Dave Bondy
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Tuesday February 25, 2025
February 25, 2025

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LANSING, Mich - Receiving $900,000 of taxpayer money won’t stop a Michigan electric vehicle maker from shuttering two locations and taking 188 jobs out of state.

Auburn Hills-based automotive supplier BorgWarner will close two plants of its subsidiary Akasol Inc., in Hazel Park and Warren. Layoffs will run from April 14 through July, according to a notice issued to the state under the federal WARN Act.

The factories test products for electric vehicles, including battery modules and packs, direct current fast charging equipment, and microgrid control and operations, according to a 2023 news release.

In 2019, the Michigan Strategic Fund awarded the company $2.24 million in taxpayer money for its Hazel Park plant, with the expectation it would create 224 jobs. The money would be paid out over five years as the company met milestones for creating jobs. Click here to read more.

 

CLEVELAND, OH - A medical watchdog says that the Cleveland Clinic is taking hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding while pushing race-based programs and policies.

Do No Harm, an organization dedicated to depoliticizing medicine, reported Monday that the Ohio clinic is engaged in a range of “discriminatory behavior.” This behavior includes recruitment strategies explicitly for minorities, minority-exclusive scholarships, and adopting “supplier diversity” policies.

“The Cleveland Clinic used to be synonymous with excellence,” Do No Harm Director of Research Ian Kingsbury told The Daily Wire. “Now, it’s becoming an avatar for everything that is wrong with American health care. It’s a sorry tale about the displacement of rigor and dispassionate truth seeking in favor of identity politics.” Click here to read more.

 

MESA, Ariz. — A Chandler police officer and an off-duty firefighter are being credited with saving a woman’s life after a seven-car crash in Mesa left her trapped in a burning pickup truck, AZ Central reported.

Officer Brian Larison of the Chandler Police Department was on his way to work on Feb. 18 when he took an alternate route, putting him at the scene of the crash around 7 a.m., according to the report. A concrete mixer had rear-ended a Nissan pickup, causing it to overturn and catch fire.

Larison, a 20-year police veteran and former Marine, rushed to the burning truck and used his baton to break the window, video shows. As he worked to free the driver, off-duty Peoria firefighter and paramedic Asa Paguia, who happened to have his fire gear with him, arrived to assist.

Together, they pulled the woman, identified as Aymee Ruiz, through the window and away from the flames just moments before the fire spread to the truck’s cabin.

“She clung to me on the side of the road, and I just held her,” Larison told AZ Central, visibly emotional. “I just told her I had her.”

 

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Two Santa Rosa high school students have died after allegedly overdosing on fentanyl, Santa Rosa police said. Two other students remain hospitalized after also allegedly overdosing on fentanyl in a separate incident Saturday.

A former student, a 19-year-old, is believed to have also died from drugs. However, officials said they don't believe the cases are related.

A 21-year-old, Ramon Nunez, was arrested Sunday in connection with the two fatal overdoses.

Santa Rosa authorities were first alerted around 5:15 a.m. Saturday about a suspected fentanyl overdose involving 14 and 16-year-old girls. Those girls were taken to a hospital and survived.

Later in the day, around 8:15 p.m., officers visited a home in the 2100 block on Brookwood Drive after a friend contacted police when she came across two teens lying unresponsive in bed. Click here to read more.

 

TAMPA, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced he is proposing a Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, task force in Florida aimed at auditing government spending and exploring the potential abolition of property taxes.

“I’m pleased to announce that we are launching a comprehensive initiative to continue to streamline our government and to continue to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, and to continue to ensure tax dollars are used in the most efficient way possible,” the governor said during a press conference Monday.

DeSantis said since 2019, Florida has more than tripled the rainy day fund, reduced the state’s historical debt by 41%, and kept Florida’s state employee count per capita the lowest in the nation. But he added, “we need to do more.”

“Our state DOGE task force will use AI to amplify our efficiency efforts, spearhead audits at our state universities and tee up the elimination of more than 70 state boards and commissions,” DeSantis said. Click here to read more.

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October 15, 2026
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October 22, 2026
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Who Is Lady Budgetdown? The Mystery Account Raising Eyebrows and Uncovering School Finances
The anonymous figure behind a growing school transparency website says the project is run by one person, has faced threats of legal action and is expanding its reach across Michigan.

MICHIGAN — Who is Lady Budgetdown?

It’s a question that has circulated among Michigan educators, school administrators, taxpayers and social media users as a mysterious online watchdog continues digging into school district finances, superintendent salaries, bond proposals and public spending.

Now, the person behind the increasingly visible project is revealing new details about its origins, operations and future — while refusing to disclose their identity.

In an exclusive written interview, Lady Budgetdown confirmed the operation is run by a single individual, not a larger organization or political group.

