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RFK Jr. loses attempt to withdraw from Michigan ballot

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RFK Jr. loses attempt to withdraw from Michigan ballot


LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Monday that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will remain on the state’s November presidential ballot, ending Kennedy’s efforts to withdraw his name to help support former President Donald Trump.

Kennedy suspended his third-party presidential campaign and endorsed Trump in August. He sued Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat, on Aug. 30 in an attempt to remove his name from the ballot so as not to siphon votes away from Trump, who won Michigan by about 10,000 votes in 2016.

Monday’s decision reverses an intermediate-level Court of Appeals ruling made Friday. It ensures that Kennedy’s name will appear on voters’ ballots in the valuable battleground state despite his withdrawal from the race.

The court said in a brief order that Kennedy “has not shown an entitlement to this extraordinary relief, and we reverse.”

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“This plainly has nothing to do with ballot or election integrity,” Kennedy’s attorney, Aaron Siri, said in a written statement. “The aim is precisely the opposite — to have unwitting Michigan voters throw away their votes on a withdrawn candidate.”

Angela Benander, spokesperson for Benson’s office, said the department is grateful for the high court’s “swift response.”

“Clerks can now move forward with the ballot printing process to ensure absentee ballots will be delivered to voters by the federal deadlines,” Benander said in a written statement.

Kennedy is attempting to withdraw his name from states where the presidential race will be close in November. He had scored a legal victory in North Carolina and suffered a setback in Wisconsin Friday.

Justices nominated by Democrats currently hold a 4-3 majority on the Michigan Supreme Court. The order was unsigned and two Republican-nominated justices wrote a dissenting opinion.

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“We can only hope that the Secretary’s misguided action — now sanctioned with the imprimatur of this Court — will not have national implications,” the dissenting justices wrote.

Kennedy was nominated for president by the Natural Law Party in Michigan. Benson had previously cited a state law saying candidates who are nominated and accept a minor party’s nomination “shall not be permitted to withdraw.”





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Michigan

Michigan man didn’t turn right on red. So another driver hit him with ax, police say

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Michigan man didn’t turn right on red. So another driver hit him with ax, police say


70-year-old man arrested, faces assault charge

Caution tape with police lights (KSAT 12 News)

GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY, Mich. – A Michigan man was struck with an ax after not turning right at a red light at an intersection on Tuesday, according to police.

Just before 2 p.m. on April 14, a 74-year-old man driving near the intersection of Woodmere and Hannah in Grand Traverse County sat through a red light instead of turning right, Local 4’s NBC affiliate in Traverse City reported.

Police said a 70-year-old Traverse City man was in a car behind the 74-year-old man and followed him to the Traverse Area District Library,

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Once the 74-year-old man got out of his car, the 70-year-old man allegedly approached him and attacked him with an ax, injuring the 74-year-old in his left upper arm. Both men then left the area.

The 74-year-old man drove himself to a local hospital and is being treated for his non-life-threatening injuries.

The 70-year-old man was later arrested at his home and faces a charge of assault to do great bodily harm.




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What we know about the tornadoes that hit southeast Michigan overnight

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What we know about the tornadoes that hit southeast Michigan overnight


Cleanup continued Wednesday after overnight storms spawned two EF-1 tornadoes in Southeast Michigan, toppling trees, damaging homes and businesses in Downriver communities, and leaving some neighborhoods without power for hours.

The National Weather Service confirmed one tornado tracked through the Ann Arbor area in Washtenaw County around 1:44 a.m. near Jackson Avenue and Interstate 94.

A second tornado touched down near the Allen Park and Lincoln Park border in Wayne County around 2:14 a.m.

In Garden City, strong winds snapped a large tree and brought down power lines, briefly sparking a small grass fire, resident Susan Steffke said.

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“I got an alert to take cover, and I got up and split second, it was raining and thundering and lightning,” Steffke said.

Steffke said the fallen tree blocked a side street, and wires hung into her backyard.

“The tree totally was across the side street, and I had wires in my backyard, hanging down, and the telephone pole got split in half, and the top half was laying on the sidewalk,” Steffke said.

Neighbors nearby were without power for hours after the storm, said Garden City resident Julie Feinthel, who said electricity went out around 3 a.m. and returned just before 4:30 p.m.

“DTE was working around the clock to get it back up,” Feinthel said.

