As more hospitals have gobbled up private physician practices, costs for childbirth and other services have gone up, according to a new study.
Since the early aughts, the share of physicians in the United States working for hospitals has nearly doubled, according to the study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, a nonprofit research organization.
And as fewer doctors work in physician-owned practices, patients or their insurers end up paying more, the study’s authors found.
For example: Two years after a hospital buys an OB-GYN practice, prices for labor and delivery jump an average of $475 and physician prices rise by $502, according to the study. Researchers focused on births, which are the most common reason for hospital admission among people with private insurance.
This rapid acquisition by hospitals is reshaping a U.S. industry once dominated by tens of thousands of small, physician-owned practices.
Only about 42% of U.S. physicians work in a physician-owned private practice, according to the most recent survey data from the American Medical Association. Nearly 47% work for hospitals, a sharp rise over the past several years. Most emergency room physicians are now employed by hospital systems or by private equity-owned staffing groups.
The new research offers further evidence for how hospital acquisitions of private practices “can result in anticompetitive price increases,” said Matthew Grennan, one of the study’s authors and an associate professor of economics at Emory University, in a news release.
“As a result, I think economists and others in the antitrust community are likely to give more careful consideration to these potential sources of harm,” he said.
These post-merger price increases are driven by reduced competition, Grennan and his fellow researchers found. Yet there’s been little effort by federal or state regulators to halt hospital mergers that could lead to higher prices for consumers.
But states have taken some steps toward lowering medical costs in recent years.
Bipartisan groups of lawmakers in more than a dozen states have addressed so-called “facility fees,” which are charges that some hospitals tack on for patient visits to hospital-owned physician offices.
This year in Oklahoma, Republican lawmakers passed a bill requiring hospitals to make the cost of many of their services more transparent to patients so they’re aware of the costs. Providers can face penalties for noncompliance. A similar Oklahoma law authored by Democrats and passed last year requires debt collectors to submit evidence of a hospital’s compliance with price transparency rules before filing to collect on medical debts from patients.
Some states have capped the rates hospitals or physicians can charge. Colorado sets provider and hospitals rates based on a specific formula if insurance plans aren’t able to lower peoples’ premiums to a certain level, while Montana and Oregon limited the amount hospitals and other providers can charge for their state employee health plan.
CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio (AP) — A significant share of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions comes from heating, cooling and powering homes — about 15%, according to one estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency. So if you want to reduce your carbon footprint, the home is an effective place to start.
There are so many factors involved in a household’s energy consumption, including whether you have gas or electric heat and how you use your kitchen appliances, washer and dryer. It’s often overwhelming to figure out where to begin.
That’s why experts recommend a home energy assessment conducted by a professional. The room-by-room examinations help homeowners determine energy use, discover inefficiencies and create a plan to reduce both. In addition to helping the environment, improving efficiency saves money over the long term.
The assessments typically last several hours and cost anywhere from $100 to more than $1,000. Until the end of the year, the Inflation Reduction Act, a major U.S. climate law passed in 2022, helps cover the cost. Congress recently rescinded many of those benefits, which will be phased out.
I’m a climate reporter, so I’ve written about responsible energy use more than a few times. But in May, after years of apartment-dwelling, I moved into the first home I’ve ever owned.
So, I signed up for a home energy assessment.
My home, outside of Cleveland, is more than 100 years old. When I blast the air conditioning, it’s still hot and humid upstairs. I can hear birds chirping outside no matter how hard I shut the windows. And there’s a giant pipe in my basement held together by duct tape and prayers.
My assessment delivered pretty bad news. But with it came with lots of room for improvement. Here’s how the day unfolded:
The HVAC tests
Tim Portman, owner of the HVAC company Portman Mechanical in northeast Ohio, started with an hourlong interview about my goals of having a more comfortable and climate-friendly house. Then he headed into the basement to test my furnace, air conditioner and water heater.
The water heater pressure was normal, so Portman said there was no major risk of a water burst. However, the pressure in both the furnace and air conditioner was too high.
Which reveals my first problem: They are too big for the duct work. That’s inefficient, and it wears on the equipment. Making matters worse, Portman noticed a bunch of unnecessary turns in the ducts.
He equated it to having great water pressure in a kinked garden hose.
“If you don’t get the kink out of that garden hose, you’re never going to have a good experience,” he said.
The highlight of my basement woes was a giant pipe that feeds heating and cooling to the rest of the house. It just … wasn’t connected. It was jammed together like two straws without a junction. It bugged him enough that he paused to fix it.
