Straight-party voting ban gets attention of appeals court
DETROIT (AP) — A federal appeals court appears to be moving quickly in a dispute over Michigan’s ban on straight-party voting.
A judge in Detroit suspended the law, saying it violates the rights of black voters. Attorney General Bill Schuette filed an emergency appeal Wednesday to try to freeze that decision.
Critics who won the injunction have been ordered by the court to respond by Monday. Ballots for the fall election must be printed soon.
The Nov. 8 election would be the first affected by the law, passed by Republicans. The law ends straight-party voting, the ability to vote for candidates of one party with a single mark, from president to county commissioner.
Straight-party voting is popular in Michigan cities with large black populations, which tend to vote for Democrats.
Trial set for ex-Detroit council president in teen sex case
DETROIT (AP) — A trial date has been set for a former president of the Detroit City Council who is charged with criminal sexual conduct involving a teen more than a decade ago.
Charles Pugh is facing five counts of sexual misconduct for allegations going back to 2003 and 2004, when he was a television journalist. He’s jailed pending a Nov. 7 trial, which was scheduled Friday.
Not guilty pleas have been entered. Defense lawyer Delphia Burton says a $150,000 bond that’s been set is too high and she’s trying to get it reduced.
Pugh was elected to the council in 2009, and became president because he got the most votes. He quit in 2013 and left for New York as allegations in a separate case became public. He was charged in June.
Charges filed in drug overdose of Ted Nugent’s land manager
JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — Charges have been filed in the overdose death of Ted Nugent's property manager in southern Michigan.
Melissa Mullins faces a court hearing Tuesday to determine if there’s enough evidence to send the case to trial in Jackson County. The Jackson Citizen Patriot says Mullins is charged with supplying a fatal heroin dose to Jim Lawson, who died on the rocker’s property on April 29.
Defense attorney Andrew Kirkpatrick declined to comment.
Penny Lawson tells the newspaper that her husband managed Nugent’s 340-acre ranch in Pulaski Township and lived in a house rented from Nugent.
On April 30, Nugent’s Facebook page said “hearts are shattered” because of Lawson’s death. He said: “Rock in peace.”
Lawson appeared in “Surviving Nugent,” a 2003 show on VH1.
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