. “We need to have somebody who’s going to use every single resource at their disposal to bring resources, money, and attention back to Michigan, back to Detroit, and back all over this wonderful state.”

GOP Senate Candidate John James Holds Election Night Event In Detroit

WATCH: GOP Senate Candidate Takes A Shot At His Incumbent Challenger: Being Unknown ‘Is Not A Badge Of Honor’

Five years after the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, began, the city is not doing enough to protect the health of residents, in violation of federal law.
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) sent <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/documents/flintwater/Letter_from_EGLE_Oswald_to_Flint_Bincsik_dated_081619_663711_7.pdf">a letter</a> dated August 16 to Michigan’s director of public works, Robert Bincsik, informing him that Flint is not properly monitoring lead and copper levels in its tap water. This violates the Safe Drinking Water Act, a federal law that protects public drinking water supplies. Specifically, Flint has violated two sections of the law – monitoring requirements for lead and copper in tap water and reporting requirements for lead, copper, and corrosion control.
EGLE wrote that Flint is required to test 60 high-priority drinking water sites, known as Tier 1 sites, to check lead and copper levels.
“EGLE’s review of compliance monitoring reports indicates the City sampled from a total of 129 sites during the monitoring period. Of those, only 35 were confirmed to be from Tier 1 sampling locations,” the letter said. “Additionally, 14 sites were addresses with a confirmed service line replacement but of unconfirmed service line material, 30 sites were invalid, and 50 sites have yet to be verified by the City.”
The review showed that Flint was “out of compliance.” To return to compliance, Flint “must collect samples from 60 confirmed Tier 1 sites in the distribution system during the monitoring period of July 1, 2019, to December 31, 2019; have them analyzed for lead and copper; and submit the analysis reports to [EGLE’s Drinking Water and Environmental Health Division].”
In addition, Flint must “confirm the service line material of the 50 sites lacking verification and the 14 sites from locations where the service line has been replaced but no service line material composition was provided” by September 16.
EGLE also wrote that it extended a deadline for Flint to validate the 50 unverified sites by 14 days, yet no additional information was provided.
“Due to this violation, public notification will be required. We will determine the content and timing required for that public notification after we have received confirmation of the 64 sites no later than September 16, 2019,” the letter stated.
Flint will escape a fine for its violation this time, but EGLE warned the city government that if it fails to properly monitor its water for the next six months, they face “a fine of $1,000 per day with a $10,000 maximum.” If the city does not post a public notice of the violation, it could be fined $1,000. They may also face additional fines if further violations occur.
In April, Michigan Radio NPR published <a href="https://www.michiganradio.org/post/does-flint-have-clean-water-yes-it-s-complicated">an article</a> stating Flint has safe drinking water but that service lines that still leach lead into the drinking water need to be replaced.
“Since 2016, crews have inspected more than 20,000 service lines, replacing roughly 8,000 lead and galvanized pipes. By the time the work is done, nearly every line in the city will have been inspected or replaced,” the outlet wrote.
Residents are still advised to use filters from the government to ensure they aren’t drinking contaminated water.

FLINT, MICHIGAN &#8211; DECEMBER 20: Workers load bottled water into

Flint, Michigan Violating Federal Law By Not Properly Monitoring Lead, Copper In Water

Flint

Hundreds of Facebook and Reddit users say they will boycott a popular Michigan restaurant chain after its Federal Election Commission filing delineating its political donations was made public, all for one reason: the chain made contributions to President Trump.
<a href="https://fox17online.com/2019/08/08/discovery-of-annas-house-political-donations-upsets-facebook-reddit-users/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&amp;utm_content=5d4ce2f9a281bd0001affe24&amp;utm_medium=trueAnthem&amp;utm_source=twitter">Fox 17 in West Michigan</a> reports, “ &#8230; hundreds of Facebook and Reddit users are posting they will no longer be eating at Anna’s House after seeing a Federal Election Commission filing detailing its political contributions.” Anna’s House, with eight franchises in Michigan that advertise “Voted #1 Best Breakfast in Michigan,” gave $15,000 to Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee, in April 2019.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">The reputation of a local restaurant chain is getting political after public records of its donations to President Donald Trump surfaced on Reddit.​ <a href="https://t.co/AJZU43BREC">https://t.co/AJZU43BREC</a>
— FOX 17 (@FOX17) <a href="https://twitter.com/FOX17/status/1159662091831263233?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 9, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Doug Chu saw a screenshot of Anna’s House partial FEC record, then posted it on Facebook. Fox 17 added, “ … it was shared on Wednesday and shared it to his personal Facebook page. It’s since been shared hundreds of times, mostly by people upset to learn about the restaurant chain’s support of the president.”
On Thursday night, Anna’s House owner Josh Beckett released this statement:
<blockquote>I am proud to live in a country where we are free to have different opinions and to support a candidate of our choice. At Anna’s House, we employ and serve people of all backgrounds and beliefs, without judgement. Our goal is to treat everyone like family – and in families, there are often differences of opinion. Embracing these differences and respecting each other despite them is what makes our country great. If you are looking for an open, supportive, and accepting place to enjoy a great meal and conversation, Anna’s House is here for you.</blockquote>
Kent County Republican Party Chair Joel Freeman told FOX 17:
<blockquote>Treating people with different political viewpoints as enemies to be eliminated is toxic and counterproductive. Anna’s House is a popular locally-owned business that has found success serving delicious breakfasts that everyone can enjoy. It’s too bad that some would prefer division and strife over breaking bread, but that just means there’s more waffles for the rest of us.</blockquote>
Anna’s House is not the only restaurant to be targeted for supporting Trump; after Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) published a list of 44 Trump donors from San Antonio, Texas, including Balous Miller, owner of the Bill Miller Bar-B-Q restaurant chain, <a href="https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Bill-Miller-BBQ-becomes-a-trending-topic-after-14286533.php">mysantonio.com</a> reported, “Bill Miller BBQ then became a trending topic on Twitter, with some vowing they will boycott the barbecue staple …” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded on Twitter, “Perfect night for @BillMillerBarBQ.”
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">Perfect night for <a href="https://twitter.com/BillMillerBarBQ?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BillMillerBarBQ</a> <a href="https://t.co/9bMV5Lk8Tx">pic.twitter.com/9bMV5Lk8Tx</a>
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) <a href="https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/status/1158910107637428225?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 7, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In August 2018, a Houston Tex-Mex restaurant, El Tiempo Cantina, was targeted by anti-Trump partisans after the co-owner posed for a photo with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/aug/13/restaurant-boycott-jeff-sessions-us-attorney-general">The Guardian</a> reported, “The restaurant was immediately inundated with protest from anti-Trump Houstonians, who posted their outrage alongside the hashtag #BoycottElTiempo &#8230; The restaurant’s Yelp page also received a number of one-star reviews referencing the Sessions photo.”
<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-boycott-retailers-sell-trump-products-2017-1#wegmans-3">Business Insider</a> reported in July 2018 that a brand and digital strategist, Shannon Coulter, started a #GrabYourWallet hashtag, urging people to boycott companies that did business with members of the Trump family.