And who am I to stop him?
The blower door
After the basement, Portman assembled a contraption called a blower door. He jammed a bunch of airtight plastic in my front doorway, shoved a big fan through the middle and turned it on so that it was blowing air out of my house.
“It literally sets up a vacuum in the house. So anywhere where there are leaks, you can see where those leaks are,” he said.
Seconds later, my home got hot and musty as the fan pulled outdoor air through all the leaky seams. Portman guessed the primary culprit immediately. I followed him upstairs into what felt like a sauna near the opening to the attic.
“You literally have hot, humid air — and your attic’s warmer than outside — just pouring into the second floor,” Portman said.
The blower door measures how many cubic feet of air flow through per minute. In a well-sealed house, the number should be less than or equal to the square footage. In my 1,500 square-foot (139-square-meter) house, the blower door number was 4,500. Three times as leaky as it should be.
Portman called it a worst-case scenario.
“It’s like driving your car around with the AC on and the windows rolled down,” he said.
The thermal camera
Next, Portman grabbed a thermal camera. The goal, since it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27 degrees Celsius) outside, was to see if leaks would show up as hot spots on the camera.
There were a lot. On the screen, yellow revealed a hot spot. The coolest spaces were dark blue. The leaky door frame around the attic lit up bright yellow.
“Do you think that’s a problem?” Portman joked.
“Oops,” I said.
“Yeah,” he said. “Oops is the right answer.”
There were a few unsurprising finds, including a leaky bathroom fan and gaps around the hundred-year-old windows. Downstairs we also found major gaps in the living room’s exposed beams.
Thermal images proved Portman’s theory that my walls were not insulated. That’s because my house still has some knob and tube wiring, a system of ceramic supports and porcelain-wrapped wires that’s a relic of the early 20th century. Because of how it heats up, only certain insulation can be used with it. It can also be very expensive to remove.
In the basement, the camera revealed major gaps next to pipes and some other just … random holes. They were maybe where wiring used to be, or just hollow spots in the old wooden framing. But the air seepage was strong enough to make the cobwebs flutter frantically, as if reflecting my dread discovering them.
The verdict
After his review, Portman’s first recommendation was to call an electrician about the old wiring.
“Getting knob and tube out of your house opens the door to have insulation in your walls,” he said.
Once that’s addressed, Portman said I need to upgrade my electrical panel to support an eventual switch to a heat pump and an electric water heater, though those appliances don’t fit my budget this year.
One electrician I spoke to by phone guessed it would cost $30,000 to remove the old wiring. But another said as long as he inspects the wiring and doesn’t find any dangerous modifications, I could leave it and replace the panel for roughly $3,000.
I went with the second guy.
Through the end of 2025, federal tax credits will help subsidize weatherization upgrades, including insulation, windows, doors and electrical panels.
In the meantime, my husband and I have a different homework assignment: use a caulk gun and spray foam to plug the holes that we found on the thermal camera.
Between July heat waves and January cold snaps, sealing a house in the Cleveland area isn’t just good for the planet. It’s a good investment.
“You could potentially cut your bills in half. Potentially even more,” he said.
The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE – Homes sit in Cranberry Township, Pa., on March 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
U.S. families lose nearly $350 billion each year due to the incarceration of a loved one in jail or prison, according to a recent report from the criminal justice advocacy group FWD.us. The estimate includes both direct expenses and long-term losses in household income.
The findings are based on a national survey of just over 1,600 adults conducted in partnership with researchers at Duke University and the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
Families reported losing an average of $1,803 in income per month when a loved one is incarcerated. That includes the loss of the incarcerated person’s wages and may also reflect reduced work hours by family members to manage court proceedings or provide child care, according to the report.
The researchers also found that families spend an average of $4,200 annually per incarcerated relative.
These expenses include phone and email communication, travel for visits, child care and commissary purchases — such as food, hygiene products and clothing — some of which are marked up as much as 600% above retail prices, according to the report.
The burden is especially acute for Black families, who reported significantly higher expenses, according to the report. Black families reported spending an average of $8,005 per year supporting incarcerated loved ones — 2.5 times more than white families with an average of $3,251.
One in 5 family members reported being forced to move due to a loved one’s incarceration, including 1 in 3 children of incarcerated parents, according to the report. Overall, 9% of family members said they experienced a period of homelessness, a figure that rose to 18% — or roughly 1 in 6 — among those who had an incarcerated parent.
