Latest news with #LainaG.Stebbins
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Crime victim service nonprofits in Michigan sound alarm for decreases in federal funding
Pinwheels in downtown Lansing mark the Children's Trust Fund's 14th annual Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Day rally, April 26, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins Groups that provide crime victims access to emergency shelter, counseling, food assistance and more are at risk of closing as federal funding for victim services has been on a steady decline in recent years while need has increased in Michigan, nonprofit groups in the state are warning. Prevention is a key tool in fighting against domestic and sexual violence, Betsy Huggett, director of the Diane Peppler Resource Center in Sault Ste. Marie told the Michigan Advance, but trims to federal funding have meant community programs to build awareness for violence for students haven't been possible as the center operates in 'famine' mode. The center's staff of 14 wear a lot of hats in order to maintain the shelter for survivors and their families and ensure individuals and their loved ones can exit dangerous living situations, Huggett said. She said she's proud that the center has navigated many storms like keeping the majority of its staff on the payroll during the COVID-19 pandemic, but she wonders how much more the organization could do if it had more sustainable funding. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'We know the rug could be pulled out from under us at any time so we just keep staying in the famine mindset…there were a lot of things that we used to be able to do that made a huge impact in the community,' Huggett said. The Victims of Crime Act, or VOCA, the main federal funding program distributing states funds to provide services to victims of crimes such as child abuse, domestic and sexual assault, elder abuse and more has seen steep decreases nationwide in recent years. Michigan saw a 42% chop in VOCA funding for victim services last year compared to the 2023 VOCA amount which is funded by fines and penalties from federal cases, with a large portion coming from the prosecution of white collar financial crime which has been on a years-long decline, expected to decline further under President Donald Trump. Michigan, like most states, has taken on the cost burden of keeping domestic violence shelters and other resources open by supplementing the funds lost through use of the state budget. However, Michigan is still falling short as it struggles to maintain funding levels while the cost of services has shot up, Johanna Kononen, director of law and policy for the Michigan Coalition to End Domestic and Sexual Violence, or MCEDSV, told the Advance. The 2024 fiscal year Michigan state budget allocated $30 million for victim services being provided by more than 100 organizations across the state. Now MCEDSV is seeking $75 million for organizations in the state budget through a campaign, '75 Saves Lives' to encourage lawmakers crafting the next budget to recognize the consequences for crime victims if organizations aren't able to provide services. When it comes to topics like domestic and sexual violence, which hold stigma and shame in conversations, there can be an illusion that those kinds of crimes happen to other people and don't impact the lives of all Michiganders, Kononen said. But nationwide estimates find that more than half of women and almost one in three men will experience sexual violence in their lifetime while domestic violence impacts 10 million Americans annually, including intimate partner violence and child abuse. 'Oftentimes, it's easy to [say] 'this hasn't happened to me and so this isn't impacting me. Why should we prioritize this as a state?'. But unfortunately, statistically speaking, if you don't know someone who's been impacted by domestic or sexual violence, it's because they haven't told you,' Kononen said. Nobody wants to think about sexual violence, especially when it comes to children being the victims, Melissa Werkman, President of Children's Advocacy Centers of Michigan said, but the reality is 1 in 7 children have experienced abuse or neglect in the last year in the U.S. which equals about 300,000 of Michigan's kids. VOCA dollars almost exclusively fund the frontline workers at Michigan's 40 children's advocacy centers, Werkman told the Advance, meaning the forensic interviewers for children who've experienced violence, victim advocates who guide families towards healing after abuse and medical professionals who offer care, all at low to no cost. The goal of children's advocacy centers is to respond to violence in a child's life in a way that is geared towards them and their healing amidst systems that were not built for children, Werkman said. When talking to the public about the value of the centers, Werkman said a lot of people expect the centers to be shrouded in discomfort, sadness and confusion, but the truth is this work helps kids get back to being kids. 'The kids are excited to come to their therapy appointments. They walk right in and they know the intake coordinator and they're excited to see the therapy dog. That is what we give kids back. We most importantly beyond the justice aspect of it, beyond the advocacy aspect and therapy aspect, we give kids their agency back,' Werkman said. Without VOCA, there are no children's advocacy centers, Werkman said, because as much as 85% of a center's budget can come from those federal funds. Given the decline in funding, children's advocacy centers in Michigan on average are operating on a funding gap of over $100,000 and smaller rural centers providing care to multiple counties where resources are strained are most at risk of closing their doors. Having to stop funding a counselor or close down a shelter is a terrible decision for a victim organization to face, but it's especially ominous for tribal communities where some programs for an area have only one victim advocate and there is only one tribal domestic and sexual violence shelter in the state, Stacey Ettawageshik, executive director of Uniting Three Fires Against Violence