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Whitmer’s Legacy: Michigan second to last for income growth among ALL states since 1970, study finds

Recent research from the left-leaning Urban Institute is putting Michigan’s economic struggles into perspective.

The policy brief “ Is your state better off now than it was fifty years ago?” makes it clear the answer in Michigan is a resounding “no.”

Examining the percent change in inflation-adjusted household income between 1970 and 2023, the institute found only West Virginia, at negative 0.4%, fared worse than the Great Lakes State.

At a scant 2.9% growth, Michiganders are falling behind residents in nearly every other state, on pace to become among the poorest in the country over the next two decades.

It’s a problem that economists and business leaders have highlighted for years with little action from lawmakers in Lansing. Click here to read more.

 

Foreign big rig drivers lose licenses by the thousands, but ride-shares still use illiterate drivers

On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed to reporters that 17,000 non-English-speaking truck drivers have been removed from the road due to new administration rules. However, ride-share services like Uber and Lyft, along with taxis, still contract non-English-speaking drivers. According to Duffy, that’s a trickier problem to solve.

“The problem is that our states are the ones that issue these licenses. So with commercial driver’s licenses, we do have some federal control,” Duffy said Thursday during a Cabinet meeting, emphasizing that the work the administration has been able to do with Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDLs) differs from what their abilities are with state-administered drivers’ licenses. Click here to read more.

 

Citizen Sleuths Spotlight Red Flags Galore in Government Spending

NEW ORLEANS, La.—Although they received millions of taxpayer dollars, it can be hard to find the offices of health service providers in the Big Easy.

Consider Faith and Hope of New Orleans, a home health agency that took in $11.6 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) between 2018 and 2024. The company’s website, as well as federal and state databases, lists its address at 3720 Gentilly Street.

But RealClearInvestigations only found an empty building at that location last week. Repeated phone calls during working hours to the listed number connected to a service, whose operator said, “I don’t know why they’re not answering.” Click here to read more.

 

‘Routine’ Vaccines Paralyzed Their Toddler. It Took the Government 11 Years to Approve a Payout

In October 2013, 15-month-old Hayes Heller received multiple, routinely recommended vaccines. Within two weeks, Hayes was paralyzed.

His parents suspected the vaccines were to blame — so they applied to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP). Managed by the federal government, the VICP processes compensation claims for people injured after receiving recommended childhood vaccines.

But as the Hellers would learn, the path to compensation for vaccine injuries is complicated and fraught with delays.

Haye’s father, Heathe Heller, told The Defender the family’s claim ultimately succeeded — but it took more than a decade. And even then, it was incomplete.

The VICP, citing technical difficulties, still hasn’t reimbursed the family for all of the expenses related to Hayes’ care since 2013. Click here to read more.

 

500 groups with $3B in revenues are behind the #NoKings protests and communist call for ‘revolution’

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A network of about 500 groups with an estimated $3 billion in combined annual revenues is behind the coordinated nationwide “No Kings” protest Saturday, including communist groups who are using the day to call for a “revolution,” according to a Fox Digital News investigation.

According to a copy of the permit for the “flagship” march in St. Paul, Minn., Indivisible, a national well-heeled Democratic political advocacy organization funded by billionaire George Soros, is the lead coordinator for the protest.

But Fox News Digital has also identified key participation by a network of radical socialist and communist organizations funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American tech tycoon and avowed communist living in China. Click here to read more.