Michigan
Trombley, Coffia paint contrasting pictures for northern Michigan • Michigan Advance
This coverage is made possible in part through a partnership between IPR and Grist, a nonprofit environmental media organization.
The two candidates in a closely watched House race in northern Michigan laid out their positions as an audience ate pie and ice cream inside the gym at Glen Arbor Township Hall.
The 103rd House District encompasses Leelanau County, as well as parts of Grand Traverse and Benzie counties. The Cherry Pie Debate is presented by the Leelanau Enterprise, IPR and the League of Women Voters of Leelanau County.
Coffia and Trombley showed a stark contrast on things like climate change, gun control and abortion, while also addressing more local topics, like northern Michigan’s difficult housing market and the struggles of area cherry farmers.
Climate change
Last year, Michigan House Democrats passed the state’s new clean energy standard by razor thin margins. One of those votes came from Coffia, who in 2022 flipped that seat for the Democrats by a margin of 765 votes.
Coffia and Trombley have different approaches to climate change — and what to do about it.
“I’m probably not going to do much on this topic,” Trombley said. “Science can argue science. In my mind, a lot of that ends up being theoretical and hypothetical, and we have so many problems and challenges that we need to address that we can completely get to the root cause of lay in a plan of attack and make something happen, I think we ought to stay focused there.”
Scientists are in wide agreement that human-caused climate change is happening.
Trombley said the push for clean energy had to be balanced with practical considerations and said she opposes expensive measures to address climate change.
Things that are expensive — talk about Asheville being underwater,” Coffia countered, referencing the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated western North Carolina and several other states. (Climate change is contributing to dangerous hurricanes like Helene.)
She said it made financial sense to address the crisis now and that Michigan has the most clean energy jobs and workers in the Midwest.
“We are in the position now to draw down over $8 billion in federal infrastructure money because we adopted Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate plan,” Coffia said. “We codified it, and what that does is move us in the direction of clean, carbon neutral energy as a state by 2040.”
Coffia praised local utilities, like Cherryland Electrical Co-op, which is hoping to be carbon-free even sooner by 2030.
Housing
The two candidates agreed broadly on the need to fix northern Michigan’s housing woes, even if they differ on how to do that. The region has been struggling with low housing availability and high costs.
Coffia said she wants to direct money from visitors back into local investments.
”There’s a bill package right now that I support that would allow us to tax our vacationers (and) use the funds from those short term rentals toward building housing for our permanent workforce, as well as pay for infrastructure and public safety,” she said.
Trombley said Lansing can’t solve the problem alone, but there are steps the state can take.
“The legislature could drive forward and work an expansion of some of the utilities in the infrastructure that would also then make whatever housing gets built on top of that that much more affordable,” Trombley said. “So there are ways to move forward and to move the needle, and there’s not one size fits all.”
Addressing gun violence
Mass shootings continue to happen in American schools and in other public places — including in Michigan.
Coffia and Trombley are far apart on what should be done about it, at least at the legislative level.
Coffia noted that shortly into her first term, a shooting happened just a few miles away from the Capitol, on the campus of Michigan State University. And she pointed to several measures state lawmakers passed afterward — from universal background checks and safe storage laws to a red flag laws that temporarily removes guns from people deemed a danger to themselves or others.
“I grew up in a hunting family. That’s part of how we fed ourselves in the winter, was venison,” Coffia said. “I’m an excellent shot with a pistol and I enjoy target shooting with my sheriff in Grand Traverse (County). And this is about reasonable protections for public safety and especially our children. There is more we can do.”
Coffia said she wants to look at additional action in the term ahead.
Trombley was much more reticent to see more laws about firearms.
“What can Lansing do? We can have 3,000 laws on the books. It’s not going to stop that one person who is compelled to create violence in any kind of circumstance,” Trombley said. “I know that’s a terrible thing to say and we don’t want to hear that, but at some point we have to understand what we can and cannot do. It’s imperative that we be cautious with additional laws because every law we put on the books, quite frankly, is an infringement on that Second Amendment.”
MASON COUNTY, MI – The bodies of two missing snowmobilers were found Sunday morning.
Two Grand Haven men were recovered by first responders in six feet of water on Dec. 14 in Round Lake off Sugar Grove Road in Mason County’s Sheridan Township.
The riders, aged 65 and 49, were reported missing at 12:30 a.m. after their family had not heard from them for several hours, according to the Mason County Sheriff’s Office.
At first, through family of the missing, police believed the two may have been snowmobiling on trails in Lake County.
The Lake County Sheriff’s Office started searching trails in attempts to locate them.
Around 4:30 a.m., the search expanded to include eastern Mason County.
