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LANSING, Mich - In recent years, most of Michigan’s largest labor unions saw massive declines in membership, despite significant job growth in most industries. The reason? A decade with right-to-work law, which gave workers the ability to choose whether to join a union, as a member or through a fee, or not.
The reports many labor unions are required to file with the federal government reveal the state of labor union membership, as do reports from the Michigan Civil Service Commission. Every one of Michigan’s 15 largest unions or so has seen a decline, whether in state government, schools, local government, or private industries such as construction or food service. But the declines are uneven. A variety of AFSCME associations, representing mostly state and local government workers, have seen a loss of more than half their members. The SEIU, which mostly represents workers in health care and local government, is down nearly 70%. Click here for story.
EAST LANSING, Mich - Michigan State University police are investigating what they say is a “hate crime” that occurred on campus that was apparently perpetrated by five black men.
Cops say at 5:50 p.m. Monday, two people were assaulted by five men at the Main Library and “the motive behind the attack was the perpetrator’s sexual orientation bias,” WILX reports.
The news station said “Officials believe all five suspects to be teenagers,” but did not give further specifics.
NASHVILLE, TN - Attorneys representing Nashville, Tennessee argued Tuesday in court that police were still investigating aspects of the shooting committed at the Covenant School last March, when a transgender-identifying shooter murdered six people, and, therefore, the city is unable to release documents related to the case such as the shooter’s writings.
The argument came during a hearing over whether to release the killer’s writings, which have thus far been sealed from the public. The hearing, overseen by Judhr I’Ashea L. Myles, took place at the Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville, comes just over a year after three young children and three school staff members were killed during the shooting at Covenant, a private Christian school in Nashville. Click here to read more.
DENVER, COL - A Democrat-controlled city announced $45 million in funding for programs to help deal with the skyrocketing number of migrant arrivals it is facing, resulting in over $8 million in budget cuts for the police department.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston announced last week a package of $45.9 million to fully fund programs for "newcomers" for 2024 and avoid worst-case scenarios projected by the city. That’s in addition to $44 million in spending already secured for the program through previous budget moves.
Spending on migrants in the city skyrocketed last year from $2 million a month in August to $15 million in December. In January, migrant numbers peaked at around 5,000 in shelters but have since dropped to around 1,000, according to official figures.
LOS ANGELES, CALIF - Pro-Palestinian demonstrators carried out a coordinated, coast-to-coast protest Monday, temporarily shutting down travel into some of the nation’s busiest airports and bridges as protesters called for a permanent cease-fire in Gaza.
The group behind the large-scale protests is called A15, a movement that called for a coordinated economic blockade on April 15 in an effort to free Palestine.
“There is a need to shift from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy,” the group wrote online.
On the Monday in question, traffic in the San Francisco Bay Area was snarled for hours as demonstrators shut down all vehicle, pedestrian and bike traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge and chained themselves to 55-gallon drums filled with cement across Interstate 880 in Oakland. Click here to read more.
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