Low wages for incarcerated people, often just cents per hour, only deepen this strain, leaving families to fill in the financial gaps, according to the report. Meanwhile, extended prison lockdowns, staff shortages and overcrowded conditions have further limited access to basic services, including phone calls, visitation, medical care and rehabilitative programming.
Researchers also identified long-term economic consequences after incarceration. Collectively, formerly incarcerated individuals lose an estimated $111 billion in wages each year due to limited job opportunities, according to the report. The report also found long-term financial consequences for children of incarcerated parents, who collectively lose $215 billion in annual earnings — an average of nearly $4,500 per adult child each year.
The survey has some limitations. Many of the cost estimates were self-reported and rounded by participants. Still, previous research has reached similar conclusions. A 2017 report from the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit and nonpartisan research organization, estimated that mass incarceration costs governments and the families of incarcerated people at least $182 billion annually.
In 2023, the most recent year available, state governments spent more than $66 billion on corrections, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. That total does not include the additional financial support provided by families of incarcerated people.
Preliminary national data from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics shows the U.S. prison population is once again on the rise. At the end of 2023, there were more than 1.25 million people in state and federal prisons, a 2% increase from the previous year. The vast majority were serving sentences longer than one year and were held in state prisons.
The male prison population rose by 2% in 2023, while the number of incarcerated women rose by 4%. Still, both figures remain below their 2013 levels.
Researchers projected that if incarceration rates remain steady, families could face $3.5 trillion in cumulative financial losses over the next decade.
By Grant Schwab, Summer Ballentine, Breana Noble, The Detroit News
President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs and tariff threats could intensify challenges for Michigan’s trade-reliant economy, though analysts noted the potential for both benefits and risks from the GOP leader’s newest proposal.
Trump floated the idea last week of a 100% import tax on semiconductors — crucial components of electronic devices, cars and trucks, and other machines omnipresent in modern life — unless foreign producers make commitments to invest and build manufacturing facilities in the United States.
“If that indeed is put in place, I think that opens the door to Michigan again for the simple fact that we design, engineer and make things here,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of MichAuto, the automotive arm of the Detroit Regional Chamber. “The state, including the governor and bipartisan politicians and economic development, have all focused on that growth industry. We’re as poised as anybody to capitalize on that.”
Others, however, noted that there would be significant downsides to the president slapping taxes on semiconductors. They said manufacturers across Michigan are already being squeezed by Trump’s oft-changing import taxes, including new levies that took effect Thursday on dozens of countries, and warned that a semiconductor levy could add another layer of cost and complexity at a time of rising economic concerns.
Michigan’s unemployment rate of 5.3% in June ranked second-to-last among all U.S. states, and a massive economic development project that might have brought thousands of jobs to Genesee County fell through last month. The project, notably, was centered on a semiconductor fabrication facility on 1,400 acres for computer chip maker Sandisk Inc.
Several Democratic lawmakers, including U.S. Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet of Bay City, suggested that the project was scrapped due to chaotic economic conditions caused by Trump’s trade policies.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer met privately with Trump on Tuesday to discuss, among other things, the impact of tariffs on the state and the future of the vacant “megasite” in Mundy Township. Her office, asked to respond Thursday to Trump’s 100% semiconductor tariff threat, declined to comment. Instead, the governor’s team emphasized that Whitmer has been “incredibly vocal” about bringing investment to Genesee County.
While Trump’s stated goal of issuing a semiconductor tariff is boosting domestic production of the essential components, experts warned that there could be negative spillover effects for other areas of domestic manufacturing — like Michigan’s signature auto industry.
“Semiconductors are such an increasingly large percentage of the value of a vehicle. So (a 100% tariff) is going to raise prices for consumers, and there’s just no way around that,” said Sam Abuelsamid, an auto industry veteran and vice president at communications firm Telemetry.
There are between 1,000 and 3,000 semiconductors in modern vehicles, according to several industry estimates. The COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted supply chains around the world, demonstrated how damaging shocks in the availability of semiconductors are for the industry.
Because of a global shortage of microchips coming mostly from China and other Asian countries, automakers shut down plants, limited features on some vehicles or built them and held them until a semiconductor could be added. Abuelsamid noted that the effect of a tariff would be different than the COVID-era shocks, but still impactful.