A searcher located snowmobile tracks leading onto Round Lake off Sugar Grove Road. A further search showed no tracks leaving the lake.
Due to darkness and heavy snowfall, a check of the lake from shore could not be performed.
At first light, police saw what appeared to be a snowmobile helmet several hundred yards offshore on the ice.
Mason County Sheriff’s Office launched a drone when weather permitted and spotted a hole in the ice.
There was a helmet at the hole.
Rescuers attempted to get to the area, but kept falling through the ice, making rescue efforts impossible, the press release stated.
The Michigan State Police Dive Services Team and Mason County dive team were called to assist and made their way onto the ice.
An airboat from the Manistee County Sheriff’s Office responded to support recovery efforts.
While the team worked to get to the hole in the ice, an MSP diver fell through the ice, but was properly tethered to another diver and was pulled from the ice unharmed.
Law enforcement recovered the bodies in approximately six feet of water. Two snowmobiles were also found submerged under the ice.
The Ludington Police Department, United States Coast Guard-Manistee, Michigan DNR-Law Enforcement, Branch Township Fire Department, Carr Fire Department, Fountain Area Rescue, Free Soil Fire Department, Hamlin Fire Department, Irons Fire Department, Luther Fire Department, Pleasant Plains Fire Department, Manistee Fire Department and Norman Township Fire Department all assisted at the scene.
One of the best college football coaches of all time, Urban Meyer, lent some sympathy to Sherrone Moore — or at least his family — in the wake of the former Michigan head coach’s shocking firing last week.
“Last night, I said a prayer for that family,’’ Meyer said on “The Triple Option Podcast,” speaking of Moore’s wife and daughters.
“I mean, you’ve got three little girls,’’ said Meyer, who won a national title at Ohio State a little over a decade ago. “You’ve got a guy that was on top of the road a week ago.”
That changed in stunning fashion, as Moore, a married father of three, went from leading the Wolverines to out of a job, fired in Ann Arbor for cause after the university confirmed he had an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.
The situation only worsened when Moore was later arrested after he allegedly broke into the home of the staff member, and during an argument, grabbed butter knives and threatened to kill himself.
On Friday, he was charged with third-degree home invasion, a felony, as well as a pair of misdemeanors — stalking and breaking and entering.
Here’s the latest on former Michigan coach Sherrone Moore
Even Meyer, who created some controversy of his own during a brief, ill-fated tenure as head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars — when he was seen on video in 2021 that showed him dancing suggestively with a woman who was not his wife and was later fired before finishing his lone season in Jacksonville — was stunned by Moore’s downfall.
“They’re up 6-0 on the Buckeyes at home,” Meyer said of Michigan’s early lead against rival Ohio State on Nov. 29. “And then, also, you wake up, and they’re in this situation. Rivalries aside, this is all human element. Now, this is something that, from what you read, that’s some serious stuff that went on. And just, all of a sudden, you start seeing the impact. Forget football. Who cares about football?’’
Michigan
Yaxel Lendeborg scores 29 points and No. 2 Michigan stays unbeaten with 101-83 win over Maryland
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Yaxel Lendeborg had 29 points, a career-best nine assists and eight rebounds, and No. 2 Michigan rallied from a nine-point deficit Saturday night to defeat Maryland 101-83.
Aday Mara scored 18 points for the Wolverines (10-0, 2-0 Big Ten), who overcame a halftime deficit for the second time this season and the first since they beat TCU on Nov. 14.
Michigan scored 100 points for the fourth time in five games.
Diggy Coit made eight 3-pointers and scored 31 points for the Terrapins (6-5, 0-2), who lost center Pharrel Payne to a right leg injury late in the first half and forward Solomon Washington to ejection after he picked up his second technical foul early in the second half.
Coit scored nine of Maryland’s first 10 points and 22 before the break, helping to prevent Michigan from opening a lead larger than six in the first half.
The Terps lost Payne, their leading scorer at 18.7 points a game, with 4:36 remaining before halftime. Yet Maryland stretched its lead from one to 50-45 at the midpoint, then expanded it to 56-47 on Elijah Saunders’ 3.
Washington, who had a first-half technical for celebrating a 3 in front of the Michigan bench, was called for a delay-of-game technical just after Saunders’ basket. His departure left the Terps without their two most experienced and imposing interior players.
Lendeborg took advantage, scoring the next eight points. Mara’s dunk with 14 minutes left made it 64-63 and gave the Wolverines the lead for good.
Elliot Cadeau’s layup with 21.2 seconds remaining got the Wolverines to 100 points for the fifth time this season.
Up next
Michigan hosts La Salle on Dec. 21.
Maryland visits No. 24 Virginia on Dec. 20.
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