LANSING, Mich - Michiganders will pay higher fees for vehicle registration, boating, and fishing if the state enacts the $84.6 billion budget for fiscal year 2026 that was recently passed by the Michigan Senate.

The recommendation exceeds Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s budget by more than a billion dollars but still requires the approval of the Michigan House.

The fee increase comes after a six-year period during which Michigan’s budget has grown by 47%.

Lawmakers want to require every Michigander who registers a vehicle to pay an extra $10 for a recreational park pass, a purchase that has been optional to date.

Michigan aims to raise $43.5 million in revenue through the higher recreational fee. The higher hunting and fishing fees are intended to raise $28.8 million, and the higher boating fee aims to bring in $12 million. The new Department of Natural Resources nudget would hire 29 new full-time employees. Click here to read more.

 

CLOVID, CALIF - Over the weekend, this sleepy San Joaquin Valley suburb of Fresno became the focus of the national transgenderism debate. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), the governing body for California high school athletics, hosted the statewide track and field championships at Clovis’s Buchanan High School, during which a boy, AB Hernandez, dominated several of the girls’ events.

Hernandez, a junior from Jurupa Valley High School, located near Riverside, is a boy who claims to be a transgender girl. Under CIF rules and California law, Hernandez has been permitted to compete in girls’ sports. On Saturday, May 31, Hernandez took first place in the girls’ triple jump, tied for first place in the girls’ high jump, and got second place in the girls’ long jump.

Yes, that’s right, the California state girls’ champion in the high and triple jump . . . is a boy. Click here to read more.

 

WASHIGNGTON D.C. - Since President Trump took office in January, some of the world’s largest and most prominent companies have made a clear choice: They are staking their future on a growing presence in the United States. Many of these companies are in the tech sector, and it’s welcome news as the U.S. seeks to secure its leadership position in the race for global technological dominance.

The running tally of new investments to make technology products in America is long, and the investments are substantial. The White House just launched a website called “The Trump Effect,” which lists more than $5 trillion of investments since Mr. Trump began his second term. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - Conservative and faith-based services are sounding the alarm about ways that Washington politicians could restrict the freedom to practice their beliefs, citing new provisions that narrowly failed during last week’s passage of President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax cut legislation.

Congressional action around election integrity is the impetus for increasing concern that religious freedoms may be caught in the crossfire. Provisions in the legislation would have allowed for expanded surveillance of sensitive areas such as churches, synagogues, and mosques, areas that have historically allowed civic associations to congregate.

The language was nearly included in last week’s omnibus bill passed by the U.S. House, which would have given the federal government additional authority to expand the definition of foreign election interference by nonprofit organizations. Religious advocates say this could jeopardize their tax-exempt status and even their relationships with federally backed banks, which may revoke their accounts. Click here to read more.

 

MURPHY, Texas - A suspect is in custody after police say a Texas elementary school teacher was attacked and robbed outside her school.

Parent Amber Beayrd says a Boggess Elementary School teacher was attacked last Thursday morning just steps from the school building. Several students, including her fourth grade son, witnessed what happened.

“They were outside for the recess activities. He heard some screaming going on, and that’s when he looked and saw everything happening,” Beayrd said.

Arrest documents state Daniel Okungbowa approached the teacher outside the school, asking questions about her job. Police say when the woman walked away, the suspect ran up behind her and grabbed her in a full-body hold. Click here to read more.

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PORTLAND, OR - Two female athletes declined to stand on the podium next to a transgender athlete during the awards ceremony for the high jump at the Oregon state track and field championships on Saturday night.

Reese Eckard of Sherwood High School and Alexa Anderson of Tigard High School stepped down from their positions on the podium in protest of the trans competitor from Ida B. Wells High School.

Eckard finished fourth in the high jump, and Anderson finished third; both female athletes defeated the trans athlete who tied for fifth. An event official then gestured for Eckard and Anderson to move away from the podium after they stepped down.

This was the first year in which the trans athlete competed in the girls category. He had competed in boys’ events in both 2023 and 2024.

The protest is part of a growing trend as of late, which has seen female athletes use their platform to voice dissent against the intrusion of trans athletes into girls’ and women’s sports. Click here to read more.

 

BOSTON, MASS - A radical student group at Brandeis University. Members of a socialist organization affiliated with House "Squad" members. The treasurer of a Democratic super PAC funded heavily by George Soros. These are just some of the figures and groups calling to "free" Elias Rodriguez, the Chicago man police say confessed to the Washington, D.C., murders of two Israeli diplomats.