Anti-Trump Sign

Trump-Haters Target Popular Michigan Restaurant Chain For Supporting Trump

Imagine an on-fire progressive named Amy decides to pursue her dreams and start a company that writes speeches for progressive politicians and non-profits. Her goal is simple: Use her talents to help promote the policies she believes in and lives by. But just three weeks after the company launch, a local politician asks her to write an Independence Day speech endorsing Donald Trump.
What should she do? Easy answer, right. No way would Amy do that.
But what if a local law required her to write that speech? What if a law forced Amy to use her talents to advocate for the very ideas she detests most? And what if that law fined Amy $500 per day until she submitted the speech?
Impossible? Too far-fetched? Well, it’s happening in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Two conservatives, Grant Strobl and Jacob Chludzinski, recently started a political consulting firm called <a href="http://www.thinkrightstrategies.com/">ThinkRight Strategies LLC</a>. ThinkRight offers to do things like write speeches and draft Facebook posts that support conservative positions. But an Ann Arbor law forbids public accommodations (entities like businesses that serve the public) from “discriminating” on the basis of political beliefs. And that means ThinkRight cannot legally decline to create material supporting progressive causes. That would be illegal “discrimination.” And the law fines violators up to $500 per day until they comply.
But Ann Arbor’s law doesn’t just affect conservatives. Under this law, a Jewish speechwriter who offers her services publicly cannot decline to write a speech advocating for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel. A pro-abortion consultant cannot decline to design fliers criticizing abortion on behalf of pro-life political candidates. A progressive writer cannot refuse to praise President Trump’s immigration policies in a speech.
That’s not just wrong. It’s egregious. No one should be forced to express a message she disagrees with as the price of earning a living.
Public accommodation laws exist to make sure no one gets kicked out of a restaurant because of sex — or barred from a hotel because of race. These laws exist to combat actual status discrimination. They were never meant to compel people to promote positions with which they disagree.
When these laws start requiring that, they’re no longer combatting discrimination. They’re mandating certain views — and punishing people who believe differently than do those in power.
This hurts everybody. Once the government has this kind of power, no one’s beliefs are safe; just because a view is allowed today, what’s to stop the government from switching its target tomorrow? The only way to preserve our freedom to live and work in accordance with our deepest convictions is to advocate for that freedom for everybody.
Unfortunately, Ann Arbor isn’t the only government trying to force people to express beliefs with which they disagree.
In Colorado, <a href="https://adflegal.org/detailspages/case-details/masterpiece-cakeshop-v.-elenis">cake artist Jack Phillips</a> lost all of his wedding business — over 40% of his annual revenue — because the government tried to force him to violate his conscience and design a wedding cake celebrating a same-sex marriage. In Phoenix, Arizona, <a href="https://adflegal.org/detailspages/case-details/brush-nib-studio-v.-city-of-phoenix">calligrapher Joanna Duka and painter Breana Koski</a> face up to six months in jail because they can’t handcraft wedding vows that celebrate same-sex marriage. And in Minnesota, <a href="https://adflegal.org/detailspages/case-details/telescope-media-group-v.-lindsey">filmmakers Carl and Angel Larsen</a> also face jail time because they can’t produce films celebrating same-sex weddings.
All these artists serve people in the LGBT community. They just can’t promote certain messages. Just like a LGBT web designer who generally serves Muslims but can’t create a website for a Muslim client that criticizes same-sex marriage, these other artists can’t covey certain messages with which they disagree. None of this is discrimination. It’s called diversity. It’s the freedom to disagree with each other — yet still treat each other with dignity and respect.
If the government can force cake designers, calligraphers, and filmmakers to convey messages with which they disagree, nothing stops it from forcing a progressive speechwriter to pen a pro-Trump paean she detests.
So the truth at the center of Grant and Jacob’s lawsuit, <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10805">ThinkRight Strategies LLC v. City of Ann Arbor</a>, goes deeper than political or ideological disagreements. It goes to the core freedoms we all share — our freedom of conscience, our freedom to live and work consistent with our deepest beliefs, and our freedom to disagree. When these freedoms get taken from one of us, we all lose. Let’s hope these freedoms have not yet disappeared in Ann Arbor — for everyone’s sake.
Jonathan Scruggs is senior counsel and director of the Center for Conscience Initiatives at <a href="http://www.adflegal.org/">Alliance Defending Freedom </a>(<a href="https://twitter.com/AllianceDefends">@Alliance Defends</a>), which represents ThinkRight Strategies.

SCRUGGS: New Ann Arbor, Michigan Law Violates The First Amendment

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

Constitution

First Amendment

Lawsuit

A 25-year-old YouTuber who boasts more than 500,000 subscribers, purchased a tiny, five-acre Michigan town called Hell and renamed it &#8220;Gay Hell&#8221; to protest the Trump Administration&#8217;s refusal to fly the LGBTQ rainbow flag in front of U.S. embassies during LGBTQ Pride Month in June.
&#8220;Gay Hell&#8221; is located 15 miles northwest of Ann Arbor with a population of 70, as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/youtuber-buys-michigan-town-renames-it-gay-hell-protest-trump-n1018561">NBC News</a> notes.
Elijah Daniel tweeted, &#8220;Ahead of pride month Trump&#8217;s administration put a ban on embassy&#8217;s flying pride flags. So as of today, I am now the owner of Hell, Michigan. I bought the whole town. And my first act as owner, I have renamed my town to Gay Hell, MI. The only flags allowed to fly are pride.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
ahead of pride month Trump&#8217;s administration put a ban on embassy&#8217;s flying pride flags.
so as of today, I am now the owner of Hell, Michigan. I bought the whole town.
And my first act as owner, I have renamed my town to Gay Hell, MI.
The only flags allowed to fly are pride. <a href="https://t.co/AKOcZm2Jvm">pic.twitter.com/AKOcZm2Jvm</a>
&#8212; elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) <a href="https://twitter.com/elijahdaniel/status/1140711709939814400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 17, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/18/us/mayor-gay-hell-michigan-elijah-daniel-trnd/index.html">CNN reported</a>, &#8220;Daniel is from Michigan and says that he always drove past the town growing up. He also grew up &#8216;very religious&#8217; and was told a lot if you&#8217;re gay you go to Hell, Daniel said. &#8216;I&#8217;m just from Michigan and every time we drove past we knew that town, oh that&#8217;s Hell. I just thought turning it into Gay Hell would be funny.&#8217;&#8221; Daniel added, &#8220;It&#8217;s been pretty good for my fans. A lot of upset Trump fans, but that&#8217;s nothing new to me.&#8221;
Daniel told NBC News that the statement, &#8220;The only flags allowed to fly are pride,&#8221; was intended as a joke. He explained his purchase of the town thus: &#8220;I have a young audience who is 16 to 24 who would not be involved in politics if it wasn&#8217;t in a funny or meme way. I&#8217;m just trying to have fun and get my audience politically active.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/48263/pence-flying-gay-pride-flag-us-embassy-flagpoles-hank-berrien">Earlier this month</a>, Vice President Mike Pence did not back down when asked if he supported the State Department&#8217;s decision not to fly the rainbow Gay Pride flag on the flagpoles outside American embassies. Pence stated, &#8220;I&#8217;m aware that the State Department indicated that on the flagpole of our American embassies that one flag should fly, and that&#8217;s the American flag. And I support that. &#8230; when it comes to the American flagpole at American embassies at capitals across the world, having the one American flag fly, I think, is the right decision.&#8221; He added, &#8220;We put no restrictions on displaying any other flags or any other displays at our embassies beyond that.&#8221;
The Obama administration said embassies could fly the rainbow flag from poles outside the embassies but they had to be smaller and fly lower than the American flag. The Trump administration issued instructions that embassies needed approval from the State Department&#8217;s Office of Management to fly a rainbow flag.
As <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/jonmichaelpoff/gay-hell-michigan-pride-elijah-daniel">Buzzfeed News</a> noted, Daniels has used the town of Hell for publicity before; in 2017.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
As of today, August 30th, 2017 I am the legal mayor of Hell, Michigan. This is real. I am the mayor of Hell. <a href="https://t.co/J7fuaLnFKV">pic.twitter.com/J7fuaLnFKV</a>
&#8212; elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) <a href="https://twitter.com/elijahdaniel/status/902973541058039808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 30, 2017</a></blockquote>
</div>
Daniels paid $100 so he could act as mayor for a day; whereupon he banned heterosexuality and was subsequently impeached. He claimed the joke was to mock President Trump&#8217;s <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-travel-ban-takes-effect-thursday-many-questions-still-air-n777946">restrictions on travel</a> to the U.S. from Iran, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya and Yemen.
<a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2016/03/11/price-hell-michigan/81634638/">The Detroit Free Press</a> reported that the town of Hell was on the market for $900,000 in 2016.

YouTuber Protests Trump By Buying Town And Renaming It  ‘Gay Hell’

A hotel manager in a conservative Michigan town has publicly announced that she will provide free rooms and transportation to and from clinics for women seeking abortions from states that have placed restrictions on the procedure.
Shelley O&#8217;Brien runs the Yale Hotel in Yale, Michigan, a city that, <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/06/07/michigan-abortion-yale-hotel-shelley-obrien/1334959001/">according to the Detroit Free Press</a>, voted for President Donald Trump in 2016. He received 65% of the vote in the city. O&#8217;Brien posted the following message on Facebook:
<blockquote>
Dear sisters that live in Alabama, Ohio, Georgia, Arkansas, Missouri, or any of the other states that follow with similar laws restricting access,
We cannot do anything about the way you are being treated in your home-state.
But, if you can make it to Michigan, we will support you with several nights lodging, and transportation to and from your appointment.
</blockquote>
<div class="embed"><iframe allow="encrypted-media" frameborder="0" height="280" width="500"></iframe></div>
She has updated the post several times since she originally put it up on May 16, as more states moved to restrict when during a pregnancy a woman could obtain an abortion. She also said she would donate 25% of her &#8220;receipts that are a direct result of the new policy to a fund&#8221; like Yellowhammer, which provides money to women in Alabama seeking an abortion. O&#8217;Brien wrote that she has already donated $100 so far due to the new policy.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve got some amazing people in our village&#8230; we&#8217;ve got your backs,&#8221; she wrote.
Her policy was directed toward states that have passed &#8220;fetal heartbeat&#8221; laws, which ban abortion after a heartbeat has been detected, usually around six weeks of pregnancy. The Press reported that five states &#8212; Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Ohio &#8212; have passed such a law. Alabama also passed a law that bans abortion except for when the life of the mother is at risk. Missouri&#8217;s new law bans the procedure after eight weeks of pregnancy.
While speaking to the Press, O&#8217;Brien compared her providing women free rooms so they could terminate their pregnancies to the work of those running the Underground Railroad, which led slaves to freedom in the North back in the early to mid-1800s.
&#8220;This is important,&#8221; she told the outlet. &#8220;This is my line. There&#8217;s no coming back from this. You start taking away the right for women to control their own bodies, and we&#8217;re done for as a civilization.&#8221;
&#8220;I can&#8217;t stop what&#8217;s happening, but I have the resources to maybe help someone in that position, and especially knowing that women are coming from other states already,&#8221; she added.
She also said one man called to complain about what she was doing after hearing about her Facebook offer.
&#8220;I have had one person call to say that he thought it was wrong,&#8221; she told the Press. &#8220;He didn&#8217;t have Facebook, but he heard about it and he wanted to let me know that he thought what we are doing is wrong. And I&#8217;ve been called a baby killer. And it&#8217;s like, &#8216;No, I&#8217;m not killing babies in the basement. I am just giving someone a place to stay or maybe a ride.&#8217;&#8221;
She also told the Press that she has not seen any protesters outside the hotel and has not been confronted personally.