“The availability is not going to be the issue. The cost is going to be the issue,” the analyst said. “And even if, manufacturers say, ‘OK, we’re going to move all of our chip manufacturing into the U.S.,’ it still takes a long time to build chip fabs. These are not something you can build in three or six months, or even a year. It takes several years to get a chip fab up and running from scratch.”
Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting at AutoForecast Solutions LLC, also noted the long lag time for building semiconductor factories in the United States. He pointed to the CHIPS and Science Act, a key legislative accomplishment of former Democratic President Joe Biden.
“The old CHIPS Act was developed to encourage local production of chips,” Fiorani said. “And if it’s difficult and expensive to build an automotive plant, it’s even more difficult and more expensive to build a chip plant.”
The package directed about $280 billion in new funds to boost domestic research and manufacturing of semiconductors. It yielded several major projects, though all but one remain under construction or otherwise in development.
“A chip plant needs a lot of water and typically $10 billion to open, so it’s much more difficult to make that move,” Fiorani said. “But they were encouraged years ago to build locally, and it just takes a while for that to move to the next level.”
Stevens of MichAuto, who on one hand was optimistic about potential semiconductor manufacturing in Michigan, also acknowledged the potential for a COVID-like disruption for the auto sector.
“That definitely would be a concern,” he said.
New tariffs, new data
Beyond the semiconductor threat, Thursday marked the effective date of new import tax rates on dozens of countries, including several major U.S. trade partners.
Just after midnight, goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union became subject to tariff rates of 10% or higher. Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh are taxed at 20%.
“President Trump is seeking to strengthen our supply chains, create economic growth and power our future,” said U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Tipton, in a statement. “We’ve already witnessed companies begin to make significant investments in the United States, and we must continue to protect the future of American industry.”
The new rates apply to vehicles and auto parts imported from Japan, South Korea and the EU, which were previously subject to 27.5% tariffs. The change has prompted backlash from Ford Motor Co. and some Michigan lawmakers.
“Just because you get a deal, doesn’t mean it is a good deal for America. Right now, a Japanese car is subject to a lower tariff than a car made in Canada, with American parts and some American labor,” U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly, said in a social media post.
She echoed Ford’s argument that the company, which has a highly integrated supply chain between the United States, Canada and Mexico, now has a competitive disadvantage against rivals that import more of their vehicles from overseas.
Current tariff rates on vehicles from Canada and Mexico max out at 27.5%, but the actual duties paid are complicated because of partial exemptions granted to vehicles and parts that comply with the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement.
Auto imports from Mexico and Canada have so far been subject to a lower duty rate than products other major automotive countries, according to a Detroit News analysis of federal data released on Tuesday. The analysis calculated rates by comparing assessed duties on auto imports to the total value of imports for June, which is the latest month with available data.
But Mexico, thanks to a high volume of auto exports to the United States, still ranked as a close second behind Japan in total duties paid in June.
Importers brought in $4.2 billion worth of automotive goods from Japan and paid about $1.15 billion in duties, good for a rate of 27.5%. By contrast, $14.2 billion in goods came from Mexico and were subject to $1.14 billion in duties, which came out to an 8% duty rate.
Industry experts said Ford and other automakers with heavily North American manufacturing bases — including foreign companies like Toyota Motor Corp. — have a legitimate argument that the new lower rates on Japan, South Korea and the EU could undermine any advantages that previous tariff structures conferred on American operations.
“The reason why the supply chain (in North America) is set up the way it is, it’s because of NAFTA and USMCA. We’ve developed a trade policy with our neighbors based on low or no tariffs,” Abuelsamid said. “And now, Trump is turning that up and expecting people to pivot on a dime. And it just doesn’t work that way.”
Patrick Anderson, CEO of the Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group, also noted the auto industry upheaval.
“It’s a completely different world than we have been operating in for most of the past quarter-century,” Anderson said in a phone interview. “This is a very fraught time for the American auto industry, as well as the Canadian and Mexican auto industries that are deeply connected to the American auto industry.”
Anderson also suggested that Trump — who often changes his tariff policies even after they take effect — could make adjustments in light of backlash from a domestic auto industry he has sought to boost.
“This is a shift from which there is no easy turning back,” the economist said. “I expect that some of the tariff rates that are imposed as of August 7 will have changed by September 7.”
More lawmakers weigh in
Members of the Michigan congressional delegation were split along party lines over Trump’s latest tariffs.
