Voters hold political fate of US in their hands as they cast midterm ballots

Voters across the US described a range of urgent concerns, from reproductive rights to anxieties about the economy and crime

Millions of Americans took to the polls on Tuesday for the 2022 midterm elections, a series of bitter contests that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress for the next two years, as well as key state and local offices. The outcome could also help determine whether 2020 election deniers gain more political power, and potentially set the stage for still more discord among an increasingly fractious electorate.

Voters across the US described a range of urgent concerns, whether over the ongoing assault on reproductive rights or anxieties about the economy and crime. Many also described a heightened level of worry about possible challenges to accurate election results and the disenfranchisement of voters, including protracted litigation that could sow dangerous distrust in the US’s electoral system.

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FBI arrests two alleged far-right Boogaloo Boys group members

The arrests come amid concerns about the potential for violence around next week’s US midterm elections

The FBI has arrested two alleged members of the far-right anti-government group the Boogaloo Boys, as authorities express increasing concern about the potential for violence around next week’s US midterm elections.

Timothy Teagan was expected to appear on Wednesday in federal court in Detroit, where charges against him would be unsealed, an FBI spokesperson said.

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Juror in Gretchen Whitmer kidnap case dismissed for flirting with defendant

Judge acts after prosecutor says woman and Paul Bellar, 24, had ‘non-verbal communication’ in form of eye contact and smiling

A judge dismissed a young woman from the jury hearing the trial of three men in connection with a 2020 plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, after attorneys accused her of flirting with a defendant.

Judge Thomas Wilson announced on Friday that the woman had been removed from the jury, two days after attorneys raised concerns she was having too much non-verbal communication with the defendant Paul Bellar, the Jackson Citizen Patriot reported.

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Starbucks employee was fired illegally, labor board judge rules

The coffee giant will be required to reinstate Hannah Whitbeck’s job and to hold a meeting reasserting that the company broke the law

Starbucks illegally fired an employee at one of the coffee giant’s shops in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for engaging in union activism, a National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Friday.

The decision requires Starbucks to offer the worker reinstatement with back pay and to hold a meeting with employees, management, government representatives and the union to clarify workers’ rights and reassert the board’s finding that the company broke the law.

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Canada invokes treaty with US in push to keep cross-border pipeline open

Canada warns of ‘significant’ economic damage in the event of a shutdown of Line 5, which travels through Michigan

Canada has once again invoked a longstanding treaty with the US as it seeks to keep a controversial cross-border pipeline open, warning of “significant” economic damage to both countries in the event of a shutdown.

Canada’s foreign minister said Line 5, a pipeline operated by Calgary-based Enbridge, was a critical source of energy security.

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Wendy’s pulls lettuce from sandwiches in three states amid E coli outbreak

CDC is trying to determine whether romaine lettuce is the source of an outbreak that has sickened 37 people

The fast-food chain Wendy’s says it is pulling lettuce from sandwiches in its restaurants in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania after people eating them there reported falling ill.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday it is trying to determine whether romaine lettuce in Wendy’s sandwiches is the source of an E coli outbreak that has sickened over 30 people – and whether romaine used by the chain was also served or sold at other businesses.

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Detroit court will require judges to justify cash bail and assess ability to pay

Reform is the result of a lawsuit and is intended to challenge two-tier system where low-income people are jailed for lack of funds

A Michigan district court will implement reforms that will force judges in Detroit to state on record how implementing cash bail will protect the community.

The reforms are meant to end practices that commonly jail people from low-income and Black communities and could serve as a model for court systems across the US, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said.

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Hopes US baby formula shortage could ease as key Abbott plant restarts

Factory in Sturgis, Michigan shut down in May after storms that produced torrential flooding

A key baby formula plant shut down by torrential rains last month has resumed operations, again spurring hope that the nationwide baby formula shortage could ease up.

Abbott Laboratories, the United States’ largest baby formula manufacturer, closed down production at its main plant in Sturgis, Michigan, on 16 June after storms that produced catastrophic flooding. That came only two weeks after it had resumed work following a shutdown in February prompted by a Food and Drug Administration investigation that found contamination at the facility.

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Tourist rescued after mission to investigate California family’s hiking deaths

Michigan man entered area marked closed, reportedly saying he found official explanations of the deaths ‘odd’

A Michigan man who is said to have traveled to California’s Sierra national forest to investigate the heat-related deaths of a young family on a hiking trail last year had to be rescued last month, according to the Mariposa county sheriff’s office.

The tourist, whom authorities have not named but said is in his mid-60s, reportedly traveled to the area to research what happened to Ellen Chung, 30, her husband, Jonathan Gerrish, 45, their one-year-old daughter, Miju, and their dog, Oski, who all died on a hike last August.

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Panel makes case that Trump campaign knew alternate electors scheme was fraudulent

Text appears to indicate campaign sought to use certificates it knew were not state-certified to obstruct Biden’s victory

The House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack made the case at its fourth hearing on Tuesday that the Trump 2020 campaign tried to obstruct Joe Biden’s election win through a potentially illegal scheme to send fake slates of electors to Congress.