Michigan Hotel Owner Offers Free Rooms To Women Seeking Abortions

Abortion

Josh Hawley, the baby-faced 39-year-old freshman senator from Missouri, has already emerged as perhaps the single most interesting member of the Republican caucus. At minimum, Hawley — whose legal background includes Yale Law School, a U.S. Supreme Court clerkship, and stints as a constitutional law professor and attorney general of Missouri — has solidified his stature as the most intriguing conservative to burst onto the Senate scene since fellow firebrand Ted Cruz&#8217;s infamous no-holds-barred bellicosity upended the staid chamber in 2013.
Specifically, Hawley has emerged as the only Republican member of the prestigious Senate Judiciary Committee who is deeply committed to vetting the White House counsel&#8217;s office proffered judicial nominees — and not merely blankly accepting the White House&#8217;s word on the alleged propriety of those nominees.
In late February, I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43923/hammer-judicial-crisis-networks-open-attack-sen-josh-hammer">covered</a> at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43985/showdown-sen-josh-hawley-pushes-forward-concerns-josh-hammer">length</a> Hawley&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44037/hammer-three-things-conservatives-must-look-future-josh-hammer">insistence</a> on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44086/neomi-rao-judicial-nomination-advances-senate-josh-hammer">deeply probing</a>, against the wishes of the Judicial Crisis Network (JCN), the social conservative and jurisprudential bona fides of Neomi Rao, Justice Brett Kavanaugh&#8217;s named successor to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Rao, an administrative law scholar who was a top choice of the libertarian-leaning anti-administrative state cartel, faced headwinds from social conservatives due to both her tendentiously referencing the pro-life movement as the &#8220;anti-abortion movement&#8221; in some of her scholarly writings and her alleged possible sympathy to the faux, atextual, judicial power-grabbing constitutional doctrine of &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/13394/five-lessons-abraham-lincoln-would-have-todays-josh-hammer">substantive due process</a>.&#8221; At the time, I vigorously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43923/hammer-judicial-crisis-networks-open-attack-sen-josh-hammer">defended Hawley against the JCN assault</a> by arguing that conservative U.S. senators have a loyalty to the Constitution over the Trump White House, that Hawley&#8217;s legal background and indubitable legal acumen ought to carry real weight in a dust-up such as this, and that there was genuine reason to try to clarify Rao&#8217;s views.
In my view, furthermore, the Rao nomination kerfuffle <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44037/hammer-three-things-conservatives-must-look-future-josh-hammer">highlighted</a> the extent to which monolithic anti-administrative state libertarianism has been intellectually ascendant within the ranks of the Federalist Society and the rest of the phony &#8220;conservative legal movement&#8221;:
<blockquote>Over the past five to ten years, libertarianism has been ascendant and social conservatism has been descendant within the ranks of the Federalist Society cognoscenti. The Society was founded in the early 1980s largely by social conservatives, and today many of its top internal executives and external advisers alike remain devout Catholics. But legal libertarianism has been ascendant within the Society for years now. Whereas an Antonin Scalia/Robert Bork-esque commitment to &#8220;judicial restraint&#8221; was once preached as Gospel truth on the legal Right, today libertarian groups like the Cato Institute and the Institute for Justice preach &#8220;<a href="https://ij.org/center-for-judicial-engagement/">judicial engagement</a>&#8221; to malleable law students. Whereas the Antonin Scalia/Clarence Thomas-esque view of the faux, atextual nature of the Fifth/Fourteenth Amendment &#8220;substantive due process&#8221; doctrine was once ubiquitous on the Right, today some top Federalist Society speakers <a href="http://www.harvard-jlpp.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/35_1_283_Sandefur.pdf">wax poetic</a> about the alleged glory of such a perverse doctrinal fabrication. The aforementioned &#8220;anti-administrative state cabal,&#8221; furthermore, is real: Many D.C.-centric legal eagles on the Right seem unduly obsessed with gutting the administrative state, and concomitantly talk relentlessly about overturning Executive Branch bureaucracy-empowering Supreme Court cases such as <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/467/837">Chevron U.S.A. v. National Resources Defense Council</a> and <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/95-897.ZO.html">Auer v. Robbins</a>. &#8230;
I too want libertarians to be happy about gutting the administrative state and restoring the nondelegation doctrine so as to limit Executive Branch abuse. But it is also not too much to ask that social conservatives be comforted when it comes to our core issues: Life, religious liberty, sexuality, sovereignty, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plenary_power#Immigration_law">plenary power doctrine</a> in immigration, and so forth.</blockquote>
Last week, as The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47562/watch-josh-hawley-grills-judicial-nominee-over-josh-hammer">reported</a>, a similar situation seemed to transpire during a Senate Judiciary Committee judicial nomination hearing. Michael Bogren, a Trump administration nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, once served as counsel for the city of East Lansing, Michigan when that city&#8217;s broad-reaching non-discrimination ordinance came into conflict with the Catholic faith of East Lansing residents Steve and Bridget Tennes. As Ramesh Ponnuru <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/case-against-michael-bogren-court-nominee/">summarizes</a> at National Review today, the city &#8220;barred [the] Catholic family from participating in a farmer’s market because that family rents its farm for marriage ceremonies but is not willing to host same-sex weddings.&#8221; In defending the city of East Lansing against the protestations of the devout Catholic couple, who merely wanted access to the local farmer&#8217;s market, Bogren denigrated the sincerity and intellectual honesty of the couple&#8217;s religious convictions and frequently compared the couple&#8217;s refusal to host same-sex weddings on their farm with the overt &#8216;White Applicants Only&#8217; racism of the Ku Klux Klan.
Hawley, himself an intricately trained lawyer of the highest acumen, was having none of it during Bogren&#8217;s confirmation hearing.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Senator Josh Hawley grilling judicial nominee over his anti-Catholic rhetoric:
&#8220;No, you specifically compared this Catholic family&#8217;s adherence to their religious beliefs with the views of the KKK.&#8221;
Senator Hawley then reminds everyone of the Masterpiece Cake Shop SCOTUS Case <a href="https://t.co/4YsoDKy8x0">pic.twitter.com/4YsoDKy8x0</a>
— The Columbia Bugle (@ColumbiaBugle) <a href="https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1131248041631948800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Still absolutely blown away by this:
Sen Hawley: &#8220;So you think that the Catholic families, pointing to the teachings of their church, is equivalent to a KKK member invoking Christianity?&#8221;
Michael Bogren, nominee for lifetime judicial appointment: &#8220;There is no distinction.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/pE16Wmue4e">pic.twitter.com/pE16Wmue4e</a>
— Rachel Bovard (@rachelbovard) <a href="https://twitter.com/rachelbovard/status/1131578365402656768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">Here is the link to the brief that references the KKK (h/t <a href="https://twitter.com/mjs_DC?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@mjs_DC</a>): <a href="https://t.co/nAQ7mjDb1U">https://t.co/nAQ7mjDb1U</a> (it was on the Motion to Dismiss, I previously checked Summary Judgment briefs). <a href="https://t.co/dzCSLyK0dz">pic.twitter.com/dzCSLyK0dz</a>
— Josh Blackman (@JoshMBlackman) <a href="https://twitter.com/JoshMBlackman/status/1131612450871226370?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Hawley&#8217;s intense questioning of Bogren elicited criticism from some predictable sources: Namely, top White House ally <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/district-court-nominees-in-blue-states/">Ed Whelan</a> of the Ethics and Public Policy Center and the self-anointed GOP establishment praetorian guard at <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/josh-hawleys-legal-principles-11559259088">The Wall Street Journal editorial page</a>. Whelan and the Journal regurgitated similar talking points: The &#8220;blue-slip&#8221; policy remaining in place for district court nominees means that home-state senators have to compromise on some judicial nominations, the fact that all Americans have a right to legal defense means that it is inappropriate to impute to a lawyer the views of his/her client, and the &#8220;precedent&#8221; that Hawley is setting for Bogren will ultimately redound against conservatives&#8217; interest by means of galvanizing future leftist senatorial opposition to conservative judicial nominees who have previously defended religious liberty or pro-life causes throughout their legal careers.
This morning, Hawley <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/religious-liberty-federal-bench-nominees/">ably defended himself</a> at National Review, arguing that, while &#8220;[l]awyers have a duty to their clients &#8230; a lawyer can give his clients a vigorous defense without stooping to personal attacks and vicious rhetoric.&#8221; Furthermore, the former Supreme Court clerk powerfully wrote, &#8220;As attorneys, our oaths require us to do much more than advocate on our clients’ behalf. We also swear to uphold the law itself and to always conduct ourselves with integrity. And that means not launching gratuitous attacks against faith groups — especially when you represent the government.&#8221; Ponnuru also helpfully <a href="https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/case-against-michael-bogren-court-nominee/">debunked</a> today the deeply misleading notion that, merely because it would set an inappropriate precedent to hold attorneys responsible for all of their choices of client representation, it is then somehow inappropriate to also never find attorneys morally culpable for how they go about the business of their various client representations.
The key takeaway from the Hawley imbroglios is a simple one. We, as conservatives and constitutionalists committed to upholding the original public meaning of the U.S. Constitution, are not in any way obliged to merely accept on blind faith the choices of the D.C.-centric judicial nomination clerisy. Rather, we are allowed to — indeed, we should — require evidence of constitutional fidelity. We should require evidence of jurisprudential commitment to our core issues — of structural separation of powers and federalism, yes, but also substantive issues such as life and religious liberty. That is a far cry from Bogren, who has both exhibited personal hostility to people of faith and has endorsed a legal principle with potentially disastrous ramifications for people of faith:
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">One you accede to Bogren&#8217;s premise that sexual behavior is like race, then even in a case without government contracts &#8211; just straight up private business wanting to be left alone &#8211; would have to service a homosexual wedding.
— Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) <a href="https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/1131273378562760704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Hostility to religious liberty should here, there, and everywhere be a deal-breaker for a prospective Republican judicial nominee. Period. Just as social conservatives should have been deeply skeptical at Rao&#8217;s referring to the pro-life movement as the &#8220;anti-abortion movement,&#8221; so should conservatives now be wary of Bogren&#8217;s unhinged legal comparisons of Catholic teaching on sexual morality with the abhorrent racism of the Ku Klux Klan. This is not how conservatives ought to write and speak.
This is not a particularly close call. And just today, many conservative leaders have demonstrated their agreement in recognizing this is not a close call by signing onto a <a href="http://conservativeactionproject.com/conservatives-oppose-the-nomination-of-michael-s-bogren/">powerful statement</a>, organized by the Conservative Action Project, against the Bogren nomination.
One must conclude that the same folks criticizing Hawley now would have presumptively excoriated Republican defectors during the Bush-era Harriet Miers Supreme Court nomination fiasco. But they forget that a U.S. senator acting as a second set of corroborative eyes is merely emblematic of the rudimentary separation of powers tug-of-war that James Madison <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed51.asp">described</a> in The Federalist No. 51: &#8220;Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.&#8221;
Josh Hawley has emerged as a nonpareil stud on the Senate Judiciary Committee. The only question is why some of Hawley&#8217;s similarly constitutionally inclined Committee members, such as Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Ben Sasse (R-NE), seem so comparatively silent. After all, Hawley shouldn&#8217;t have to do the dirty work of vetting all Trump judicial nominees <a href="https://www.conservativereview.com/news/mo-sen-josh-hawley-fights-another-liberal-judicial-nominee-party/">all by himself</a>.
Right now, Josh Hawley is an indispensable asset to conservative constitutionalism. To be sure, Hawley&#8217;s fellow Senate Judiciary Committee members ought to rise to the occasion — and they ought to do so sooner rather than later. But in the meantime, conservatives should feel empowered to defeat the Bogren nomination without any reservation.