“I’m constantly hearing from Michiganders and our business leaders about how Donald Trump’s reckless tariffs are hurting our state — from causing costs to skyrocket for our families, to cutting manufacturing jobs, to threatening pensions for our auto workers, and costing our auto industry billions of dollars,” U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham, said in a statement.
She continued: “Michigan doesn’t need Donald Trump’s chaotic, shoot-from-the-hip tariffs, and I’m going to keep working to lower costs for Michiganders, protect our jobs, and make sure we are protecting investments in our manufacturing economy.”
U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, who Stevens is running to replace when he retires from the chamber at the end of his term, had a similar message.
“If President Trump was serious about strengthening our domestic semiconductor supply chain we would have seen an actual plan by now. Instead, he has been attacking the CHIPS and Science Act that took historic steps to bring home semiconductor manufacturing and American jobs,” he said in a statement. “He is also continuing his chaotic tariff strategy that, instead of targeting trade cheaters, has only caused instability and uncertainty for Michigan businesses.”
U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain of Bruce Township, a fierce Trump supporter and the No. 4 Republican in the U.S. House, defended the president’s tariff agenda.
“American manufacturers are ready to Make in America again thanks to President Trump leveling the playing field and his One Big Beautiful Bill,” she said, referencing the massive tax cut and spending bill Trump signed into law in July.
McClain continued: “This transformational legislation delivered historic tax relief for manufacturers and small businesses, which empowers manufacturers to invest in workers and produce here in America. Hundreds of billions of dollars are pouring into U.S. manufacturing — from semiconductors to AI — just look at Apple’s recent announcement to increase their initial $500 billion investment by $100 billion to design and (manufacture) in America.
“These historic investments are creating real jobs. And it’s just getting started,” she added.
Jeep vehicles go through the assembly line at the Stellantis Mack Assembly Plant in Detroit. Experts see possible benefits as well as negative effects for Michigan's auto industry and other manufacturing sectors from 100% semiconductor tariffs floated by President Donald Trump. (Max Ortiz, The Detroit News)
More than a dozen Hmong and Laotian Americans living in the Detroit area received a letter summoning them to the city’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office on July 30.
Many thought it was a request for a routine check-in. It wasn’t, their families say.
Instead, the individuals were taken into ICE custody and have been detained ever since in northern Michigan, Texas and Louisiana. They are awaiting deportation to Laos, a country where the Hmong refugees have never set foot, but which U.S. officials say has agreed to take some detainees.
The Hmong individuals detained came to the U.S. as refugees in the 1970s and 1980s, most from refugee camps in Thailand. ICE says all have criminal records and removal orders, but families, local elected officials and immigrant rights advocates say they are being unfairly targeted.
“The families and elected officials accept that they had been convicted of a crime, but they served their time, and they deserve a second chance,” said Christine Sauve, policy and communications manager at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.
A spokesperson for ICE, in an email Friday to The Detroit News, said the agency detained “a known gang member who obstructed a murder investigation, multiple child sex abusers, drug traffickers and other Laotian nationals with criminal histories” in the July 30 operation. The spokesperson did not clarify whether all individuals detained had criminal records or provide the names of all detainees.
Many of those detained received removal orders after being convicted of crimes years ago, but were never deported because neither Laos nor Thailand considered them citizens, according to Sauve. Instead, they were required to report for annual check-ins with ICE.
Family members and local elected officials on Friday held a press conference to argue against the deportations.
“This past week has been a nightmare for these family members,” said state Rep. Mai Xiong, a Democrat who represents Warren, Roseville and St. Clair Shores, at the press conference.
Xiong is herself Hmong American, a refugee who fled Laos with her family at a young age. Like hers, the families of the Hmong detainees fled to the U.S. from United Nations-run refugee camps in Thailand, where they went after being persecuted in Laos for their role in the CIA-backed “Secret War” in the 1960s and 1970s.
Under the Trump administration, Xiong said, things have changed. She believes Laos may accept the deportees in exchange for being excluded from a travel ban list. The ICE spokesperson said the agency recently obtained the necessary travel documents to remove the detainees to Laos.
At the press conference at the Hannan Center in Detroit, Xiong, State Sen. Stephanie Chang and state Rep. Donovan McKinney — both Democrats who represent districts that stretch across south Macomb and Oakland counties as well as Detroit — joined the family members of detainees Wa Kang Lor and Sufeng Yang to call for the release of the Hmong refugees being held by ICE.
After reporting to the office for what they thought was a routine check-in, Xiong said, the individuals were detained.
