Lansing: Group supports constitutional convention
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Republican state senator is among those leading a coalition supporting a proposal that would allow a rewrite of Michigan’s state constitution.
Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo County’s Texas Township said Wednesday he is chairman of a group calling itself the Reinvent Michigan Caucus. The group supports a proposal on the November ballot that would allow the state to hold a convention to revise the 1963 state constitution.
George was defeated in a primary bid for governor this year.
The proposal to rewrite the state constitution is opposed by a coalition that includes the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and several other groups.
A proposal to rewrite the constitution is placed before voters every 16 years.
Mount Clemens: Circuit judge lets Hooters weight bias suits proceed
MOUNT CLEMENS, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge has given the go-ahead to lawsuits by two ex-Hooters waitresses who say they were fired because of their weight.
Michigan has a pioneering law that prohibits discrimination based on weight. The 1976 law also bans discrimination based on age and height.
Hooters of Roseville Inc. and Atlanta-based Hooters of America Inc. say the law shouldn’t apply because their waitresses are entertainers whose appearance is a legitimate concern.
Macomb County Circuit Judge Peter Maceroni on Monday denied Hooters’ request to dismiss the suit because the waitresses had signed an arbitration agreement.
Maceroni says the women may not have knowingly waived their right to sue.
Flint: Couple arrested for assault while viewing‘Notebook’
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — Flint police say they’ve arrested a couple who got into a fight while watching the romantic drama “The Notebook.”
Police say the man told them the woman threatened him with a pair of scissors and cut him on his right arm when he took them from her. The woman told police the man grabbed her by the throat and lifted her from the ground.
Both were arrested and put in the county jail.
Detroit: ‘Spirit of Detroit’ wears back to school T-shirt
DETROIT (AP) — The 26-foot-tall “Spirit of Detroit” statue will spend the next eight days in a T-shirt highlighting the city’s public schools enrollment campaign.
Workers placed the “I’m In, We’re In” T-shirt on the bronze figure Wednesday morning outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building downtown.
The shirt was made from 300 square feet of fabric.
Officials say the statue will serve as a focal point for a back to school parade and rally on Thursday. The parade along Woodward Avenue begins at 11:30 a.m. near Grand Circus Park. The rally will follow at Hart Plaza.
The enrollment effort is centered on new academic initiatives, including expanded time for reading and mathematics.
The district is hoping to meet a 77,314-student goal this year.
Walker: Stabbing suspect ‘looks like a lot of other guys’
WALKER, Mich. (AP) — Police in Walker say a stabbing suspect’s common appearance is hampering their ongoing search for him.
Police Capt. Jason Howe tells The Grand Rapids Press that investigators field dozens of reported sightings daily of Jack Jacqmain and all have turned out unsubstantiated or to be different people.
The 52-year-old Jacqmain is a balding, middle-aged man with a belly.
Authorities say he’s a suspect in a fatal stabbing in a motel parking lot and has been missing for a week.
Howe tells the newspaper for a story Wednesday that police are “kind of chasing our tails,” because Jacqmain “blends in and looks like a lot of other guys.”
Jacqmain is suspected in the Aug. 18 death of 31-year-old Matt Moore of Indianapolis.
Detroit: Ex-Detroit mayor’s father to testify in lawsuit
DETROIT (AP) — A lawyer says the father of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to appear for a deposition in a civil lawsuit against his son and the city filed by the family of a slain stripper.
Birmingham attorney Norman Yatooma says Bernard Kilpatrick will be deposed on Aug. 31 at Yatooma’s office.
Yatooma represents Tamara Greene’s family in a federal lawsuit.
Greene was fatally shot in 2003, several months after reportedly performing at a rumored party at the Detroit mayoral mansion.
The lawsuit claims Kwame Kilpatrick and other city officials stifled a police investigation of her death.
Bernard Kilpatrick failed to appear two weeks ago for a deposition in Fort Worth, Texas, prompting Yatooma to ask a federal judge to cite him for contempt of court.
Lansing: Efforts continue to block ‘Tea Party’ from ballot
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Tea party activists and Republicans are filing suit to try and keep a group calling itself “The Tea Party” off Michigan’s November ballot.
The suit filed with the Michigan Court of Appeals says the organization didn’t follow state laws on conventions and candidate nominations.
Republicans say “The Tea Party” group trying to make the ballot is a fake aimed at hurting them by drawing away votes from legitimate GOP candidates.
“The Tea Party” isn’t certified for the ballot. The group is expected to sue asking to be placed on the ballot.
Republican Oakland County Clerk Ruth Johnson requested an investigation Tuesday into what she says may be fraud in Tea Party candidate nominations.