Twenty-one organizations, along with Democratic activist Kamau Franklin, signed an open letter in support of Rodriguez organized by the Tariq El-Tahrir Youth and Student Network. It calls Rodriguez's shooting of Israeli diplomats Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky outside of the Capital Jewish Museum "fully justified," "eminently defensible," and "morally righteous." It also urges readers to "give pause to the zionists" and "GLOBALIZE THE INTIFADA," a popular rallying cry among student radicals on Ivy League campuses like Columbia University and Harvard University. One signee, Unity of Fields, has been involved in the Columbia protests. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - Facial recognition technology (FRT) is no longer science fiction. From unlocking our phones to streamlining airport security, FRT has been quietly integrated into daily life. Most of us don’t bat an eye when we see FRT-enabled cameras providing an extra layer of security at a sporting event, but when this powerful tech is used in policing, the conversation gets a lot more complicated.

Law enforcement agencies must approach this innovative technology cautiously, considering both benefits and risks. Following are five key considerations.

We often think of facial recognition as a new innovation, but it’s already firmly entrenched in many areas of public and private life. According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, over two-thirds of police agencies use FRT in some capacity, though the predominant applications include facility and computer systems access. From unlocking smartphones to scanning faces at border crossings, FRT is part of a growing web of biometric security many of us now take for granted. As of mid-2024, for example, Customs and Border Protection had processed more than 540 million travelers using facial recognition. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - June 1 marks the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark parental rights decision in Pierce v. Society of Sisters.

That historic opinion recognized “the liberty of parents and guardians to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control.” It also famously declared that “the child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations.”

Sadly, despite that—and even now—many federal programs continue to encroach on parental rights.

Though parents have a fundamental right to raise and educate their children, and America’s history and tradition recognize the integrity of the family and parents’ rightful role as their children’s primary decision-makers, many courts have failed to properly treat parental rights as constitutionally protected. Instead, they have eroded parents’ rights by not applying the highest level of legal protection. That has contributed to the problems that still exist with many federal programs. Click here to read more.

 

WASHINGTON D.C — After years of rising prices and limited inventory, the housing market is undergoing a major shift: Sellers now far outnumber buyers.

As of April, the U.S. housing market had nearly 500,000 more sellers than buyers — the largest seller surplus on record, according to a new Redfin estimate.

Aside from the start of the pandemic in April 2020, homebuyers haven’t been this scarce since at least 2013, the earliest year for which Redfin has data.

As recently as February 2024, the number of buyers and sellers was roughly balanced, but the gap has steadily widened over the past year. Redfin now expects home prices to drop 1% by the end of 2025.

The online real estate brokerage highlighted three factors tilting the balance of power toward buyers: recent economic uncertainty, high home prices and a mortgage rate lock-in effect that is beginning to ease. Click here to read more.

ALABASTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A marijuana grow operation uncovered in rural Michigan has been linked to an international crime ring involving Chinese nationals, according to the Iosco County Prosecutor’s Office.

Four Chinese nationals were charged after Michigan State Police raided a warehouse in Alabaster Township on May 29, 2025. Inside, investigators discovered 5,057 marijuana plants in various stages of growth, from clones to fully flowering plants. The estimated value of the seized crop exceeds $5 million.

Iosco County Prosecutor James A. Bacarella said the suspects—identified as Meiqing Chen, Zhenhong Nei, Wenying Wu, and Changning Zhen—were all in the U.S. legally but now face charges of possessing marijuana with intent to deliver and maintaining a drug manufacturing facility. The charges carry prison terms of up to 15 years and 2 years, respectively.

The bust appears to be part of a larger, organized criminal network that spans multiple U.S. states and reaches into China. Authorities said evidence discovered at an apartment in the former Wurtsmith Air Force Base further tied the suspects to the grow operation.

 

Troopers later spotted the suspects traveling southbound on U.S. 23. A traffic stop revealed the four individuals inside the vehicle. Police said the GPS on the driver’s phone was set for a destination in New York, indicating they may have been attempting to flee.

Three of the suspects—Chen, Wu, and Zhen—have pleaded not guilty. The fourth, Nei, is currently in ICE custody and has yet to be arraigned.

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Local officials praised the efforts of state police and narcotics investigators in uncovering what they describe as a sophisticated, multi-state operation tied to Chinese networks.

All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.