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In Downriver, the Wayne County tornado crossed Dix Highway into Melvindale, the weather service said, snapping trees and causing damage that included roofs, windows, and HVAC equipment.

The storms also brought heavy rain and flooding, submerging flood-prone stretches of Gibraltar in southern Wayne County.

Bayview Drive in Gibraltar was closed as crews set up an additional pump to help drain standing water, officials said.

“Not much you can do, hopefully they pump it out or what have you, but it’s the first time the street’s been blocked,” said Gibraltar resident Gary Gagne.

No deaths or injuries were reported in connection with either tornado, according to the National Weather Service.

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Thunderstorms rip across Michigan damaging 2 ice arenas, other structures

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Thunderstorms rip across Michigan damaging 2 ice arenas, other structures


ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Powerful storms ripped through parts of Michigan overnight Tuesday into Wednesday morning, damaging two ice arenas and other structures, and uprooting trees near the University of Michigan’s main campus.

National Weather Service crews were surveying damage in places including Ann Arbor to determine if one or more tornadoes touched down, but none had been confirmed as of Wednesday morning. Instead, the damage appears to have been caused by a line of thunderstorms that moved into Michigan from Iowa, Wisconsin and Illinois, meteorologist Sara Schultz said.

A 70 mph (112.6 kph) wind gust was reported at 1:49 a.m. Wednesday at the university’s football stadium, while gusts of 69 mph (111 kph) and 62 mph (99.7 kph) were reported at Willow Run Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Schultz said, and another round of strong storms with potentially damaging winds was moving into the area Wednesday from states to the West.

Streets and neighborhoods in many southeastern Michigan communities also were left flooded Wednesday.

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Some public school buildings in Ann Arbor suffered structural damage and many lost power. “Safe passage for walkers and buses is compromised across much of the city due to downed power lines, flooding, water main breaks, gas leaks, and felled trees and debris,” the district said Wednesday on its Facebook page.

District schools and offices were closed Wednesday due to what officials say is a fiber outage impacting fire, phone and camera systems, and building access. It wasn’t immediately clear if the fiber outage is related to the storm.

Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor said structural engineers were assessing damage to a wall at the city’s Veterans Memorial Park Ice Arena. Part of the roof was torn from the university’s Yost Ice Arena.

A wall, torn off of the Veterans Memorial Ice Rink following a severe storm, is seen Wednesday, April 15, 2026, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Credit: AP/Mike Householder

Two blocks from where utility workers were dealing with the twisted pieces of metal littering the ground outside Yost, Seungjun Lee was feeling fortunate. A hulking tree outside the rented home he shares with six others barely missed his upstairs bedroom when the storm uprooted it.

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“If the tree fell down a couple more feet, I would not be standing here,” said Lee, a 20-year-old junior at U-M. “I’d be in the hospital. So, I’m feeling very lucky that … the roof stopped it.”

Lee and his roommates were awakened by a siren, then an alert blasted from their phones between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m., urging them to take shelter.

“As soon as I came out, everyone else was coming out of their rooms and everyone’s like, ‘What’s going on? This is crazy,’” said Lee, of Ridgewood, New Jersey. “And then we looked out the window: This tree just fell down. So, we’re like, ‘Oh, crap.’”

Storm damage is seen at the Argus Building in Ann...

Storm damage is seen at the Argus Building in Ann Arbor, Mich., on Wednesday, April 15. 2026. Credit: AP/Jordyn Pair

A friend across the street then walked over to check in.

“He was like, ‘Did you hear about Yost?’ We went, ‘No.’ We were worried about our house. So, we walked over and we checked it out and we were like, ‘That’s crazy,’” said Sam Zaruba, a 20-year-old junior from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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As for classes on Wednesday, Zaruba said he’s not going. But roommate Gautam Nigam, a 21-year-old junior, also from Grand Rapids, has to.

“I have a final presentation later today,” he said.

The storms dumped as much as 2.5 inches (6.3 cms) of rain across parts of southeastern Michigan, bringing flood watches to a big chunk of the eastern Lower Peninsula, southeastern Michigan, northern Indiana and northwestern Ohio.

An evacuation notice was issued late Tuesday to low areas in northeastern Michigan’s Cheboygan County following a levee breach in the Little Black River watershed. The breach, in an area northwest of Cheboygan and west of Lake Huron, is not related to efforts to force flow from the Cheboygan Dam toward the lake as water continues rising following days of rainfall and winter snow melt, the county’s emergency management office said on its Facebook page.



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