said to the Advance. Uniting Three Fires Against Violence, a tribal victim advocacy group providing training and advocacy for the 12 tribal programs in Michigan providing domestic and sexual violence care, has done a lot of work to get tribal issues a voice in Lansing, Ettawageshik said. For a demographic of people who experience violence at a drastically disproportionate rate than their white counterparts, Ettawageshik said tribal groups have worked 10 times as hard as other violence programs to get their portion of funding. There's a historic lack of trust in non-tribal organizations claiming to help Native Americans, an example being Indian residential schools in Michigan which stole hundreds of Anishinaabe children from their homes and subjected them to years of abuse and culture erasure, Ettawageshik said. Pain and resilience: The legacy of Native American boarding schools in Michigan Tribal programs come from a trauma-formed approach that includes historical knowledge of how violence has impacted Michiganders from tribal communities and can administer culturally honoring services and sacred medicines like sage, cedar, sweet grass and tobacco, Ettawageshik said. 'We've come so far [with] tribal programs getting access to these resources in the first place that it will just be taken away in a heartbeat and where does that leave us?,' Ettawageshik said. 'That leaves us back at square one… losing that funding. Losing that support is going to make a huge impact on our communities that already experience higher levels of substance use, homelessness, increased violence and that violence is really committed most of the time by non-natives.' While President Donald Trump's administration has placed a strong focus on cutting what it labels as erroneous federal spending and usage of taxpayer dollars for programs not aligning with the administration's values, Kononen said it's imperative for residents and policymakers to understand that VOCA is funded through criminals having to pay for their crimes. 'I think it's very easy for people to see what's happening in the federal government and think that that's something that's happening really far away… that doesn't have anything to do with me here in my town in Michigan and the services that my community needs,' Kononen said. 'It's a tricky topic to broach with people, and it makes it seem kind of academic like this is a line item in the budget when these are real people who are getting life-saving help.'
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court strikes down Michigan's 24-hour waiting period for abortions
A sign at the Michigan Pride rally in Lansing on June 26, 2022. | Photo by Laina G. Stebbins Michigan's mandatory 24-hour waiting period for receiving abortions has been struck down after a Michigan Court of Claims judge determined Tuesday that the rule was unconstitutional. Michigan voters enshrined the right to an abortion and 'reproductive freedom for all' into the state constitution in the November 2022 election through a ballot measure. In February 2024, abortion rights groups filed a lawsuit challenging several of Michigan's provisions around abortion access, asserting that they work against Michiganders' new constitutional rights. In addition to the mandatory 24-hour waiting period, Michigan Court of Claims Judge Sima Patel struck down requirements surrounding mandatory counseling that required abortion providers to provide an image of a fetus to patients receiving abortions. Another stricken rule had barred nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physician assistants from performing abortions However, Patel upheld a rule that requires abortion providers to screen for signs of coercion, saying the rule does not violate the constitutional right to reproductive health care. Michigan voters OK abortion, voting rights and term limits proposals 'The interest to be protected in this case is the fundamental right to reproductive freedom. The Court has deemed the majority of the provisions in the challenged laws to unconstitutionally burden and infringe upon that right,' Patel wrote in her opinion Tuesday. Striking down the 24-hour waiting period has been a top priority for abortion access advocates, as Planned Parenthood of Michigan reported in 2023, when lawmakers were considering a repeal, that the rule causes around 150 patients to cancel their appointments each month due to difficulty scheduling with work, transportation or other reasons. Plaintiffs arguing for the repeal in the case argued that the waiting period does nothing to promote patient health or protect against coercion into getting an abortion. Instead, proponents for the repeal argued that the waiting period works to ensure it becomes more difficult, logistically and medically, to receive quality abortion care earlier in a pregnancy. '…the Court finds that the mandatory 24-hour waiting period burdens and infringes upon patients' rights to reproductive freedom,' Patel wrote in her opinion Tuesday. 'The mandatory delay exacerbates the burdens that patients experience seeking abortion care, including by increasing costs, prolonging wait times, increasing the risk that a patient will have to disclose their decision to others, and potentially forcing the patient to forgo a medication abortion for a more invasive procedure.' Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, a staunch supporter of abortion rights, has long supported eliminating the state's waiting period placed on abortions, saying in a statement Tuesday that the court's decision recognizes the struck down provisions as burdensome and obstructive to abortion care. 'This ruling affirms what Michiganders made clear when they voted to enshrine a fundamental right to reproductive freedom in our state constitution: that deeply personal medical decisions belong to individuals and their providers,' Nessel said. 'I will continue fighting to defend reproductive freedoms and protect bodily autonomy for Michigan residents.' Meanwhile, Right to Life of Michigan President Amber Roseboom said in a statement that the court's decision endangers womens' ability to make informed and safe medical decisions for themselves. 'Abortion is the only medical procedure of its kind in which the patient now is expected to go in blind,' Roseboom said in a statement. 'There is no question that women are at greater risk when they enter an abortion clinic in Michigan today than they were even a few years ago.' Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who championed the effort to remove the barriers, said the ruling 'reaffirms that Michigan is a state where you can make your own decisions about your own body with a trusted health care provider, without political interference.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bad River tribe prepares to challenge Army Corps of Engineers' Line 5 reroute permit
A sign protesting Enbridge Line 5 in Michigan. (Laina G. Stebbins | Michigan Advance) The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa is preparing to argue against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issuing a permit to reroute Enbridge's Line 5 oil pipeline in northern Wisconsin. For years, the tribe has fought against Line 5, which runs from far Northwest Wisconsin 645 miles into Michigan's Upper Peninsula, under the Straits of Mackinac and across the U.S. border into Canada near Detroit. It transports about 23 million gallons of crude oil and natural gas liquids daily. An underground section of the pipeline currently passes near a bend in the Bad River on the tribe's reservation. In 2023, a federal judge ruled that the company was trespassing on tribal land and gave Enbridge three years to shut down the pipeline. Since 2020, Enbridge has been working on rerouting the pipeline about 41 miles away from tribal land. That proposal requires permits to be issued by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The tribe is also currently challenging the state's permitting process. Hearings will be held in August, September and October in Madison and Ashland in which an administrative law judge will hear arguments against the DNR's decision to issue permits for the project. Army Corps approval of Enbridge's plan to replace a separate section of the pipeline on the floor of the Straits of Mackinac has been fast tracked under President Donald Trump's executive order declaring a national energy emergency, but the Bad River section of the pipeline is still moving forward under the normal approval process. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Bad River Band and its attorneys will present to the Corps their finding that the proposed rerouted pipeline, which would pass the Bad River upstream of the reservation, threatens the tribe's water quality and therefore violates the Clean Water Act. The tribe's presentation is scheduled to take all day Tuesday and some of Wednesday. Members of the public will then be able to provide public comment during a virtual hearing and send written comments for 30 days after the hearing. Robert Blanchard, the tribe's chairman, says he's working to protect the tribe's resources and way of life by bringing the challenge. 'Ultimately, we are protecting our resources. We're downstream from this project. If it were to go in, were to happen, there's a lot at stake just with how this will affect our waters,' he says. 'We have one of the biggest wild rice areas on the Great Lakes. We have a lot of medicines that I and members of my community collect that have been around for hundreds of years, and we have hunting and fishing rights that will be affected. You know, if we can't use those because of what's happening upstream, then that will affect our way of life.' Juli Kellner, a spokesperson for Enbridge, says the hearings this week are an important step for completing the project, which she adds won't affect water quality. 'Extensive and thorough analysis by leading, third-party experts has confirmed that construction impacts will be temporary and isolated, have no measurable impact on water quality, and will not violate the Bad River Band's water quality standards,' Kellner says. 'The project will have environmental protections and restoration plans in place, as approved by state regulators. State permits were issued last fall. We're confident the Corps is close to completing its process which has included more than five years of public input, expert studies, and rigorous review. In fact, this is one of the most studied projects in Wisconsin's history.' Under the Clean Water Act, if the Corps finds that the project will adversely affect a downstream jurisdiction's water quality and there are no conditions that can be put on the permit to ensure water quality standards aren't violated, the permit cannot be granted, according to the tribe's attorney, Stefanie Tsosie. 'We are presenting evidence to the Army Corps that the band's water quality standards will be affected, and there are no conditions that they can put on the project permit such that they can issue it,' she says. 'So, I think our hope here is one, to show how much the project is going to impact the advanced water quality, but then two, urge the Corps to not issue the section 404 permit eventually.' But the hearing is taking place as the Trump administration has worked to encourage more extraction of natural resources, boost the oil industry and go easier on polluters. Last week, the climate-focused news outlet Grist reported that under Trump, the EPA has practically stopped enforcing the country's environmental laws. Tsosie says all the tribe can work with is what the law says. 'Well, the standard in the Clean Water Act is pretty clear,' she says. 'And that's statute, so that's what we're going with.' Blanchard says he can't forecast what the Corps is going to do, but he can just make his best case that granting the permit will be harmful to everyone who lives downstream. 'I wish I had that crystal ball to be able to forecast that, but I don't, so what we're going to do tomorrow is do our very best to convince them that this is the way it should be,' he says. 'We need to look after our Mother Earth, to pay attention to what we're doing, what's happening to it, and like I said before, it's going to affect not just our way of life and not just those that live in the region, not just us as Anishinaabe people, but everybody.' If the Corps grants the permit, that decision could still be challenged in court. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Berrien County GOP event featuring pardoned Jan. 6 rioters creates division within community