HAMMER: Senator Josh Hawley Is The Most Important Freshman Conservative Since Ted Cruz. Here’s Why.

Judicial Branch

Judiciary

U.S. Senate

In 1972, Richard Phillips, then 27-years-old, was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Gregory Harris. He was accused of shooting Harris to death after pulling him out of his car. Harris&#8217; brother-in-law said he had met with Harris about the murder.
Phillips said he was innocent, and told his attorney he&#8217;d &#8220;rather die in prison than admit to a murder I did not do,&#8221; according to his <a href="https://richardphillipsartgallery.com/">personal website</a>.
For 45 years, Phillips sat behind bars in a Michigan prison, where he developed a talent for water-color painting and would paint greeting cards to sell to his fellow inmates. His personal website now offers his art to the general public.
In 2010, a man named Richard Polombo admitted to murdering Harris. It took another four years for the Innocence Clinic at University of Michigan Law School to learn of the confession. Three years after that, now late into 2017, Phillips received a new trial. In March 2018, he was released from prison.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/21/us/man-wrongful-conviction-1-5-million-trnd/index.html">reported</a> that Phillips &#8220;spent more time behind bars than any other wrongfully imprisoned person in America.&#8221; The media outlet also reported that Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced that Phillips is entitled to $1.5 million for his wrongful conviction.
&#8220;Phillips is entitled to up to $50,000 for each year he was imprisoned, according to the Michigan Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act. The money isn&#8217;t taxed, and he won&#8217;t lose any of it to attorney&#8217;s fees, his lawyer Gabi Silver told CNN,&#8221; the outlet reported. &#8220;The $1.5 million payment covers about three decades of his prison sentence because he also served time in jail on an armed robbery conviction.&#8221;
Silver told CNN she was also fighting the armed robbery conviction, hoping to get Phillips another 15 years&#8217; worth of compensation &#8212; another $750,000.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy released a statement, included in the CNN article, praising Phillips&#8217; compensation.
&#8220;This is great news, and was absolutely the right thing to do,&#8221; Worthy said. &#8220;While this compensation will not bring back the 45 years that he unjustly served in prison, it is my sincere hope that it will bring a well-deserved and fulfilling quality of life to him.&#8221;
For Phillips, he appears to be focusing on his art and learning how the world of today works. His attorney told CNN that Phillips was renting an apartment and plans to use his compensation money to purchase a small home and, hopefully, a German Shepherd puppy.
Surprisingly, despite being wrongfully imprisoned for nearly two-thirds of his life, the 73-year-old Michigan native doesn&#8217;t appear bitter, his attorney told CNN.
&#8220;He is pretty well-adjusted. He says that he is not bitter,&#8221; Silver told the outlet.
The Detroit News <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2019/05/17/wrongfully-convicted-man-learns-hell-paid-nearly-46-years-prison/3707545002/">reported</a> that Phillips&#8217; compensation still needs to be approved by the Michigan Legislature, but he&#8217;s remaining humble.
&#8220;I just want to keep a low profile, travel and enjoy life,&#8221; Phillips said Friday after he was told about his compensation. &#8220;That&#8217;s what I wanted to do in the first place.&#8221;
Nessel also announced $820,000 would go to two other former prisoners who were exonerated.

He Spent 45 Years In Jail For A Murder He Didn’t Commit. Michigan Just Gave Him $1.5 Million In Compensation.

Crime

Freshman Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a rising star in the Republican Party with a sterling legal resume including a prestigious Supreme Court clerkship, has once again gone where seemingly none of his fellow Senate Judiciary Committee conservatives will go: Staking out a principled, intensive, substantive vetting of a Trump administration judicial nominee.
As I noted on Monday, there appeared to be a wee bit of a problem with Michael Bogren, a judicial nominee to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan. Specifically, Bogren appears to be somewhere between mildly hostile and very hostile to religious liberty.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Why did Michael Bogren, a Trump district court judicial nominee in Michigan, once argue against religious liberty?
&#8220;The message is discriminators need not apply &#8230; This is not about religion. This not about speech.&#8221; &#8211; Bogren
Bad look for the White House. <a href="https://t.co/MeHzQ8DCSC">https://t.co/MeHzQ8DCSC</a>
&#8212; Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) <a href="https://twitter.com/josh_hammer/status/1130575325774192645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 20, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Per the underlying 2017 <a href="https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2017/09/13/banning-farmer-el-market-clear-retaliation-against-free-speech-lawyer-says/653938001/">article</a> from the Lansing State Journal:
<blockquote>
Bogren expressed frustration with Anderson&#8217;s insistence that Tennes&#8217; refusal to hold same sex weddings was not discrimination.
&#8220;The fact that the plaintiff says, &#8216;My religion compels me,&#8217; does not protect him,&#8221; Bogren said. &#8220;There&#8217;s a difference between belief and act.&#8221;
</blockquote>
That sounds an awful lot like anti-religious liberty, leftist rhetorical flourish. Indeed, Catholic network EWTN also picked up the story on Monday:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_tNHf04MT0A" width="560"></iframe></div>
Today, Sen. Hawley absolutely grilled Bogren in his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, accusing Bogren of comparing a Catholic family&#8217;s observance of doctrinal Catholicism with the views of the repulsive, white supremacist Ku Klux Klan.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Senator Josh Hawley grilling judicial nominee over his anti-Catholic rhetoric:
&#8220;No, you specifically compared this Catholic family&#8217;s adherence to their religious beliefs with the views of the KKK.&#8221;
Senator Hawley then reminds everyone of the Masterpiece Cake Shop SCOTUS Case <a href="https://t.co/4YsoDKy8x0">pic.twitter.com/4YsoDKy8x0</a>
&#8212; The Columbia Bugle (@ColumbiaBugle) <a href="https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1131248041631948800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Hawley&#8217;s full interrogation can be viewed here:
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gLGUiAr-Fik" width="560"></iframe></div>
Bogren&#8217;s underlying legal argument that he once advanced, and which Hawley questioned in the hearing, is very problematic. Conservative commentator Daniel Horowitz argues that, &#8220;On[c]e you accede to Bogren&#8217;s premise that sexual behavior is like race, then even in a case without government contracts &#8212; just straight up private business wanting to be left alone &#8212; would have to service a homosexual wedding.&#8221;
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
One you accede to Bogren&#8217;s premise that sexual behavior is like race, then even in a case without government contracts &#8211; just straight up private business wanting to be left alone &#8211; would have to service a homosexual wedding.
&#8212; Daniel Horowitz (@RMConservative) <a href="https://twitter.com/RMConservative/status/1131273378562760704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
As I <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43923/hammer-judicial-crisis-networks-open-attack-sen-josh-hammer">covered</a> <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44037/hammer-three-things-conservatives-must-look-future-josh-hammer">numerous</a> times in late February, Hawley had previously taken it upon himself to rigorously question top Trump judicial nominee Neomi Rao, the named successor to Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, over her beliefs with respect to the atextual, fabricated, judicial power-grabbing faux-constitutional Fifth/Fourteenth Amendment doctrine of &#8220;substantive due process.&#8221; Rao ultimately successfully <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44086/neomi-rao-judicial-nomination-advances-senate-josh-hammer">passed</a> through both the Judiciary Committee and the full Senate.
At the time, I supported Hawley&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43923/hammer-judicial-crisis-networks-open-attack-sen-josh-hammer">stand</a> in a Daily Wire op-ed and argued the following:
<blockquote>
Conservatives Should Support Conservatism &#8212; Not The Trump Administration.
It should go without saying that, in instances where substantive conservatism and the whims of the Trump Administration seem to differ, conservatives ought to stand for conservatism. If the White House Counsel&#8217;s Office, buttressed by outside advisers, were to hypothetically let slip through a nominee who held stealth views about abortion jurisprudence or &#8220;substantive due process&#8221; that are out of step with sound constitutional/originalist principles, then it ought to fall on conservatives on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to serve as a failsafe. More generally, Hawley&#8217;s acting as a second set of corroborative eyes is simply emblematic of the rudimentary separation of powers tug-of-war that James Madison <a href="http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed51.asp">described</a> in The Federalist No. 51: &#8220;Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.&#8221; Conservative U.S. Senators on the Judiciary Committee ought to have no blind fealty to the White House&#8217;s well-oiled judicial nominations machine simply because that White House is headed by a Republican; their fealty, instead, is to the original public meaning of the U.S. Constitution.
</blockquote>