 

“It started with just me, and it currently is only me,” Lady Budgetdown said.

The anonymous researcher said the project receives technical assistance with website development but independently oversees the research, reviews public records, creates content and determines what information gets published.

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October 22, 2026
News they don't want you to see
Thursday October 22, 2026

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Michigan school funding tops inflation since before the pandemic

Funding for public schools in Michigan has grown faster than inflation since before the pandemic.

Yet some school teachers, like Amanda Walker of Bay City Schools, have said that schools are being defunded. Walker is vice president of her district’s chapter of the Michigan Education Association.

“I do think there’s been a concerted effort to dismantle public education by defunding, by diverting funds to private schools, by tearing down teachers and accusing them of all sorts of nonsense. People see it, and they feel it, and they don’t like it,” Walker told an MEA news publication recently.

It can feel that way at school districts such as Bay City, where the student count dropped 16% between 2018-19 and 2025-26, according to MiSchoolData.org. Fewer students means less in per-pupil funding. Click here to read more.


 

Data centers become midterm minefield as candidates scramble to answer voter backlash

President Donald Trump has made no secret of his support for building new data centers across the country, but candidates in both parties are trying to show voters they are listening to growing concerns about the technology. With the midterms two weeks away, the issue could help decide who voters ultimately choose.

The debate is playing out in city halls nationwide. In Memphis, Tennessee, the city council voted down a proposal Tuesday that would have halted new data center development for a year, following a heated meeting. “We demand a healthy environment, clean air, clean water, which we have a human right to. We also demand representation that chooses us, the people, over the profits of a billionaire’s experiment,” said KeShaun Pearson, who attended the meeting. Click here to read more.

Stay in contact with family with push to talk nationwide waterproof walkie talkies. Click here to learn more and get an extra 10% off.

 

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Cops Release Woman Who Plowed Through Soccer Field: No Charges, No Explanation

The debate is playing out in city halls nationwide. In Memphis, Tennessee, the city council voted down a proposal Tuesday that would have halted new data center development for a year, following a heated meeting. “We demand a healthy environment, clean air, clean water, which we have a human right to. We also demand representation that chooses us, the people, over the profits of a billionaire’s experiment,” said KeShaun Pearson, who attended the meeting.

In Hermantown, Minnesota, a rural community of about 10,000 people in the northeastern part of the state, the city council moved closer to approving a new Google data center. Some residents said officials haven’t pushed hard enough. Click here to read more.

 

Consumers Energy’s rate hike request comes days after $139M increase approved

Consumers Energy is looking for a rate hike on natural gas prices less than a week after the public service commission approved a $139 million increase.

The utility provider filed its notice of intent with regulators on Monday, which is required before it can submit its rate request.

The previous rate hike came out to about a 4.3% bump in monthly payments for natural gas.

Big picture view:

Consumers Energy has not said how much more it is asking for it its latest failing, but did say the new rate would last 12 months, ending Oct. 31, 2028.

Utility companies cannot set rates themselves. Instead, they submit a request to increase rates for either natural gas or electricity with the Michigan Public Service Commission.

After making the request, both parties and any other stakeholders weigh in on the case.

The Michigan Attorney General frequently intervenes in these cases. Click here to read more.

 

Trump and Vance announce $25M whistleblower program to encourage public to report alleged fraud

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday announced a $25 million program to encourage the public to blow the whistle on suspected fraud in the U.S. government as they ramp up efforts to end the abuse of federal programs and dollars.

The White House said that under the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, anyone who submits a tip that leads to a fraud conviction or a significant federal enforcement action is eligible to receive up to $30,000, and that the Justice Department will administer the program.

During the announcement, Trump said payments will amount to a 1% commission on the amount of fraud the tip helps uncover. Trump also said he will decide who gets reward money in cases where more than one person claims to have provided the tip.

“I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions,” Trump in the Oval Office with Vance and other administration officials standing behind him. “It’ll be a binding arbitration.”

Trump said journalists could participate in the program. Click here to read more.

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October 20, 2026
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Michigan Audit Raises Questions About Medical Procedures Performed on Children in State Care
State auditors also identified problems with adoption approvals, oversight of children under state guardianship and security of confidential records.

LANSING, Mich. — Children under Michigan's guardianship underwent medical procedures without required consent or documentation, while thousands of others were not being consistently tracked by the state agency responsible for them, according to a new audit.

The Michigan Office of the Auditor General released a 40-page report Oct. 15 identifying significant deficiencies within the Michigan Children's Institute, which operates under the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

The institute serves as the legal guardian for children whose parental rights have been terminated.

Auditors concluded that the institute's selected guardianship activities were not sufficient, identifying problems with

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