In a matter of days, ICE transported the individuals from Detroit to North Lake Processing Center in northern Michigan, then to Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas. Two days ago, ICE transferred them to the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana, where Xiong expects the next step will be deportation.
“It’s like trying to find missing people,” she told The News. She called on ICE to be more transparent about who had been detained and when they might be deported.
Maiyia Xiong, the wife of Wa Kong Lor, one of the detainees, was overcome with emotion as she stepped to the podium, so Rep. Xiong read her prepared statement.
“I never imagined it would be the last time I would see him,” she had written.
When they reported to the ICE office, she said, a woman took her husband’s driver’s license. “Within minutes, his name was called,” Xiong said. “He walked through the door to the back room and never returned.”
Xiong and Lor have four children. Without him, she said, she faces the “unimaginable task of explaining to them that they may never see their father again.”
The ICE spokesperson said Lor was arrested in Pontiac in 2007 for breaking and entering a vehicle, drug possession and carrying an unlawful firearm. He was sentenced to at least 5 months in prison and received a removal order.
Anissa Lee, 20, also spoke. She is the daughter of Sufeng Yang, a Macomb County resident who was also detained on July 30. She came up to the podium, visibly upset, carrying a poster with her father’s face on it.
“The U.S. is the only place he’s ever known, his only home,” said Lee, her voice breaking. “He’s not just a resident here, he’s a taxpayer, a provider and a caregiver.”
Yang takes care of his 82-year-old mother, Lee said, buying her groceries and picking up her medications. “Without him, she won’t be able to get by,” she said.
Yang, according to ICE, was convicted of robbery in Toledo in 2007 and sentenced to three years in prison. Like Lor, he was given a removal order, but never deported.
One of the detainees, Lue Yang, 47, of St. Johns, had his criminal record expunged under a Michigan “Clean Slate” law in 2018. After he came to the United States as an asylum seeker in the 1980s, he pled guilty in 2001 as an accessory to a home invasion and was issued a removal order.
Since then, Lue Yang has turned his life around, advocates say. He serves as president of the Hmong Family Association, a nonprofit that provides services and programming to the Hmong community. According to a letter from more than two dozen Michigan lawmakers to ICE Detroit field director Kevin Raycraft, Yang is the “primary breadwinner” for a family of eight.
He is the only detainee currently being held in Michigan, at the North Lake Processing Center in Baldwin.
McKinney, whose state House district includes parts of Detroit and Warren, sees the detentions and likely deportations as civil rights violations.
As a result of the ICE operation, he said, families are left knowing little to no information about where their loved ones are being held or how they are doing. It’s cruel.”
Aisa Villarosa, an attorney with the Asian Law Caucus, which is representing some of the detainees, worries that they will become stateless. She says travel documents are just part of the removal process, citing a number of cases in Laos and nearby Bhutan in which detainees were turned away.
“The Trump administration has made its priorities clear, abusing its power to attack all of us. None of us are safe when families are ripped apart,” she said.
Xiong and Chang said they sent a letter to Raycraft asking him to “immediately release” the Hmong detainees. In total, 28 Michigan lawmakers signed the letter, including Ranjeev Puri, the Democratic House minority leader; and Gabriela Santiago-Romero, who represents southwest Detroit on the City Council.
“ICE should expend its resources by targeting individuals who are truly a threat, instead of indiscriminately detaining and deporting immigrants and refugees without consideration for their contributions to society and our economy or their personal history,” Xiong and Chang wrote.
Anissa Lee, left, is hugged by Rep. Mai Xiong following a press conference Friday, Aug. 8. (JOSE JUAREZ–Special to The Detroit News)
The Woodward Dream Cruise has been a celebration the past 30 years of America’s car culture. And its excesses.
More size, more chrome, more horsepower, more luxury and speed, more artistic and avant garde designs with no thought to gas consumption or efficiency. The louder the paint job and engine the better.
But the future of automobiles isn’t limited to the internal combustion engine. Which begs the question: Do electric vehicles have a place at the Woodward Dream Cruise?
That depends upon who you ask, and there’s certainly no agreement even within the growing community of EV owners and advocates on whether the Dream Cruise is the right place to showcase the technology and energy efficiency of electric vehicles.
Last week, electric vehicle and hybrid car owners gathered at Royal Oak’s Memorial Park for the Michigan Electric Vehicle Alliance’s Clean Cruise EV Festival.
Robert Miller, an automotive journalist, leased his first EV this year, a 2025 Dodge Charger Daytona and sees a place for these types of vehicles in the cruise going forward.
