Wealthy Devos family won’t back Amash in primary
LANSING (AP) — Members of the politically powerful DeVos family are no longer financially backing a Michigan congressman who is the first Republican on Capitol Hill to call for impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
Nick Wasmiller, spokesman for the DeVos family's RDV Corp., said Wednesday family members haven't made campaign contributions five-term Rep. Justin Amash this political cycle and have no plans to do so.
He says the decision is unrelated to Amash's recent statements about Trump and special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the election.
Wasmiller says family members have increasing concerns about a "lack of representation" for Michigan's 3rd Congressional District and an "inability to advance efforts connected to important policy matters."
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos halted all her political spending while in Trump's Cabinet.
Quarantine at state women’s prison after scabies outbreak
YPSILANTI (AP) — Officials say a new scabies outbreak at Michigan's only prison for women led to a quarantine at the facility so inmates could get treatment.
The Michigan Department of Corrections confirmed Tuesday that a residential unit at Huron Valley prison near Ypsilanti was placed under quarantine Friday. The Detroit Free Press reports 83 prisoners in the unit were treated for the parasitic mites that burrow under the skin and lay eggs.
MLive.com reports the unit returned to normal operations Saturday. Department spokesman Chris Gautz says the hope "is that we contain this and it doesn't spread any further."
The department was sued in April , with the lawsuit saying prisoners suffered severe itching and permanent scarring because officials took more than a year to diagnose and properly treat an earlier scabies outbreak.
Prisons ban book on black men in the justice system
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona has banned prisoners from reading a book that discusses the impact of the criminal justice system on black men, drawing outcry from First Amendment advocates who say the move is censorship.
The American Civil Liberties Union called on the Arizona Department of Corrections this week to rescind the ban on “Chokehold: Policing Black Men.” The book by Paul Butler, a former federal prosecutor, examines law enforcement and mass incarceration through its treatment of African American men.
“In order for them to ban a book, they have to show the restriction is related to a legitimate prison interest,” said Emerson Sykes, an ACLU attorney. “There’s no interest to keep inmates from learning about the criminal justice system and policing.”
Butler, a criminal law professor at Georgetown University, said his publisher was notified by email in March that his book had “unauthorized content.”
Corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder said the department had not yet received the ACLU’s letter asking for the ban to be reversed and declined further comment.
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