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CHILD FATALLY SHOT-MOTHER CHARGED

Woman charged with murder in fatal shooting of daughter, 5

INLAND TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — A mother has been charged with open murder in the fatal shooting of her 5-year-old daughter in their northwestern Michigan home. The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that 33-year-old Suzanne Jacobson was arraigned Friday in 85th District Court and ordered held without bond in the Benzie County Jail. Benzie County Sheriff Kyle Rosa said a man identified as her boyfriend called 911 Thursday afternoon to report the child had injuries and may have been shot. The man, who was not the child’s father, also told police he wrestled the gun from his girlfriend who then fled into nearby woods. Sheriff’s deputies and state police later found her sitting in a vehicle at a nearby business.

ISLAMIC STATE-MICHIGAN

Michigan man linked to Islamic State gets 98-month sentence

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan man has been sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group. Twenty-five-year-old Mohamud Muse of Lansing was sentenced Thursday to 98 months in prison by a federal judge in Grand Rapids. He pleaded guilty last year to a conspiracy charge. Federal authorities say Muse, his brother and another man were arrested in January 2019 at the Grand Rapids airport, where his 22-year-old brother, Muse Muse, was starting a journey to Somalia to join IS. The Grand Rapids Press reports the three men conspired to provide support and resources to the militant group.

SEVERE WEATHER-MICHIGAN OUTAGES

Crews restoring power to hundreds of thousands in Michigan

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan’s top energy providers are making progress restoring power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses left in the dark by outages caused by severe thunderstorms, but some customers could remain without power through the weekend. As of 11 a.m. Friday, more than 400,000 outages remained across the state, with about 250,000 of those DTE Energy customers in southeastern Michigan. The utility says around 95% of its customers should see their power restored by late Sunday. Consumers Energy reported more than 148,000 of its customers still in the dark. The Detroit News reports that at one point, more than 850,000 customers lost power across Michigan.

1990 SLAYING-SENTENCE

Woman’s life sentence reduced in Michigan man’s 1990 slaying

MUSKEGON, Mich. (AP) — A woman sentenced to life in prison three decades ago for her role in the robbery and killing of a Michigan man slain when she was 16 has received a reduced sentence. A Muskegon County judge on Wednesday cut Amy Lee Black’s life sentence to 35 to 60 years in prison. The Detroit News reports Black and her boyfriend were convicted of first-degree murder for Dave VanBogelen’s December 1990 killing. Both were sentenced to life in prison without parole. But Black was entitled to a review of her case after the U.S. Supreme Court found mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles were cruel and unusual punishment.

CENSUS-MICHIGAN-HIGHLIGHTS

Census: Big population drops in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

Figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau show some of Michigan’s largest percentage population losses over the past decade are in the state’s Upper Peninsula, while three of the four most populous counties in the Lower Peninsula gained people.The U.P. for years has struggled through job losses tied to downturns in the manufacturing and mining industries. Luce County along Lake Superior in the eastern U.P. had a population loss of 19.5% from 2010 to 2020, while Ontonagon County dropped 14.2% over that time. Gogebic saw its population tumble by 12.5%. Census figures released in April show Michigan’s overall population increased slightly from 2010 to last year.

AP-US-AUTO-WORKERS-ELECTION

UAW members to vote in fall on direct election of leaders

DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union’s 397,000 members will vote by mail this fall on whether they want to pick their leaders in direct elections. In a posting on his website, union monitor Neil Barofsky says ballots will be mailed by an election vendor starting Oct. 12. They must be returned by 5 p.m. Nov. 12. They’ll be counted as soon as possible, and Barofsky will announce the results. Barofsky was appointed by a federal judge as part of a settlement that avoided a government takeover of the union after a wide-ranging corruption scandal. Currently, union leaders are chosen every four years at a convention, with the delegates picked by local union offices. But the new slate of leaders is picked by the outgoing president, and seldom is there serious opposition.

DIGITIZING MAIL-PRISONS

Ohio prisons to digitally scan mail to thwart drug smuggling

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio prisons system plans to digitally scan virtually all incoming mail for inmates to thwart drugs smuggled by soaking them into paper. The agency says each prison facility will have scanning equipment to digitally copy mail under a contract with a company called GTL. The contract is worth an estimated $22.7 million annually. The scanned mail will be delivered to tablets or wall-mounted kiosks that inmates already have access to. Legal mail will be exempt from being digitized. A spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, JoEllen Smith, says that in the interim, the agency has been photocopying thousands of pages of mail a month.

AP-US-SEVERE-WEATHER-MIDWEST

Flooding, power outages hit Michigan as storms rake Midwest

DETROIT (AP) — Flooding brought by heavy rains shut down some freeways in the Detroit area Thursday as waves of thunderstorms made their way across large swaths of the Midwest. Thunderstorms that toppled trees or tree limbs onto power lines left nearly 1 million homes and businesses in Michigan without power at one point Thursday morning. DTE Energy says that by 9:30 p.m. Thursday about 550,000 of its customers in southeastern Michigan still had no power. Wisconsin, Illinois and Indiana also have been hit by recent rounds of storms. Indiana Michigan Power said 9,623 of its customers in southwestern Michigan and northwestern Indiana were waiting Thursday night to have their service restored.

WHITE SUPREMACISTS CHARGED-MICHIGAN

Authorities: Sites assessed by hate group as training areas

CARO, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says two former state Corrections sites allegedly were being assessed by a white supremacist group called The Base as potential training areas for “hate camps.” Three men, including one arrested last year after an Ann Arbor-area family was intimidated, have been charged in connection with a state police and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation. The vacant properties are in Tuscola County’s Caro, about 100 miles northwest of Detroit. Nessel said Wednesday in a release that “hate camps” are what The Base calls paramilitary firearms training exercises. The Anti-Defamation League says The Base is a small, militant neo-Nazi organization.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-MICHIGAN SCHOOLS

Michigan panel OKs leaving masking up to school districts

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s Board of Education has approved a resolution that supports allowing local school districts to make “scientifically informed decisions” about whether to mandate COVID-19 masks for all students, teachers and visitors. The Democratic-majority board signed off on the resolution in a 5-2 vote Tuesday that members stressed “supports the right of local control to mask and not to mask.” Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has said she will not require masks in school, like she did last academic year. But her administration has endorsed a recommendation from the state health department for universal masking in school buildings.