Connect with us

Michigan

Willie Nelson, Made in Michigan Festival and Disney on Ice among weekend events

Published

on

Willie Nelson, Made in Michigan Festival and Disney on Ice among weekend events


DETROIT (WXYZ) — It’s time to celebrate fall, music, art and Michigan this weekend as several festivals take over metro Detroit.

Families can also enjoy Disney on Ice at Little Caesars Arena. Here are seven things to do in the D:

Disney on Ice “Find Your Hero”

  • Thursday 7 p.m., Friday 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.
  • Little Caesars Arena at 2645 Woodward Avenue in Detroit
  • The magical adventure of Disney on Ice is returning to Little Caesars Arena. The “Find Your Hero” show will bring Disney stories to life and help you discover the hero that’s in all of us while your favorite characters take to the ice.

Fire and Flannel Festival

  • Thursday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m.
  • Downtown Wyandotte in the area of the Yack Arena Parking Lot and city streets
  • The Fire and Flannel Festival may be about fire and flannel, but the Wyandotte festival is also a celebration about all things fall. The event has a carnival, fire magic acts, axe throwing, chainsaw carving and more. Those attending are encouraged to wear flannel.

Funky Ferndale Art Fair

  • Friday 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
  • 9 Mile, Troy and Allen Streets, west of Woodward Avenue
  • Art enthusiasts will flock to downtown Ferndale for the city’s Funky Art Fair. With more than 140 juried artists and authors, there’s something for everyone. You can even go look for hidden chalk installations and drawings along 9 Mile and Troy Street. And it doesn’t stop there, you can head across Woodward to the art fair’s sister show, the DIY Street Fair for even more fun.

Made in Michigan Festival

  • Friday 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 11 p.m.
  • Allen Road between Southfield Road and Roosevelt Avenue in downtown Allen Park
  • It’s time to celebrate the mitten state during the Made in Michigan Festival in downtown Allen Park. The event has everything with a Michigan spin including Great Lakes art, food, drink and even a Mitten Kids Activity Zone.

Outlaw Music Festival

  • Friday 5:55 p.m.
  • Pine Knob Music Theatre at 33 Bob Seger Drive in Independence Township
  • If you’ve always done things your own way and you have an eclectic taste in music, this is your weekend as the Outlaw Music Festival comes to Pine Knob this Friday. The event is presented by Willie Nelson for his 90th birthday and features the likes of bands such as The Wolfpack and The String Cheese Incident.

St. Pius Festival

  • Friday 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.
  • St. Pius X Catholic Church at 14101 Superior Street in Southgate
  • The St. Pius Festival returns to Southgate with a carnival, food, raffles and more all weekend long.

Victorian Festival

  • Friday 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
  • East Main Street in Northville
  • You can travel back in time during the Victorian Festival in Northville. The three-day event is celebrating the Victorian era with a parade, theatrical performances, duck races and more.

Are you hosting an event next weekend? Email us about it at webteam@wxyz.com.





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Michigan

Teen who drowned off Oak Creek in Lake Michigan is identified

Published

on

Teen who drowned off Oak Creek in Lake Michigan is identified


Mohamad Hassan, a 17-year-old Palestinian American, was found dead last night after drowning in Lake Michigan off of Bender Park in Oak Creek, according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office.

Hassan was swimming with his family at Bender Park Beach when a riptide current swept him and two other teenagers, including his brother, under the water. Hassan’s brother, Abdulrahman, was hospitalized in critical condition but is awake and able to communicate today, according to Othman Atta, director of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.

A third teen was not injured.

All three teenagers were swimming about 30 yards out from the shore in “somewhat shallow” water, according to the Medical Examiner’s report. The sheriff’s office said the call came in shortly before 8:30 p.m. from the park located at 4503 E. Ryan Road, and the Oak Creek Fire Department said the rescue effort was impacted by “high waves and challenging water conditions.” Hassan was pronounced dead shortly after 10 p.m.

Advertisement

He is survived by his parents, Musaitif Hassan and Jumanah Hamed; his brothers, Najeh, Abdulrahman and Yusuf; and his three sisters, according to an announcement from the Islamic Society on Thursday. The family is originally from Betein, a city in the occupied West Bank.

The Islamic Society will host a Janazah, a Muslim funeral, today after its 1:15 p.m. prayer service at 4707 S. 13th Street. The funeral will be followed by a burial at Arlington Cemetary, located at 4141 S. 27th Street, and a condolence gathering tonight after evening prayer at 8:30 p.m.

Lake Michigan was under a moderate swim risk last night, according to the National Weather Service. Waves hovered around two feet high in the afternoon and reached three feet during the evening. As of June 19, there have been 10 drownings in Lake Michigan this year, according to the Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Michigan

Michigan lawmakers approve $82.5B state spending plan for 2025

Published

on

Michigan lawmakers approve $82.5B state spending plan for 2025


LANSING — Michigan lawmakers early on Thursday passed an $82.5 billion state budget for the 2025 fiscal year, with just over $59 billion going to support state government agencies and about $23.4 billion going toward education.