WATCH: Josh Hawley Grills Judicial Nominee Over Apparent Anti-Catholic Bigotry

Catholicism

Religion

<a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/05/05/flint-lead-pipe-replacement/">A new report from The Daily Caller claims</a> that the city of Flint, Michigan, which has suffered from a headline-commanding water crisis for half a decade, may have steered tens of millions in aid money meant to help replace lead water pipes to a contractor that had no experience, but who did have a close relationship with Flint city officials.
The controversy may go straight to the top: to the Flint mayor&#8217;s office.
The Caller reports that $22 million in &#8220;water crisis aid&#8221; was directed to a company with ties to city officials, even though that company didn&#8217;t have experience replacing leaded water pipes &#8212; what the aid money was meant to help do.
Administrators in charge of the project also ignored cost-saving models that would have allowed water replacement companies to test for older pipes before digging up huge swaths of land, opting instead to follow a plan that had contractors digging up yard after yard to replace water pipes, even if they found copper or new piping underground.
&#8220;The city prohibited contractors from using an efficient method of digging holes known as hydrovac excavation,&#8221; a Flint councilwoman told the Caller. &#8220;That leveled the playing field for a contractor, WT Stevens, with no experience or the appropriate equipment &#8212; and let it bill far more to taxpayers, she says. All of these factors, [the councilwoman] adds, needlessly led to more waiting for anyone who actually has lead pipes.&#8221;
They &#8220;chose to dig up yards that they knew were copper, and they decided to hand dig instead of hydrovac,&#8221; the councilwoman said. &#8220;That was because WT Stevens didn&#8217;t have the ability, and you get more money [digging by hand]. It costs $250 [to hydrovac] versus thousands to dig a large hole without the equipment.&#8221;
Flint&#8217;s mayor, Karen Weaver, and one key Flint city councilman, Eric Mays, both appear to have cozy relationships with WT Stevens, and supported the contractor even when the work looked shoddy. The pair were also behind the decision to dig up every yard looking for lead pipes, even though a University of Michigan study was able to predict where the problematic lead pipes were with stunning 94% accuracy.
The &#8220;predictive model&#8221; could be extrapolated, Flint clean water activists said, but WT Stevens dug up areas where there were no predicted lead pipes in &#8220;exploratory&#8221; projects.
This latest revelation is one of just a handful of discoveries that have called aspects of the nearly billion-dollar Flint clean water rescue program into question. Flint&#8217;s water systems had a lead problem that came to light when state administrators made the decision to shift Flint from the costly Detroit water system to a cheaper local system in an effort to save the city from descending into bankruptcy. Once the shifts began to occur, authorities discovered that Flint&#8217;s infrastructure had been completely neglected for decades, leaving Flint citizens exposed to dangerous levels of lead in their drinking water.
Since then, state and federal officials estimate that more than half a billion dollars has been allocated to alleviate Flint&#8217;s water issues, but that a great deal of that money has been mismanaged. Besides the $22 million in pipe replacement contracts and a similarly mismanaged wastewater contract, a <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/flint/2019/01/lawsuit-filed-by-ex-city-administrator-against-flint-mayor-back-in-court.html">whistleblower lawsuit is currently making its way</a> through federal court, alleging that Flint&#8217;s mayor, Karen Weaver, diverted money meant to help Flint&#8217;s citizens to her campaign coffers.
Flint&#8217;s water has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/flint-water-tests-show-safe-lead-levels-nrdc-report-says-1523650453">been safe to drink since early 2017</a>, according to the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, and the amount of lead in the water has continued to fall to where it is now well below levels considered &#8220;safe&#8221; by the federal government and the National Resources Defense Council.

REPORT: Flint, Michigan Administrators Mismanaged Clean Water Funds, Hired Firm With No Experience Replacing Pipes

Democratic Party

Detroit

Flint, Michigan residents who say the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mishandled the water crisis in their city will get their day in court, thanks to a ruling last week by a federal judge.
Residents filed a lawsuit against the EPA in 2017, and the government tried to get it dismissed in 2018, claiming the agency was &#8220;exempt from liability under the Federal Tort Claims Act&#8217;s discretionary function exception,&#8221; <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/michigan/flint-water-crisis/2019/04/19/ruling-epa-flint-water-crisis-lawsuit/3516388002/">according to The Detroit News</a>. The residents had claimed the agency responded negligently and didn&#8217;t use the department&#8217;s authority under the Safe Drinking Water Act to &#8220;intervene, investigate, and warn about the health risks,&#8221; the News reported.
U.S. District Judge Linda Parker denied the government&#8217;s attempt to dismiss the case, writing that &#8220;Congress intended to leave the primary responsibility for overseeing public water systems with the states&#8221; when it wrote the Safe Drinking Water Act, but &#8220;expressly directed the EPA to intervene under specified conditions.&#8221;
&#8220;&#8230; The EPA&#8217;s failure to warn Flint residents of the severe health risks the city&#8217;s water supply posed to them cannot be justified by any permissible exercise of policy judgment,&#8221; Parker wrote, according to the News. &#8220;Within weeks of the switch to the Flint River, the people of Flint suffered rashes and hair loss.&#8221;
&#8220;The EPA was well aware that the Flint River was highly corrosive and posed a significant danger of lead leaching out of the city&#8217;s lead-based service lines at alarming rates into residents&#8217; homes. The EPA was well aware of the health risks posed by lead exposure, particularly to children and pregnant women,&#8221; she continued &#8220;&#8230; Further, the EPA knew that (the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality) and Flint officials were not warning Flint&#8217;s residents that they were being supplied lead-laced water.&#8221;
Michael Pitt, an attorney representing the residents against the government, explained the significance of the ruling to the News.
&#8220;This ruling will shake up the EPA, which has refused to accept responsibility in causing the catastrophe,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The EPA is mandated by Congress to be a watchdog over state environmental operations and is required by law to take over drinking water systems when a significant public health risk becomes apparent.&#8221;
Pitt is apparently representing some 5,000 residents of Flint.
The Flint Water Crisis, as it&#8217;s referred to, began in 2012 when county officials announced a plan that would reduce costs by switching the water supply from Detroit&#8217;s water system to the Flint River. The city approved the switch, but the river was contaminated and not properly filtered, leading to health problems for residents due to high levels of lead.
Four Michigan government officials resigned over its handling of the crisis, and then-Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, apologized for the crisis and budgeted tens of millions of dollars to help alleviate Flint&#8217;s problems.
While media outlets tried to place the blame on the Republican governor, all levels of government failed Flint &#8212; from the city government up to the U.S. federal government. Now the residents who sued the U.S. government will get their day in court, thanks to Parker&#8217;s ruling.