Michigan GOP gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley attends a right-wing rally at the state Capitol, Feb. 8, 2022 | Laina G. Stebbins A fundraiser set to be held Friday night by the Berrien County GOP has drawn criticism for hosting Jan. 6 rioters in a local American Legion hall. The fundraiser, 'Battlefield Michigan: Untold Stories from Michigan Freedom Fighters,' will be held at American Legion Post 568 in Stevensville and will feature two men charged, and since pardoned by President Donald Trump, for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol – including former gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley. It will also host William and Michael Null, who were acquitted of plotting to kidnap and kill Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. A flyer for the event calls the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol a 'mostly peaceful protest about a stolen election.' A bipartisan U.S. Senate report found that at least seven people died in connection with the riot, including three law enforcement officers. After the event was announced, criticism came from within the veterans community itself about hosting such a divisive event. Marty Goldrick, a veteran and former member of the American Legion, told WNDU he was opposed to the openly partisan nature of the fundraiser. 'First of all, they bring these people in, but then they divide the American Legion, veterans, forcing them because there's Democrats and Republicans, Independents in any organization, but this thing here is a wedge. To glorify these people is unacceptable,' Goldrick told the station. Once the criticism mounted, the Herald-Palladium reported that the American Legion attempted to cancel the event, and issued a statement saying officials had not been told about the nature of the fundraiser at the time it was booked. 'Upon learning the nature of the event, from an outside source, the post attempted to cancel the event but was unable to do so because of contractual obligations and the dollar amount requested by the Berrien County GOP to allow the post out of the contract. The American Legion is a non-partisan organization and has no position on the subject matter being presented at the fundraiser and is not a part of the fundraiser,' the statement said. The county party, in a statement posted to Facebook, said there was an 'effort underway on social media to sabotage our event and disparage the Berrien County GOP,' and that canceling the event would constitute a breach of the contract they had both signed. 'We simply want to give Ryan Kelley and our other guests an opportunity to share their experience and perspective because they deserve the opportunity to tell their story and set the record straight. The public deserves an opportunity to hear their stories,' said the statement. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Developers and advocates lay out methods for meeting Whitmer's 60% clean energy goal
Solar panels in Grand Ledge | Laina G. Stebbins As Michigan works to build out its clean energy infrastructure to meet its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2040, panelists at the 2025 MI Healthy Climate Conference sat down to discuss the steps — and the hurdles — in achieving Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's goal of generating 60% of the state's power from renewables by 2030. When looking at the biggest challenges in shifting Michigan's energy grid away from fossil fuels to sources like wind and solar, energy developers and solar energy proponents focused on community sentiments as the biggest stumbling block. Chris Kunkle, the vice president of government affairs for Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy, said the clean energy industry is facing a lot of headwinds from the federal government particularly during a time when energy demand is rising quickly. However, energy policy is largely determined at the state level, Kunkle said, with Michigan's 2023 clean energy package helping to alleviate previous difficulties in securing permits, allowing energy developers to pursue permitting at the state level if a municipality fails to approve or deny their application within a timely manner, or if local zoning boards either adopt standards stricter than the health and safety standards outlined in the law, or if they deny an application that complies with the standards outlined in the law. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'We were thrilled to see the state Legislature come up with a really novel approach where you're required to try to go through the local process — and quite prescriptive about what that looks like —and if that falls apart for whatever reason, there's an alternative route to go through the state and receive a permit,' Kunkle said. But, just like renewable developments in rural communities, these bills were hotly debated in the Legislature, as Republicans argued they stripped away local control in the zoning process. While the bills ultimately passed along party lines in the previous Democratic-led House and Senate, Republicans have since taken control of the House and Rep. Gregory Alexander (R-Carsonville) has introduced a pair of bills, HB 4027 and HB 4028, to repeal the changes to the permitting process. 'Local governments and residents know their areas better than the state,' Alexander said in a press release. 'They craft policies with this in mind, and people expect their elected local officials to make decisions for their communities and their families with their input at the forefront. When unelected state bureaucrats to come in, cast local input aside and impose projects onto communities, it's a textbook example of government overreach. Our locals should be able to make decisions on property use for themselves, and these bills re-establish this critical element.' Elise Matz, the vice president of public affairs for Circle Power, said that public acceptance of renewables was a challenge within the state, emphasizing the importance of engaging with the community on the benefits the project could bring. Matt Wagner, the manager of renewable energy development for DTE Energy, one of the state's largest energy companies, said that the best advertisement for a company's next clean energy project is the last project it finished. 