After a session that spanned 19 hours, the spending plan was approved at 5:10 a.m. with immediate effect, despite nearly unanimous Republican opposition, and sent on to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who is expected to sign it into law.

It’s a bigger budget than the $80.7 billion spending plan Whitmer proposed in February, but state revenues and fund balances have improved somewhat since then.

The biggest drama surrounding the final budget plan related to school funding. The budget’s freezing of the K-12 per-pupil grant for 2025 at this year’s level of $9,608 created a split with sectors of the public school education community that has been one of Whitmer’s staunchest allies. Groups such as the Michigan Association of Superintendents and Administrators and the K-12 Alliance of Michigan spoke out strongly against the funding plan Wednesday and said it would result in layoffs. That’s despite the fact Whitmer’s administration insisted schools would have more money to spend in the classroom in 2025 than they did this year, due to a major cut in what school districts will have to pay to the school employee retirement fund.

Advertisement

Without assurances that the one-time cut in retirement expenditures will be permanent, the budget “provides no long-term funding relief and will lead to layoffs this fall and in the future, as the funding for our schools will not be enough to keep up with inflation, rising health care costs, and the ending of federal relief dollars,” the association of superintendents and administrators said in a Wednesday action call to its members.

Charter schools, which don’t pay into the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System, would receive a 3.9% increase to their per-pupil grants, according to an analysis of House Bill 5507 prepared by the House Fiscal Agency.

The education budget passed the House early Thursday in a 56-54 party-line vote and hours later passed the Senate 20-18, also along party lines. Senate Republicans did not try to fight immediate effect for the two budget bills, as they could have done, since neither had the required two-thirds support.

The Democratic-led House also passed Senate Bill 911, which would reduce school district contributions to the employee retirement fund not just for 2025, but for future years. Democrats say the reduction is justified because post-retirement health care for teachers is now fully funded, though other shortfalls in the pension fund continue.

Advertisement

“Teachers and school employees have more than met their obligation to retiree health care and deserve to have their hard-earned dollars back,” said Rep. Regina Weiss, D-Oak Park, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on School Aid and Education. “This legislation ends a decades-long policy that resulted in underfunded classrooms and a loss of pay for teachers.”

The main state government bill passed the Senate in a 20-17 vote, shortly before 4:30 a.m., with only Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, joining Democrats in voting yes. The House then approved the spending plan in a 56-54 party-line vote.

Together, the bills fund the 2025 state fiscal year, which runs from Oct. 1, 2024 through Sept. 30, 2025.

The Whitmer administration and Democratic legislative leaders have framed the overall budget as one that continues her administration’s emphasis on improving education while reducing costs for Michigan families, takes steps to make Michigan more attractive for major manufacturing projects, and improves the equity of state government spending priorities to better benefit communities that have historically been underserved. Sen. Sarah Anthony, D-Lansing, chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the budget is “fiscally responsible and also looks out for every Michigander.” State Budget Director Jen Flood has also characterized the budget as a return to normal after several years of sharply increased revenues, largely as a result of federal COVID-19 relief funding.

Republicans denounced the budget as bloated and accused Democrats of raiding retirement funds to find more dollars to spend, after quickly burning through a $9-billion state surplus. “They’ve created an unsustainable state budget and they want to play shell games to simply tread water,” said Sen. Thomas Albert, R-Lowell.

Advertisement

As one would expect for a governor who enjoys a Legislature controlled, albeit narrowly, by members of her own party, Whitmer got much of what she wanted in the final budget plan. But she didn’t get everything.

Whitmer’s proposed $25 million Michigan Vehicle Rebate Program was among the budget items that ended up on the committee room floor, according to a summary of Senate Bill 747 prepared by the House Fiscal Agency. It would have provided point-of-sale rebates of $2,000 for the purchase of new electric vehicles and $1,000 rebates for the purchase of internal combustion vehicles, with an extra $500 thrown in for vehicles that were union-made.

Also not making the cut in the final budget plan was Whitmer’s controversial proposal to raise an extra $80 million by massively increasing Michigan’s landfill tipping fees to $5 per ton, up from 36 cents per ton. The extra money would have been used in part to hire more people in the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to clean up the state’s contaminated sites.

The conference committee also axed a Whitmer proposal to raise extra money by requiring motorists to “opt out” of getting a recreation passport for state parks when they renew their vehicle registrations, rather than “opting in” for the extra charge, as they do now. Had it gone ahead, the change was expected to raise a little more than $17 million extra per year.

