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Biden and Trump will face tests in Michigan's primaries that could inform a November rematch

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Biden and Trump will face tests in Michigan's primaries that could inform a November rematch


WASHINGTON (AP) — While Joe Biden and Donald Trump are marching toward their respective presidential nominations, Michigan’s primary on Tuesday could reveal significant political perils for both of them.

Trump, despite his undoubted dominance of the Republican contests this year, is facing a bloc of stubbornly persistent GOP voters who favor his lone remaining rival, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and who are skeptical at best about the former president’s prospects in a rematch against Biden.

As for the incumbent president, Biden is confronting perhaps his most potent electoral obstacle yet: an energized movement of disillusioned voters upset with his handling of the war in Gaza and a relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that critics say has been too supportive.

Those dynamics will be put to the test in Michigan, the last major primary state before Super Tuesday and a critical swing state in November’s general election. Even if they post dominant victories as expected on Tuesday, both campaigns will be looking at the margins for signs of weakness in a state that went for Biden by just 3 percentage points last time.

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Biden said in a local Michigan radio interview Monday that it would be “one of the five states” that would determine the winner in November.

Michigan has the largest concentration of Arab Americans in the nation, and more than 310,000 residents are of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry. Nearly half of Dearborn’s roughly 110,000 residents claim Arab ancestry.

It has become the epicenter of Democratic discontent with the White House’s actions in the Israel-Hamas war, now nearly five months old, following Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack and kidnapping of more than 200 hostages. Israel has bombarded much of Gaza in response, killing nearly 30,000 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to Palestinian figures.

Democrats angry that Biden has supported Israel’s offensive and resisted calls for a ceasefire are rallying voters on Tuesday to instead select “uncommitted.”

The “uncommitted” effort, which began in earnest just a few weeks ago, has been backed by officials such as Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman in Congress, and former Rep. Andy Levin, who lost a Democratic primary two years ago after pro-Israel groups spent more than $4 million to defeat him.

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Abbas Alawieh, spokesperson for the Listen to Michigan campaign that has been rallying for the “uncommitted” campaign, said the effort is a “way for us to vote for a ceasefire, a way for us to vote for peace and a way for us to vote against war.”

Trump won the state by just 11,000 votes in 2016 over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, and then lost the state four years later by nearly 154,000 votes to Biden. Alawieh said the “uncommitted” effort wants to show that they have at least the number of votes that were Trump’s margin of victory in 2016, to demonstrate how influential that bloc can be.

“The situation in Gaza is top of mind for a lot of people here,” Alawieh said. “President Biden is failing to provide voters for whom the war crimes that are being inflicted by our U.S. taxpayer dollars – he’s failing to provide them with something to vote for.”

Our Revolution, the organizing group once tied to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has also urged progressive voters to choose “uncommitted” on Tuesday, saying it would send a message to Biden to “change course NOW on Gaza or else risk losing Michigan to Trump in November.”

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a Biden backer who held several meetings and listening sessions in Michigan late last week, said he told community members that, despite his disagreements over the war, he would nonetheless support Biden because he represents a much better chance of peace in the Middle East than Trump.

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“I also said that I admire those who are using their ballot in a quintessentially American way to bring about a change in policy,” Khanna said Monday, adding that Biden supporters need to proactively engage with the uncommitted voters to try and “earn back their trust.”

“The worst thing we can do is try to shame them or try to downplay their efforts,” he said.

Trump has drawn enthusiastic crowds at most of his rallies, including a Feb. 17 rally outside Detroit drawing more than 2,000 people who packed into a frigid airplane hangar.

But data from AP VoteCast, a series of surveys of Republican voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, reveals that his core voters so far are overwhelmingly white, mostly older than 50 and generally without a college degree. He will likely have to appeal to a far more diverse group of voters in November. And he has underperformed his statewide results in suburban areas that are critical in states like Michigan.

Several of Trump’s favored picks in Michigan’s 2022 midterm contests lost their campaigns, further underscoring his loss of political influence in the state. Meanwhile, the state GOP has been riven with divisions among various pro-Trump factions, potentially weakening its power at a time when Michigan Republicans are trying to lay the groundwork to defeat Biden this fall.

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Both Biden and Trump have so far dominated their respective primary bids. Biden has sailed to wins in South Carolina, Nevada and New Hampshire, with the latter victory coming in through a write-in campaign. Trump has swept all the early state contests and his team is hoping to lock up the delegates needed to secure the Republican nomination by mid-March.

Nonetheless, an undeterred Haley has promised to continue her longshot presidential primary campaign through at least Super Tuesday on March 5, when 15 states and one territory hold their nominating contests.

As Haley stumped across Michigan on Sunday and Monday, voters showing up to her events expressed enthusiasm for her in Tuesday’s primary — even though, given her losses in the year’s first four states, it seemed increasingly likely she wouldn’t win the nomination.

“She seems honorable,” said Rita Lazdins, a retired microbiologist from Grand Haven, Michigan, who in an interview Monday refused to say Trump’s name. “Honorable is not what that other person is. I hate to say that, but it’s so true.”

___

Associated Press writers Meg Kinnard in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Joey Cappelletti in Lansing, Michigan, contributed to this report.

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Man and woman killed, 3 injured in West Michigan shooting, police say

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Man and woman killed, 3 injured in West Michigan shooting, police say



Police in Muskegon, Michigan, are investigating after a man and woman were killed, and three other people were injured in a shooting on Saturday.

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According to officials, the incident happened on the 600 block of Jackson Avenue. Responding officers found “multiple individuals” who had been shot, police said. 

A 25-year-old man died at the scene, according to police, and a 22-year-old woman was taken to the hospital where she later died. 

Two other 25-year-old men were taken to the hospital in critical condition, officials said. A 4-year-old with minor injuries was also transported there.  

Investigators said the shooting doesn’t appear to be random, though it hasn’t yet been disclosed whether an arrest has been made.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Muskegon Police Department at 231-724-6750 or Silent Observer at 231-722-7463.

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Muskegon is around 197 miles northwest of Detroit.



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MSU to keep Joe Rossi as defensive coordinator on Pat Fitzgerald’s first staff

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MSU to keep Joe Rossi as defensive coordinator on Pat Fitzgerald’s first staff


East Lansing — A couple of familiar faces are staying on with Pat Fitzgerald’s first football staff.

Defensive coordinator Joe Rossi and safeties coach James Adams will remain on Michigan State’s staff next season, first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel and confirmed by an MSU spokesperson.

Rossi, 46, joined Jonathan Smith’s inaugural staff in December 2023 after six seasons as defensive coordinator for Minnesota. Rossi originally signed a three-year contract worth $4.8 million in base salary. The Detroit News reported Friday that MSU athletic director J Batt added an extra year worth $1.7 million to Rossi’s contract two days before this season’s opener against Western Michigan, one of four wins in a 4-8 (1-8 Big Ten) season.

A 5-19 record over two seasons resulted in Jonathan Smith’s firing Sunday, and Fitzgerald took over Monday. Rossi’s current contract carries a buyout that would exceed $3.5 million if Michigan State had replaced him as defensive coordinator.

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At the end of the 2025 season, Rossi’s defense allowed 29.9 points per game, which ranked 103rd out of 134 Football Bowl Subdivision teams and 15th out of 18 Big Ten teams. An average of 378.7 yards allowed per game ranked 73rd in the FBS and 14th in the Big Ten.

Adams joined Smith’s staff in January after leaving Wake Forest, where he was an associate head coach and safeties coach. He began his career at Wake Forest as a graduate assistant in 2009 before making stops at Wofford, Charlotte, Western Michigan, Navy and Purdue. His contract, signed through Jan. 31, 2027, would have carried a buyout of $285,416.67.

Fitzgerald agreed to terms on a minimum five-year, $30 million contract that could automatically extend to eight years, $54 million if he wins seven games in his first three seasons. Fitzgerald previously coached at Northwestern from 2006 to 2022, a Big Ten West opponent of Rossi’s old Minnesota teams. Fitzgerald also coached against Adams in 2021, when the latter was at Purdue.

Of 11 assistant football coaches under contract with Michigan State, five are on contracts that expire Jan. 31. If Michigan State were to turn over the remaining staff beyond Rossi and Adams, it would cost the university $2,524,000.

That is on top of the estimated $33.5 million owed Smith, which Batt told The News on Thursday will be paid by athletic department funds.

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All those contracts, including Smith’s and Rossi’s, are subject to a mitigation clause in which the salary paid by the coach’s next job offsets the buyout amount owed by Michigan State.

cearegood@detroitnews.com

@ConnorEaregood



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Rebecca Park case: Communities rally to support murdered Michigan mother’s family

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Rebecca Park case: Communities rally to support murdered Michigan mother’s family


WEXFORD COUNTY, Mich. – Communities across Northern Michigan are coming together to support the loved ones of Rebecca Park, the 22-year-old pregnant mother found dead in Manistee National Forest last month.

Earlier this week, Park’s biological mother and stepfather, Cortney and Bradly Bartholomew, were charged with her murder. Both are facing a long list of charges, including first-degree murder and torture, and are accused of stabbing Park to death and removing her unborn baby.

The couple appeared in court virtually and were denied bond.

Park leaves behind two young sons, who are now being cared for by her adoptive parents. A GoFundMe started to support the care of her children has already raised more than $5,000.

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“It means a lot to the family to know that there are people out there who support us and supported Rebecca in this horrible, horrible situation and that feel for her children because this is not going to be easy for any of the kids involved,” Rebecca’s adoptive mother Stephanie Park told NBC affiliate UpNorthLive.

A vigil will take place Saturday evening in Boon Township near where Rebecca’s body was found. In nearby Manton, Cedar Creek Café is planning a spaghetti dinner fundraiser to support the family. The fundraiser will take place on Saturday, Dec. 13, at Manton Consolidated Schools.

Restaurant owner Martha Snyder says Rebecca stopped by the restaurant with her fiancé shortly before her death.

Snyder says Rebecca was excited about the birth of her son, whom she planned to name Richie.

“We talked about her pregnancy, how far along she was, that she was due in November,” Snyder told Local 4.

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Snyder says the news of Rebecca’s gruesome killing has shaken their quiet community to its core.

“It’s traumatic,” Snyder said. “I have never heard of anything so horrendous in my life. Most everyone I know has never heard of anything so evil and horrendous in their lives, so I think that in and of itself speaks volumes. It’s unconscionable, it’s unimaginable, and it is evil.”

Snyder said she feels fortunate to have met Rebecca through their chance encounter. She’s now using her business to raise as much as she can to support Rebecca’s family during such an unimaginable loss.

“It just seemed like the only thing to do, and it also seemed like the only way for people to be able to get together and support one another through it,” Snyder said.

You can donate to the family’s GoFundMe here.

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