Whistleblower Claims MEDC Overlooked Her Concerns About Taxpayer-funded Grant to Whitmer Donor
LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s top economic development official and close ally of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ignored a whistleblower’s warning about a taxpayer funded $20 million grant since the recipient was his “personal friend.”
A 30-page affidavit revealed the conversation between the whistleblower and Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) CEO Quentin Messer. That’s when the whistleblower said she “realized nothing was going to get done about the appropriation” after hearing those words from Messer.
The revelation is the latest in a scandal that’s encompassed Gov. Whitmer, the MEDC, and Democratic donor and MEDC committee member Fay Beydoun.
The affidavit served as the basis for a slew of warrants issued in June that lead to a search of the MEDC’s downtown Lansing office and Beydoun’s home in Farmington Hills. The searches are part of an ongoing embezzlement investigation into a grant Whitmer pressured the Legislature three years ago to direct to Beydoun’s nonprofit, Global Link International. Click here to read more.
Turning Point USA counters Super Bowl halftime over Bad Bunny uproar
Turning Point USA, the grassroots conservative political action network founded by the late activist Charlie Kirk, is planning a Super Bowl halftime show with the goal of competing with the official show featuring Bad Bunny and sponsored by Apple Music.
“The All-American Halftime Show” will take place on Super Bowl Sunday, during the big game on Feb. 8. A website for the event gave few other details about Turning Point’s plans, but indicated more information about performers and how the concert will be broadcast would be forthcoming.
A survey on the site asks respondents to select from a number of genres they’d like to hear during the show, including country, hip-hop, rock or “anything in English.” Click here to read more.
State Department Fires Foreign Service Officer in Secret Relationship With Chinese Communist
President Donald Trump’s State Department has fired a foreign service officer who admitted to hiding a relationship with a woman who had known ties to the Chinese Communist Party, the department confirmed to The Daily Signal.
Investigative journalist James O’Keefe uncovered that Foreign Service Officer Daniel Choi admitted on a hidden camera to hiding his relationship with the daughter of a senior Chinese Communist Party official.
“This termination is consistent with the executive order signed by President Trump affirming both his constitutional authority over our foreign policy and the State Department’s responsibility to carry out his directives,” Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson at the State Department, said in a statement shared with The Daily Signal. “Under Marco Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security.” Click here to read more.
New Episode Drops In Katie Porter Drama: Staffer Takes Verbal Abuse For Being ‘In My Shot’
Former Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) is fighting off a wave of self-made crises, the most recent of which features a video obtained by Politico in which she can be seen swearing at and berating one of her staffers for appearing in her shot while she recorded a video meeting with then Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm.
Porter, who pivoted from her Senate loss to Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) to a run for the governorship of California when Governor Gain Newsom (D-CA) terms out in a year, paused her meeting with Granholm to tell the unnamed staffer to “get out of my f***ing shot!”
Porter was speaking with Granholm about how much money Americans could save if they made the switch to electric vehicles when one of her staffers walked into the shot behind her. Her tone changed mid-sentence as she began scolding the staffer. Click here to read more.
A brief case for electricity choice. Turns out, free market competition benefits customers
Michigan’s electricity is among of the most expensive and least reliable in the country, and ratepayers have no option to take their business elsewhere. The monopoly over electricity sales that investor-owned utilities are given by the state is a key reason for this sorry state of affairs.
Consumers Energy, DTE, Upper Peninsula Power Company, and Indiana Michigan Power Company are just a few of the electric utilities that enjoy insulation from market competition. State-granted monopoly power allows them to charge rates as high as the Michigan Public Service Commission will allow.
Their monopoly is limited to 90% of the market, allowing the remaining consumers to choose from a selection of alternative suppliers. The results speak for themselves; the waiting list to get into this market has more customers in it than the market itself.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
From 2002 to 2008, Michigan enjoyed electricity choice; purchasers of electricity were true customers, selecting from a variety of electricity generators in a comparatively free market. Prices in Michigan were lower during most of that period than prices in other states in the Great Lakes region, and in the country as a whole. Click here to read more.