Robert Miller shows off his 2025 Dodge Charger EV at the 2025 Clean Cruise in Royal Oak.
The base price for the 640-horsepower car is $80,000.
Photo by Matt Fahr Media News Group
“For some EV’s to be in the cruise like a (Tesla) Model S or the Hummer, they would do it, but a guy with a (Chevy) Volt EV, maybe not as much because it is an ‘appliance’ EV,” said Miller. “Everybody in Detroit and the automotive industry has their own little niche and it doesn’t matter what you drive, you can be a part of it (the cruise).”
John Richter, a renewable energy consultant, bought an all-electric Toyota Prius in 2005, has put 164,000 miles on it and still drives it.
“The Prius absolutely did not fit into the Dream Cruise when I bought it,” said Richter. “But as a comparison, if you went back to 1910, you would not have an automobile and a horse and carriage shown together. That is almost what EV’s and muscle cars going down Woodward would be like in this day and age.”
With the upcoming Dream Cruise coming up next week, one of the organizers of the Clean Cruise organizer said that far from competing with one another, the two worlds can co-exist.
“The dream cruise celebrates the history and the nostalgia of the industry,” said Amy Rogghe, executive director and founder of MEVA. “We don’t knock that, we celebrate that right along with them.,”
“They are very supportive of this event and we are supportive of theirs and they are very supportive about bridging the gap between the two areas,” she said.
Electric vehicles from Ford, Hummer, Tesla and BMW were among over 60 vehicles on display at the Clean Cruise.
Photo by Matt Fahr
Media News Group
Richter, who is also on the board of the Great Lakes Renewable Energy Association, listed his reasons why he bought his Prius 20 years ago.
“With an electric (car), I have no oil changes, I have no coolant changes, I don’t have an exhaust system that is going to rust out because they always do and I don’t get gasoline on my hands when I have to refuel it,” said Richter. “When we have power outages, I clip a converter on my Prius global battery, run an extension cord into my house and run my essential things off of it. For me it was about user convenience, I wasn’t trying to save the Earth.”
Miller said a speaker system and an exhaust chamber in the back of his EV Charger Daytona give the car the sound and feel of a gas powered model.
He says it has a 0-60 mph time of 3.6 seconds, has 670 horsepower from dual electric motors and is all-wheel drive with a base price of $80,000. The car weighs over 6,000 pounds, with the battery packs accounting for 1,200 pounds of that. The Charger has a power regenerative braking system that recharges the battery in stop and go traffic with a range of 241 miles fully charged.
But convincing people there is a muscle car market among the EV options has been a hard sell.
“There are very few of these cars out on the road right now because it is a hard market,” said Miller. “You have EV people that don’t like muscle cars and you have muscle car people that are stuck on hemi-cars, but I am starting to see more and more of them.”
“There are a lot of positives about this car, but Chrysler has not done a good job of marketing this car properly,” Miller said. “If they showed what this car could do against their old muscle cars it would be a lot different.”
He said the key to expanding the EV market as a whole is better access to charging stations throughout the state.
“The cost will come down, as with any other sort of new technology, but we need to have a better (charger) infrastructure here in Michigan,” said Miller. “Once things like that become more available, then it will generate future sales.”
Building an infrastructure within the state through home and municipal charging stations will be one of the keys to growing sales in the future.
Photo by Matt Fahr
There are over 1,900 charging stations throughout the state with Troy (53), Auburn Hills (26) and Ferndale (22) the top three locations in Oakland County.
“The technology is advancing year over year,” said Rogghe. “Ten years ago a battery range of 300 miles, which is the average now, would have been unheard of.”
According to the State of Michigan Community EV website:
– Currently, electric vehicles account for less than 1% of vehicle registrations in Michigan. A snapshot of Michigan Secretary of State registration data in 2023 shows electric vehicles made up 0.57% of vehicle registration in Michigan.
– According to the Council on Future Mobility and Electrification’s 2020 report, by 2030 the sales of hybrid or electrified vehicles will represent 51% of all vehicle sales in Michigan.
– In Michigan, electric vehicle registration was up by more than 300% at the end of 2021 compared to 2018, and up more than 64% at the end of 2021 compared to 2020.
Even with his state of the art EV muscle car, Miller said there is acceptance of what lies ahead for that portion of the market.