'If those projects go well, you know, we can point to them. It's not just us pointing to them, it's other communities and leaders saying, 'Hey, you know, these guys did a great project over here. You can trust them.' That's our goal,' Wagner said. On another panel, John Freeman, executive director of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, pointed to three main stumbling blocks in encouraging clean energy adoption: education, affordability and the disparity in access. 'People are inherently nervous about big social change, and there's nothing fundamentally bigger than transitioning from our current energy system to one that's built around renewable energy. So we have to do a lot of education to make people feel comfortable with this change,' Freeman said, later pointing to the association's efforts in teaching local governments how to develop a sustainability plan and bringing local officials up to speed on the benefits solar energy systems can bring to a community. Ali Dirul, the chief executive officer of Ryter Cooperative Industries, which helps design and build solar energy systems, said oftentimes solar developments are done to communities, instead of with them. 'A large solar farm is just plotted in the middle of somebody's recreation area and then, you know, there's upheaval, because it's like anything, if somebody just slapped something in the back of your backyard, you'd ask some questions,' Dirul said. Community members are the ones who know what they need in their neighborhoods, Dirul noted, creating an opportunity for developers, funders, foundations and foundations to engage with them so that the community can actually benefit. In the developers panel, the speakers highlighted Michigan's renewable ready communities award, which provides communities who adopt renewable energy with $5,000 per megawatt of capacity to a maximum of $3 million as a major motivator for communities. However, renewable energy may remain inaccessible to some families, Dirul said, using renters, people who live in multifamily homes, and those who do not have the money upfront for these kinds of projects as an example. One way to address these concerns is through community solar, Freeman said, allowing residents to buy or subscribe to individual solar panels in an array in order to save money on their energy bills due to the energy generated by the panels. However, these arrangements do not currently have a legal framework in Michigan, with Freeman calling for lawmakers to enact a community solar law. On the other panel, Kunkle further emphasized the impact that federal tariffs would have on procuring materials for battery storage and other clean energy efforts. Wagner similarly addressed concerns with navigating the supply chain as President Donald Trump implements and pauses tariffs. 'When you're ordering, literally, in some cases, not just tens of millions, but hundreds of millions of dollars of equipment, it's kind of hard to be nimble and do that in a pause,' Wagner said. 'DTE was fortunate to get a lot of infrastructure in early and we warehoused it. We had no idea how smart we look now,' Wagner said, later noting that this was only a short term solution, with clean energy developers in need of more domestic supply. Kunkle also emphasized the importance of retaining clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, which face an uncertain future as Trump works to roll back climate efforts implemented under former President Joe Biden. 'If you do that, the price of energy goes up,' Kunkle said, explaining that companies who have committed to building out additional energy resources will still need to procure those resources even as prices increase. Both panels also discussed workforce development needs, and ways to cultivate clean energy jobs within Michigan communities and ensure that the energy workforce sees a just transition. Matz noted Circle Power's strong relationship with the building trade workers in the Upper Peninsula, who she said served as major advocates for renewable energy efforts and helped change sentiments on a project from something that may or may not work, to something that is real and will be constructed safely. Wagner called for efforts to encourage renewable energy careers, noting that DTE partners with technical colleges across the state, noting that these jobs could help keep families together as young people look for opportunities out of Michigan. '[Parents] hated seeing their kids move away from Bad Axe or move away from other rural communities. It's like, 'How can you do something to help us bring them back?' Well, There's enough renewable energy development projects across Michigan that are going to be going in in the next 10 to 15 to 20 years. If some of these young people from these communities go and get trained, they can be back in their communities with a real, well-paying job. And when parents hear that, it just gives that hope they're not going to lose their kids,' Wagner said. Dirul noted that while there is no shortage of talent in Detroit to help build and operate clean energy systems, the one thing that is missing is access to training. 'We want to ensure that everybody has access to these pipelines, to these educations, to these trainings, to these certifications, so that they can advance themselves, advance their careers and potentially become gainfully employed in the clean energy industry,' Dirul said. 'We're also looking to just expand beyond entry level jobs. Like, we should also look at management and entrepreneurship.… Not everybody's going to get up on a roof and install solar, and for many people, that's the one thing that will actually detract them from trying to get into the clean energy industry,' Dirul said.
