MichMan

MichMan's Journal

May 26, 2022

Goodbye NYC; Estimates show big city losses, Sunbelt gains

Ko Im always thought she would live in New York forever. She knew every corner of Manhattan and had worked hard to build a community of friends. Living in a small apartment, she found her attitude shifting early in the pandemic. After her brother accepted a job in Seattle in the summer of 2020, she decided to move there too.

“It was fine until it wasn’t,” said Im, 36. “The pandemic really changed my mindset about how I wanted to live or how I needed to live."

Eight of the 10 largest cities in the U.S. lost population during the first year of the pandemic, with New York, Los Angeles and Chicago leading the way. Between July 2020 and July 2021, New York lost more than 305,000 people, while Chicago and Los Angeles contracted by 45,000 residents and 40,000 people, respectively.

Although San Francisco's not among the 10 largest cities, almost 55,000 residents left that city, or 6.3% of its 2020 population, the highest percentage of any U.S. city.

[link:https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/goodbye-nyc-estimates-show-big-city-losses-sunbelt-gains/ar-AAXJFF8?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=e9d074ea07dd4804a82cc6e48802fcde|

March 22, 2022

NYC man charged with smearing feces on woman's face held on bail for new crime

A disturbed repeat offender released without bail after arrests for smearing his own feces on a stranger’s face at a Bronx subway station and attacking a man wearing a yarmukle in Brooklyn has been busted again — and this time he begged police to keep him in jail or face the consequences, prosecutors said Tuesday.

“Don’t let me out again,” Frank Abrokwa warned a cop after his arrest for going berserk on workers at a Washington Heights self storage facility on Saturday, according to court documents. “What I’m going to do next is going to shock the city.” Abrokwa finally got his wish. A judge ordered the 37-year-old homeless man held on $5,000 bail for smashing a window at Treasure Island Self Storage on W. 145th St. and screaming threats at workers there.

On Feb. 28, Abrokwa was arrested for smearing his own feces on a woman at a Bronx train station a week earlier. He was also accused of attacking a Brooklynite on Sept. 9 in Crown Heights.

No bail was set because none of the charges qualified for bail under the state’s bail reform laws. During his arraignment for the foul smear, Abrokwa cursed at the judge and left the courthouse with a wide grin beneath his NBA baseball cap.

[link:https://news.yahoo.com/man-charged-smearing-feces-woman-121300950.html|

March 21, 2022

Police seek woman accused of driving into Detroit crowd during brawl, killing bystander

Detroit — Police are asking for the public to help track down a woman who reportedly drove a vehicle into a crowd of onlookers during a neighborhood brawl, killing a bystander a split-second after the victim pushed a child out of harm's way.

During a press conference at Public Safety Headquarters Monday, Detroit Police Chief James White identified the victim as Tiffany White, who died Monday morning, hours after she was struck at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.

The crossover that was used to kill White was described as a 2020 gray or silver Nissan Murano with a Michigan license plate FDY246. The suspect is an African American woman believed to be in her 30s.

Investigators believe White was one of several people who had gathered near Manning and Crusade on the city's eastside to watch a fight between two factions of beefing neighbors, the chief said.

[link:https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/03/21/woman-drove-suv-into-crowd-during-brawl-killing-bystander-detroit-police/9457366002/|

March 18, 2022

Unemployment agency didn't ensure background checks for 5,500 staffers. Some had prior crimes

How is it that people who were fired or quit were still allowed computer access to the system for weeks? In at least one instance, an employee fired for approving fraudulent claims for kickbacks, continued to do so for weeks after being fired. First action usually taken when someone leaves a company is to disable their log in access, but not here. And no one has been held accountable.

Unemployment agency didn't ensure background checks for 5,500 staffers. Some had prior crimes, audit says

The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency failed to ensure background checks were conducted for more than 5,500 employees as the agency ramped up its numbers under a wave of new claims at the start of the pandemic.

The audit found 169 workers had prior convictions including financial crimes, and 71 of those 169 were still employed at the time of the review.

The agency also allowed departed workers continued access to the unemployment system, leading in at least one case to about $3.8 million in fraud, according to an audit of the agency's personnel management. The agency has yet to hold the staffing agencies responsible for employees who committed fraud.

A total of 63 of 139 departed workers sampled by the Auditor General's office had continued access to the Michigan Integrated Data Automated System (MiDAS) "to view and make unauthorized changes to claims for an average of 32.6 days after their departure," the audit said.

[link:https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2022/03/18/michigan-unemployment-agency-audit-staff-background-checks/7081379001/|

March 12, 2022

Elections official in Michigan charged with ballot tampering

FLINT TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A former township clerk and current county elections supervisor in Michigan has been charged with ballot tampering in the August 2020 primary.

Kathy Funk also is charged with misconduct in office, the Michigan attorney general's office said late Friday. Both charges are felonies punishable by up to five years in prison upon conviction. Funk faces arraignment in Genesee County's 67th District Court.

Funk was Flint Township's clerk when authorities allege she purposely broke a seal on a ballot container, according to the attorney general's office. Under Michigan law, that prevented votes inside the container from being counted in an anticipated recount. No recount was ever performed and Triplett, who was appointed to replace Funk as township clerk in November, told MLive-The Flint Journal that she asked for a recount after the election after having noticed suspicious activity at the township hall in the days surrounding the primary.

“Election officials must uphold the integrity of their positions,” Attorney General Dana Nessel, a Democrat, said Friday in a release. “Those who abuse that commitment undermine the very foundation of our democracy.”

[link:https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2022/03/12/kathy-funk-ballot-tampering-election-flint-township/7015942001/|

March 12, 2022

UM study: Detroit parents less likely to vaccinate themselves, their kids

A University of Michigan report released this week indicates Detroit parents are less likely to vaccinate themselves than nonparents, which is leading to low youth vaccination rates in the state's largest city.

