Judge rules against Arab activist’s motion for new trial
DETROIT (AP) —€” A judge in Detroit has denied an Arab community activist's request for a new trial.
U.S. District Judge Gershwin Drain says in a ruling last week that Rasmieh Odeh's argument for a new trial lacked legal authority.
He also ruled that evidence established Odeh illegally obtained naturalization as a U.S. citizen when she failed to tell immigration officials about her conviction for bombings that killed two people in 1969 in Jerusalem.
The 67-year-old Odeh of Chicago has said she was tortured into confessing to the crimes.
Israel released her in 1979 as part of a prisoner exchange. Odeh entered the U.S. in 1995 and applied for citizenship in Detroit in 2004.
She was convicted last year and is free on bond. Odeh’s sentencing is March 12. She faces likely deportation.
State legislators looking to cut off state’s startup funds
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — After Michigan's budgets had to be reduced due to companies cashing in tax credits at a higher rate than expected, some legislators are aiming to limit future liabilities.
Two new bipartisan bills would cap expenses the state might have to pay related to the Venture Michigan Fund. The fund was created in 2003 as an effort to lure more startup businesses to the state.
According to a report from the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency, the state will owe $140 million related to the program over the next three years.
The bills introduced last week would effectively prevent the fund from receiving an additional pot of money it could put toward making new investments, because that money would also put the state on the hook for more payments in the future.
Michigan Appeals court won’t upset convictions of former MLB?player
HASTINGS, Mich. (AP) — The state appeals court has affirmed the convictions and sentence of former Major League Baseball player Chad Curtis, who is in prison for sexual misconduct with teenage girls in western Michigan.
Curtis mostly claimed that his attorney was ineffective at key points of the 2013 trial in Barry County. But the appeals court, in a 3-0 decision released last Friday, found nothing that would call for a new trial.
Girls at Lakewood High School said Curtis touched them inappropriately while he was a volunteer in the weight room. Curtis denies the allegations but declined to testify at trial.
The 46-year-old Curtis will be eligible for parole in 2020. Separately, he and the school district are being sued by the girls.
Curtis played Major League baseball from 1992 through 2001.
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