Obama’s EPA Mishandled The Flint Water Crisis, Residents Say. Now Their Claims Are Heading To Court.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

For those who have a pathological need to criticize police officers, here&#8217;s a story of just how great they can be.
As the Grand Rapids Police Department explains on their <a href="https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=grand%20rapids%20police%20department&amp;epa=SEARCH_BOX">Facebook page</a>, Officer Austin Lynema noticed one morning that nine year-old Thomas Daniel was chasing after his school bus but couldn&#8217;t catch up. When Lynema asked Daniel if he needed help, Daniel informed him that his mother did not own a car, so Lynema went to Daniel&#8217;s mother and asked if he could give her son a ride to school. Given permission, the two traveled to school together, and along the way, Lynema discovered that it was the boy&#8217;s ninth birthday.
Thomas asked officer Lynema to come to his birthday party after school but confessed that he was bullied at school and he doubted anyone would come to his birthday party. That night, Lynema showed up for Thomas&#8217; birthday party, but the only other attendees were Thomas&#8217; siblings, and the family did not have a cake.
But Lynema had a plan; the next day, when Thomas got off the bus back from school, he saw Lynema along with some other officers waiting for him; they had brought a Krispy Kreme donut cake, presents, and a singing quartet. A joyful Thomas exclaimed, &#8220;This is the best birthday ever!&#8221;
The Grand Rapids Police Department wrote, &#8220;No kid should get bullied, and no kid should worry if anyone will come to the party. Next year Thomas Daniel, make sure you drop us that invite a little sooner. We wouldn&#8217;t want to miss it!&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6915903/Michigan-police-officers-delight-bullied-nine-year-old-boy-surprise-party.html">The Daily Mail</a> noted that Lynema promised he will attend Thomas&#8217; 10th birthday party next year, and that the Facebook post has now been shared more than 15,000 times.
Comments on the page came from all over:
&#8220;Happy Birthday Thomas. I am a retired Police Officer in New Zealand. I live in a little town called Westport. Westport is on the upper West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. I am just so pleased that you were able to share a very special birthday with your new and very special friends at the Grand Rapids Police Department. As our Maori people say&#8230;kia ora e hoa . It means &#8230;hello my friend.&#8221;
&#8220;I heard this on the radio this morning in MN. Made me cry on my way to work. Nice job officers. That boy will remember this for the rest of his life and I&#8217;ll bet he will forever respect law enforcement.&#8221;
&#8220;Awesome work officers just read this story and saying Gday all the way from Australia.&#8221;
&#8220;Heard about this all the way in Lakeport, CA from our Sacramento news station.&#8221;
&#8220;Thanks for being the good guys, officers. And happy happy birthday little man you are loved.&#8221;
&#8220;You officers are the best&#8230; and young man Thomas I wish you all blessings throughout your life. Sometimes people can be cruel but God will always send an Angel to lift you up. Happy Birthday God Bless you all.&#8221;
&#8220;Thank God for the boys in blue you truly are genuine humans always ready to make us feel someone is always looking out for us thank you to all police officers where ever you may God watch over you all and keep you safe.&#8221;
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="573" width="698"></iframe></div>

WHY POLICE ARE GREAT: Read What This Officer Did For Bullied 9-Year-Old Boy

Bullying

In 2016, a devoutly Catholic couple in East Lansing, Michigan, who are both military veterans and own their own organic farm, were kicked out of the local farmer&#8217;s market after they refused to host a same-sex wedding on their farm. In 2017, a court <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/10370">issued a preliminary order</a> to permit Steve and Bridget Tennes, owners of Country Mill Farms, to return to the farmer&#8217;s market; on Friday, Steve Tennes will join the Alliance Defending Freedom in federal court to request a permanent order forcing the city of East Lansing to allow them to participate in the farmer&#8217;s market.
ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch, former solicitor general of Michigan, asserted, &#8220;Courts have rightfully and repeatedly rejected this type of religious hostility, as recently as the U.S. Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling in the <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/8700">Masterpiece Cakeshop case</a>. That is why we are asking the district court to issue an order that permanently prevents East Lansing from unconstitutionally targeting Steve on the basis of his beliefs. The city&#8217;s response to Steve&#8217;s beliefs reeks of anti-religious discrimination.&#8221;
In June 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 7 to 2 in favor of Colorado cake artist Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. ADF represented Phillips; Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Kristen Waggoner, who argued the case, <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/News/PRDetail/8700">stated</a>, &#8220;Jack serves all customers; he simply declines to express messages or celebrate events that violate his deeply held beliefs. Creative professionals who serve all people should be free to create art consistent with their convictions without the threat of government punishment.&#8221;
ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson stated, &#8220;All Americans should be free to live and speak according to their deeply held religious beliefs without fear of government punishment. Yet East Lansing officials changed their market policy to shut out Steve Tennes because they don&#8217;t like his Catholic beliefs regarding marriage. That unconstitutional discrimination is what led to the court&#8217;s temporary order in favor of Steve in 2017.&#8221;
The sequence of events went like this: prior to 2016, the Tennes family, which employs a diversified group of people including some who are LGBT, had attended the farmer&#8217;s market for seven years. But in 2016, the couple was asked on Facebook if they would host a same-sex wedding. Tennes said on Facebook that he believed in biblical marriage between one man and one woman, precipitating the city&#8217;s action. Yet the Tennes farm is 22 miles from East Lansing, outside the city&#8217;s boundaries and beyond its jurisdiction.
ADF noted that during a public debate, a city council member said Tennes&#8217; Catholic beliefs were &#8220;ridiculous, horrible, [and] hateful things.&#8221; ADF added that the mayor of East Lansing criticized Tennes for translating his &#8220;Catholic view on marriage&#8221; into a business practice.
ADF pointed out that &#8232;the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in Obergefell and again in Masterpiece that the &#8232;government must respect the belief that marriage is between one man and one woman. &#8232;ADF also noted that only weeks prior to the city&#8217;s efforts to ban the Tennes family farm from the farmer&#8217;s market, the city publicly praised Country Mill Farms, posting, &#8220;We love The Country Mill!&#8221; on its farmer&#8217;s market Facebook page.

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