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POLICE SHOOTING-MICHIGAN

Autopsy: Patrick Lyoya killed by cop’s shot to the head

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — An official autopsy has concluded that Patrick Lyoya, a Black man who was killed by a Michigan police officer, died from a gunshot to the back of his head. The finding matches the conclusion of an expert hired by Lyoya’s family. The report from the Kent County medical examiner also says Patrick Lyoya’s blood-alcohol level was 0.29, more than three times over the legal limit for driving, when his car was stopped in Grand Rapids on April 4. The Detroit Free Press reported the autopsy results Friday. Lyoya was a 26-year-old refugee from Congo. He was killed during a physical struggle with Grand Rapids Officer Christopher Schurr.

MICHIGAN POLICE SHOOTING

Police in Michigan chase shopper, shoot him in parking lot

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Video shows police chasing a man and shooting him twice in the parking lot of a big-box store in a Michigan city. The shooting occurred April 25 at a Meijer in East Lansing. City officials released video Thursday and said state police are investigating. The man has been identified as DeAnthony VanAtten. His injuries weren’t life-threatening. A 911 dispatcher told officers that a 20-year-old Black man was heading into the Meijer with a gun. An officer confronted VanAtten as he was leaving the store and a foot chase ensued. VanAtten told officers they shot him for no reason. A gun was found under a vehicle in the parking lot.

MICHIGAN LAWMAKER-DRUNKEN DRIVING

Michigan lawmaker gets probation, fines for drunken driving

LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan lawmaker who pleaded guilty to driving drunk has been sentenced to probation and fined. Rep. Mary Cavanagh received the recommended sentence Friday of a $500 fine plus other fines, a 10-day work program, two years of probation and must appear for sobriety court. The 30-year-old Redford Democrat pleaded guilty in April to operating while intoxicated following her Feb. 25 arrest in the Livonia area. Officials say a blood test showed Cavanagh’s blood alcohol level was 0.20. It was Cavanagh’s second time being arrested by Livonia police for drunken driving after a 2015 stop in which she pleaded to a lesser charge.

MICHIGAN FLOOD

Report says Michigan 2020 dam failures were ‘preventable’

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Experts say the 2020 failure of two dams on a Michigan river was “foreseeable and preventable.” A five-member panel appointed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released a report Wednesday. It says the disaster resulted from flaws in the design and construction of the Edenville Dam in the 1920s, along with operation and maintenance shortcomings over the years. The dam on the Tittabawassee River in central Michigan collapsed May 19, 2020. It released a torrent that overtopped the downstream Sanford Dam and flooded the city of Midland. Thousands of people were evacuated and 150 homes were destroyed, with damages exceeding $200 million.

CHILD ABUSE REGISTRY

New Michigan law expands access to child abuse registry

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed into law a measure expanding access to a Michigan child abuse registry, after seven years of pushing by the mother of a victim of abuse at the hands of a caregiver with previous convictions. Wyatt’s Law is named after Macomb County mom Erica Hammel’s son. Previously, the list hasn’t been accessible to the public. Hammel says that nearly cost her son his life when in 2013 she suspected something was wrong with her ex-husband’s girlfriend watching Wyatt. If Hammel could have seen that the woman watching her son had two previous child abuse convictions, she said she could have saved her baby from sustaining permanent brain damage and broken bones.

BC-US-INFRASTRUCTURE-NEGLECTED-DAMS

AP analysis finds growing number of poor, high-hazard dams

An Associated Press analysis has found a growing number of hazardous dams in poor condition across the U.S. The AP tallied more than 2,200 dams in poor or unsatisfactory condition that are rated as high hazard, meaning their failure likely would kill someone. That figure is up substantially from a similar AP review three years ago. Experts say the increase is a result partly of deferred maintenance and new development downstream from old dams that weren’t necessarily designed to today’s standards. The federal government’s National Inventory of Dams has been updated to make the conditions of many dams public, but some agencies still withhold that information.

MICHIGAN BUDGET

Michigan Senate passes 5% base funding increase for schools

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Republican-led Michigan Senate has approved a 5% increase in base funding for K-12 schools but pared back Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposals to recruit and retain teachers and didn’t include her proposed $1 billion fund for school infrastructure projects. The school aid bill was advanced along mostly party lines Wednesday. It sets the stage for budget talks with the Democratic governor and the House. Under the Senate plan, a $500 million grant program would be created to help combining districts retire some debt to avoid raising property taxes. Schools could get extra funding to address pandemic-related learning loss.

XGR-VICTIM COMPENSATION

Michigan Legislature approves crime victim fund expansion

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Eligibility for a Michigan fund that reimburses crime victims and their survivors for health care costs and funeral expenses would be expanded under a bill passed Wednesday by the legislature. Current law allows funding eligibility for limited individuals including victims and those “related by blood or affinity”. The legislation refines some of the language to include those who a crime victim was a guardian or primary caregiver of. Others would include roommates and those the victim was frequently dating. The current law requires claimants to file for reimbursement within one year of the crime. Under the new legislation, victims would have five years. The bill now goes to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

AP-US-ELECTION-2022-MICHIGAN-RAPE-COMMENTS

Dem flips Michigan seat after GOP candidate’s rape comments

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Democratic legislative candidate in Michigan has won a special election for a heavily Republican seat over a GOP opponent who made controversial comments about rape, Russia’s war in Ukraine and other issues. Carol Glanville defeated Robert “RJ” Regan Tuesday in a Kent County district. Regan was denounced by Republican leaders after his upset primary victory. In March, while advocating for decertifying the 2020 presidential election, Regan responded to someone who said it’s too late to do anything that her attitude is like what he tells his three daughters: “Well if rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it. That’s not how we roll.” Regan said he regretted using the analogy but claimed it was taken out of context.

FLINT WATER

Court hears challenge to grand jury in Flint water cases

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court has heard arguments that could wipe out charges against former Gov. Rick Snyder and eight others in the Flint water scandal. Defense lawyers are challenging a rarely used method to investigate crimes and file indictments. Snyder and others were indicted by a judge who served as a one-person grand jury in Genesee County. Evidence was offered in private by the attorney general’s office. People charged with felonies in Michigan typically have a right to a hearing where they can argue there’s not enough evidence to send a case to trial. But the one-person grand jury process doesn’t allow it. Defense lawyers claim it’s unconstitutional. Prosecutors say they’re simply following a method approved by the Legislature.