The panel presented a text message sent on 4 January 2021 that appeared to indicate the Trump campaign was seeking to use fraudulent election certificates they would have known were not state-certified to obstruct the congressional certification of Biden’s win.

Note: This post was updated to clarify the former US attorneys’ titles.

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‘That was my beloved son’: family of Patrick Lyoya say police killed their son in an ‘execution’

The family’s lawyer says Grand Rapid police officer broke protocol by using the Taser too close to Lyoya

The grief-stricken parents of the Black man shot in the back of the head by a white Michigan police officer have described their son’s death as an “execution”.

Patrick Lyoya, a 26-year-old Congolese refugee, was killed after a traffic stop in Grand Rapids on 4 April.

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Video shows police officer kneeling on Black man before fatally shooting him

Patrick Lyoya, aged 26, was killed in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during a struggle after a traffic stop

A Black man face-down on the ground was fatally shot in the back of the head by a Michigan police officer, the violent climax of a traffic stop, foot chase and fight over a stun gun, according to videos of the 4 April incident released by police on Wednesday.

Patrick Lyoya, 26, a Congolese refugee, was killed outside a house in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Two acquitted and mistrial declared for two others in Whitmer kidnap plot trial

Jury in Grand Rapids acquits two of conspiracy to kidnap Michigan governor and unable to agree on verdicts for other two men on trial

Two of four men on trial were acquitted on Friday of conspiracy to kidnap the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, in a plot prosecutors said was motivated by fury at the Democrat’s tough Covid-19 restrictions in the early stages of the pandemic.

The verdicts regarding Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were read in federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, US district judge Robert Jonker presiding.

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Fourth House Republican who voted to impeach Trump announces retirement

Ex-president issues mocking statement after Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan says he will not stand in midterms

The Michigan congressman Fred Upton has become the fourth of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump over the Capitol attack to announce his retirement in November.

The others are Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, a member of the January 6 committee, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio and John Katko of New York. The retirements are seen as further boosting Trump’s power and influence with Republicans.

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‘Dragged off and hung for treason’: jury at Whitmer kidnap trial see online posts

Prosecutors show jurors social media posts which defense says do not show plot to snatch Michigan governor

Jurors on Tuesday saw provocative social media posts written by a key figure charged in a plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan, including a photo of a noose and a question: which governor would be “dragged off and hung for treason first?”

Federal prosecutors were close to finishing their case after 12 days of trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They are trying to show that four men charged with conspiring to kidnap the governor, Gretchen Whitmer, in 2020 were committed to a plan without influence by informants or undercover FBI agents.

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Kellogg to replace 1,400 strikers as deal is rejected

Strike, which began in October, expected to continue as workers seek significant raises, saying they work 80-hour weeks

Kellogg has said it is permanently replacing 1,400 workers who have been on strike since October, a decision that comes as the majority of its cereal plant workforce rejected a deal that would have provided 3% raises.

The Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers (BCTGM) International Union said an overwhelming majority of workers had voted down the five-year offer.

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Republican Thomas Massie condemned for Christmas guns photo

Congressman causes outrage by posting ‘insensitive’ tweet just days after Michigan school shooting

A US congressman has posted a Christmas picture of himself and what appears to be his family, smiling and posing with an assortment of guns, just days after four teenagers were killed in a shooting at a high school in Michigan.

Thomas Massie of Kentucky tweeted: “Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo.”

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Michigan shooting: suspect’s parents held on $1m bond after capture

James and Jennifer Crumbley, who face manslaughter charges, entered not guilty pleas after being found hiding in a warehouse

The parents of Ethan Crumbley, the Michigan teen charged with killing four students at his high school this week, “could have stopped” the shooting, prosecutors alleged at the parents’ arraignment on Saturday, before the judge set a combined $1m bond.

In a Zoom hearing, James and Jennifer Crumbley entered not guilty pleas to each of four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

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Michigan shooting: suspect’s parents missing after pair charged with manslaughter

  • Police in Oakland county hunting Jennifer and James Crumbley
  • Son Ethan, 15, charged with murder over deadly school shooting

The parents of a boy who is accused of killing four students at Oxford high school are missing and being searched for by law enforcement after the pair were also charged as part of the investigation into the mass shooting in Michigan.

Jennifer and James Crumbley were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter.

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Prosecutor announces Michigan shooter’s parents to be charged with manslaughter – video

A prosecutor in Michigan filed involuntary manslaughter charges on Friday against the parents of a boy who is accused of killing four students at Oxford high school. 'Gun ownership is a right but with that right comes great responsibility,' Karen McDonald said at a press conference on Friday morning.

The parents were summoned to the school a few hours before the shooting occurred after a teacher found a drawing of a gun, a person bleeding and the words 'help me', McDonald revealed

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