Just under half of Detroit parents and guardians of children under 18 reported at the end of last year that they had been vaccinated against COVID-19, compared to 75% of adults without children, according to the report from the Detroit Metro Communities Study, supported by UM's Poverty Solutions Initiative. About 86% of unvaccinated parents responded that they were concerned regarding the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Additionally, 76% of parents cited doubt about the effectiveness of the vaccine as contributing to their decision to not be vaccinated.

Less than half of Detroit's eligible population has received a vaccine dose, compared to 65% of Michigan. The study noted there was no evidence of ethrecoracial differences in vaccination rate among parents; however, White Detroiters said they were more likely to vaccinate their kids.

Detroit's Chief Health Officer Denise Fair Razo said she can't speculate on the findings of the survey but is aware that vaccination rates for young children are the lowest of any eligible age group. As of Tuesday, just 12.7% of Detroit's children ages 5-11 have received at least one dose of vaccine and less than 10% are fully vaccinated. As for children ages 12-15 years old, 27% are fully vaccinated, according to the Detroit Health Department.

[link:https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2022/03/12/um-study-detroit-parents-less-likely-vaccinate-themselves-their-kids/7014110001/|

February 5, 2022

Former clerk rewrites SCOTUS contenders' Wikipedia bios

A former law clerk for a potential Supreme Court nominee embarked on a Wikipedia editing spree over the past week, bolstering the page of his former boss while altering the pages of her competitors in an apparent attempt to invite liberal skepticism, according to a statement from his fellow clerks.

After POLITICO began inquiring about the changes on Friday, a group of former law clerks for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson identified the anonymous editor as Matteo Godi, another former Jackson clerk. Godi did not respond to multiple emailed requests or a phone call.

In a statement, the former clerks for Jackson — who requested anonymity in order to identify the online editor — said Godi has edited his former boss’s Wikipedia page “as a matter of course” for several years. They said Jackson was not aware of Godi’s edits on the pages of other judges.

Those edits display a pattern: The page for Jackson, seen by many as a Supreme Court frontrunner, was tweaked to paint her in a more favorable light for a liberal audience, while the pages for other potential nominees — South Carolina federal district court Judge J. Michelle Childs and California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger — were altered to make them potentially less appealing to a left-leaning audience.

[link:https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/04/former-clerk-rewrites-supreme-court-wikipedia-bios-00005914|

January 27, 2022

Virtual only schools should return to classrooms, Whitmer says

Lansing — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in an interview Thursday that Michigan school districts that are currently offering only virtual instruction should return students to classrooms for in-person learning.

“98% of our districts in Michigan are in person right now," Whitmer said during an appearance on WDET's "Detroit Today." "We’ve got some big ones that are not. I want to work with those districts to help support them so they can get kids back in school."

The governor made the comments the day after her fourth State of the State address, in which she said students "belong in schools." The subject has become the topic of intense political debate with Republicans attempting to tie school closures to Whitmer as she seeks reelection.

During her State of the State address on Wednesday, Whitmer said remote learning is "not as fulfilling or conducive to a child’s growth." "In-person learning is critical to social development and mental health," she said during the speech. "That’s why we will do everything we can to keep kids in the classroom."

[link:https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/01/27/virtual-only-schools-should-return-classrooms-governor-whitmer/9238316002/|

January 3, 2022

Detroit lawmakers to sue redistricting commission, allege violation of Voting Rights Act

The maps adopted by Michigan's citizen-led, independent redistricting commission eliminate majority-Black congressional and state Senate districts that currently run through Detroit and reduce the number of Detroit majority-Black districts in the new state House map.

Expected plaintiffs in the lawsuit called on Democrats during Monday's briefing to support the legal challenge, arguing that Michigan Democrats should not embrace maps that give them a chance to win congressional and legislative majorities at the expense of Black voters' representation.

"Don’t leave us out in the rain because you simply want a majority," said former state Rep. Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, an expected plaintiff in the lawsuit.

Before it began drawing its maps, Adelson advised the commission to fix Detroit districts that packed Black voters, referencing a form of gerrymandering in which one group of voters is heavily concentrated in a handful of districts where they are all but guaranteed to see their preferred candidates elected but their influence is removed from surrounding communities.

"We could potentially have people representing our community that don’t have the commitment to our city," said Gay-Dagnogo. "Detroit deserves to have Black leadership."

[link:https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2022/01/03/detroit-michigan-redistricting-commission-lawsuit/9076829002/|

January 3, 2022

Detroit lawmakers plan to challenge redistricting maps over racial fairness

The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission, approved by voters in 2018, changed the way the once-in-a-decade redistricting process is done by giving that responsibility to a 13-member citizens panel made up four Republicans, four Democrats and five non-partisan members.

“Unfortunately, the problem lies in the largest African American majority city in the nation has received the very short end of the stick,” said filing attorney Nabih Ayad. “The new redistricting map lines have unfairly discriminated against the city of Detroit, its residents and its elected officials.”

Overall, the maps adopted by the commission last week decreased the number of majority-Black districts in the proposed maps by stretching Detroit districts into the suburbs. African Americans are an influential voting bloc in the Democratic Party. The spoke-like districts were drawn as such in an effort to increase partisan fairness and "unpack" past efforts to isolate the Democratic vote to certain districts.

While some Detroit Democrats remained disgruntled with the new maps approved last week, larger Democratic groups weren't quick to criticize the maps.

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, now chairman for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, praised the commission's work as a "success" that shows independent commissions can "produce a fair result.

[link:https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2022/01/03/detroit-lawmakers-plan-challenge-redistricting-maps-over-racial-fairness/9074966002/|

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