And Whitmer’s call in her January State of the State to accelerate Michigan’s move toward universal publicly funded pre-kindergarten, by removing all income requirements for families to qualify, didn’t quite get there, either. Under the budget, 4-year-olds in all Michigan families, regardless of income, are eligible for free pre-kindergarten. But in the event there is a shortage of spaces, priority will be given to families with incomes at or below 400% of the federal poverty level.

Advertisement

Among the items included in the budget are:

  • $100 million to help the Michigan State Housing Development Authority increase housing stock and affordability through the construction of new single-family and multi-unit homes, renovation of existing units, and improvement of energy efficiency. This marks a $50 million reduction from what Whitmer called for in February.
  • $65.1 million to increase child care provider pay rates by 15%. This marks an increase from Whitmer’s February budget proposal, which called for a 10% pay hike, but it’s less than the 20% increase in child care provider rates in the version of the budget passed earlier by the Senate.
  • Creation of a Michigan Innovation Fund, assuming required state legislation is passed and signed into law, to support Michigan startups, including through direct funding, technical assistance and other services. The fund was initially proposed at $60 million.
  • An extra $15 million for the Pure Michigan tourism promotional campaign on top of the $25 million it received this year, with $14 million of the extra funding coming from remaining federal COVID-19 funding.
  • Close to $2.1 billion transferred to local road agencies from the Michigan Transportation Fund, which is an increase of $110 million from this year.
  • A 2.5% increase for operating costs at Michigan community colleges and public universities.
  • $45.5 million to assist businesses locating or expanding in Michigan, specifically around workforce needs. The money would also be used to support development of “customized talent solutions to help fill identified needs in certain industries.” This reflects an increase of the $20 million proposed for this purpose in Whitmer’s February budget proposal. Also, neither the House nor the Senate included any money under this line item in the budgets each passed earlier this year. Separately, the budget includes $2 million to increase the amount of high-tech talent in Michigan through various programs.
  • $335 million in one-time “enhancement grants,” including: $12.5 million for the planned Pine Rest Pediatric Behavioral Health Center of Excellence in Grand Rapids; $10 million for the Frankenmuth Youth Sports Complex; $10 million for Potter Park Zoo in Lansing; $7 million for Detroit Zoo infrastructure; $5 million for Mt. Clemens downtown redevelopment; $5 million for Plaza Roosevelt Park improvements in Grand Rapids; and $4 million for the Jim Crow Museum in Big Rapids.
  • $18 million in grants to museums, including $5 million to the Motown Museum in Detroit, $2 million to the Lakeshore Museum Center in Muskegon, $1 million to the Chaldean Cultural Center in West Bloomfield, and $1 million to the Michigan Flight Museum near Belleville. Another $9 million would be awarded on a competitive basis to museums and nonprofits that operate educational programs at museums or provide other support to them.
  • $6 million for Michigan orchestras, with $750,000 allocated for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the balance going to other orchestras through a needs-based program.
  • $1.5 million for renovation costs of a township hall in Brownstown Township.
  • $10 million to support minority-owned businesses, with funds to be awarded in a “geographically diverse” manner.

Soon after approving the budget, lawmakers adjourned for a summer break. They are next scheduled to meet at the end of July.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on X, @paulegan4.



Source link

Continue Reading

Michigan

Statewide ban on bump stocks for firearms proposed in Michigan

Published

on

Statewide ban on bump stocks for firearms proposed in Michigan


(CBS DETROIT) – A Michigan lawmaker wants to ban bump stocks across the state. Senate Bill 942 was proposed less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on bump stocks.

Bump stocks are attachments that enable a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster. The ban was put in place by the Trump administration after a gunman used bump stocks during the 2017 deadly shooting at a Las Vegas music festival.

“We don’t want to make it easy for people to hurt our citizens,” said Sen. Dayna Polehanki (D-Livonia).

Polehanki introduced the bill which would ban the purchase, possession, and manufacturing of bump stocks.

Advertisement

“These are small devices, easy to manufacture. They could even, unfortunately, be 3D printed,” she said. 

Polehanki said she wants Michigan to join the other states that already have statewide bans on bump stocks in place.

“What’s the need for anyone to have a bump stock?” she asked.

Mac Mallah, a gun store associate at Tactical Edge Gun Shop in Dearborn, said he dislikes the question about why they are needed. 

“Why do you need a fancy car? Why do you need a helicopter? Why do you need a soda? You know what I mean? It’s more something I’d like to have, to have fun with it.”

Advertisement

He said he is opposed to the proposed ban on bump stocks.

“I feel like Michigan has been passing all sorts of legislation that doesn’t really stop criminals from getting their hands on guns.”

Polehanki said she started drafting the bill minutes after the Supreme Court overturned the federal ban. She said she hopes to get bipartisan support. For now, the bill is being considered by the Senate Committee on Civil Rights, Judiciary and Public Safety. 

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending