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Senate showdown goes wrong way

Republicans in Congress are ceding their constitutional power to the president, so says the “politerati.” Yes, but there’s the rub: 10 Senate Democrats joined Republicans, including Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. He changed his mind the day before. The Senate 10 sacrificed the minority’s sole power to check the president. Senate Republicans needed eight more votes to reach the required 60 to pass a lethal resolution to keep the government open at midnight. After waxing and waning, the Schumer surrender dealt a gut punch to 37 Senate Democrats who fiercely opposed the ugly ...

After breaking fast, volunteers use Ramadan season as an opportunity to give in Detroit

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — After a nightly iftar meal with family members breaking fast together during Ramadan, Nadine Daoud noticed full pots and trays of untouched leftover food lining the shelves of her grandmother’s refrigerator. Too often, she felt the food was quickly forgotten and then wasted. The observations inspired her 2017 creation of The Helping Handzzz Foundation that brings volunteers together each year during the Islamic holy month. They round up spare food from families in Dearborn — where nearly half the 110,000 residents are of Arab descent — and bring it to ...

Book gathers historic accounts of Michigan cougar encounters

LANSING — In 1892, a woman left her young child asleep in a wagon while she picked blackberries close by in small-town Fergus, Saginaw County. She returned a short time later to a horrific scene: Her child was gone and a pool of blood lay in its place. That story, first reported by the Crawford Avalanche, contains statements from eyewitnesses claiming to have seen a panther-like animal in the area. That story and others like it make up the heart of a new book, “Silent Springs the Panther: Historic Accounts of Michigan Big Cat Attacks” (Mission Point Press, $17.95), by ...

Proposal would centralize jury management system while axing local boards

LANSING — House Democrats have reintroduced legislation to alter the state’s jury system by centralizing its management. The proposed changes also would allow people previously convicted of felonies to serve on juries. “The intent is to try to create an opportunity for folks to get a fair and impartial trial,” said Rep. Amos O’Neal, D-Saginaw — one of the sponsors. To create a centralized jury management system — which would be operated by the State Court Administrative Office — the proposal calls for axing a little-known commission in every county: the jury ...

House bill proposes state funds for noise control along highways

LANSING — A new House bill could help reduce traffic noise from Michigan highways. The proposal from Rep. Ron Robinson, R-Utica, would provide state money for noise abatement projects, the first boost in over 17 years. Noise abatement measures used in the past are adding walls and earthen berms, adjusting speed limits and prohibiting certain types of vehicles, according to the Department of Transportation. The Michigan Transportation Fund Act defined how the state distributes money for road maintenance in counties, cities and townships. Robinson’s legislation and a similar ...

U.S. lifts bounties on senior Taliban officials

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. has lifted bounties on three senior Taliban figures, including the interior minister who also heads a powerful network blamed for bloody attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government, officials in Kabul said Sunday. Sirajuddin Haqqani, who acknowledged planning a January 2008 attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul, which killed six people, including U.S. citizen Thor David Hesla, no longer appears on the State Department’s Rewards for Justice website. The FBI website on Sunday still featured a wanted poster for him. Interior ...