“This morning I was cruising with a 1968 (Plymouth) Roadrunner and a 1969 (Dodge) Coronet and they gave me a thumbs up and we were running next to each other,” said Miller. “It will take time, but this incarnation of the muscle car will take hold in the U.S.”
The 2025 Clean Cruise drew EV and hybrid vehicles from over a dozen different car makers to Memorial Park in Royal Oak last weekend.
Photo by Matt Fahr Media News Group
The following is a list of in-person and online worship services and events happening at churches and synagogues in the Oakland County area. Visit websites or call for service times and events.
• Abiding Presence Lutheran Church, 1550 Walton Blvd., Rochester Hills, 248-651-6550, abidingpresence.org. Sunday worship services are at 9:30 a.m., also virtual services are available on the website.
• Adat Shalom Synagogue, 29901 Middlebelt Road, Farmington Hills, in-person and online services via Zoom. To view daily Minyan video conferences; email Executive Director Michael Wolf at mwolf@adatshalom.org or visit adatshalom.org, 248-851-5100.
• All Saints’ Episcopal, 171 W. Pike St., Pontiac, allsaintspontiac.org, 248-334-4571, rector@allsaintspontiac.org.
• The Apostolic Church of Christ, 3655 N. Squirrel Road, Auburn Hills, theapostolicchurch.com, 248-373-4500, Sunday worship services at 11 a.m.
• Archdiocese of Detroit, livestream Mass times, aod.org/livemasses.
• Auburn Hills Christian Center, 2592 Walton Blvd., Auburn Hills, Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m., Servicio Evangelistico services (in Spanish) at 2-4 p.m. Sundays, 248-373-7139, www.myahcc.org.
• Beacon Unitarian Universalist Congregation, Troy, in-person and online services at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, beaconcongregation.org, admin@beaconcongregation.org.
• Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, 5631 N. Adams Road, Bloomfield Hills, livestream services at 9 a.m. Sundays, and in person at 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. at bslcmi.org, facebook/bslcmi, 248-646-5041.
• Berea Family Tabernacle of Faith, Pontiac, Sunday worship services are at 11 a.m., experienceberea.org, 248-338-4748.
• Berkley First United Methodist Church, 2820 12 Mile Road, Berkley, worship services are 10 a.m. Sundays in person and online at www.berkleyfirst.org.
• Bharatiya Temple, 6850 N Adams Road, Troy, www.bharatiya-temple.org, 248-879-2552.
• Big Beaver United Methodist Church, 3753 John R Road, Troy, worship services at 10 a.m. Sundays, http://bbumchurch.org.
• Birmingham First United Methodist Church, 1589 W Maple Road, Birmingham, www.fumcbirmingham.org. Summer worship services are at 10 a.m. starting Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day. (After Labor Day, Sunday worship services are in person and online at 9:30 a.m., and in-person only services at 11 a.m.)
• Birmingham Unitarian Church, 38651 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills, in-person and online worship services, 10:30 a.m. Sundays, bucmi.org, 248-647-2380.
• Bridge Community Church, 5700 Rochester Road, Troy, in-person and online worship services, 10 a.m. Sundays, bridgecommunitychurch.com/live, 248-879-9500.
• Bridgewood Church, 6765 Rattalee Lake Road, Clarkston, 248-625-1344, www.bridgewoodchurch.com. Sunday worship services are 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., also online services, and locations in Goodrich.
• Brightmoor Christian Church, 40800 W. 13 Mile Road, Novi, www.brightmoorchurch.org. Sunday worship services at 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.
• Calvary Chapel Oakland County, 1975 E. Long Lake Road, Troy, 248-457-9673, ccoaklandcounty.com. Worship 7 p.m. Wednesdays and 10 a.m. Sundays.
• Calvary Church, 1361 Giddings Road, Pontiac, Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m., https://ccpontiac.org, 248-373-0311.
• Calvary Evangelical Lutheran Church, 6805 Bluegrass Drive, Clarkston, calvary-lutheran.org. Sunday worship services are Traditional Worship at 7:55 a.m.; Modern Worship at 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.; and livestream at 9:30 a.m. Food pantry (drive-up or curbside pickup) is 9-11 a.m. Wednesdays.
• Central Church, 1529 Twelve Mile Road, Madison Heights, www.centralchurch.cc. Sunday worship services at 10 a.m.
• Central Oaks Community Church, 2005 Rochester Road, Royal Oak, www.centraloaks.com, 248-547-7755. Sunday worship services at 11 a.m.
• Central United Methodist Church, 3882 Highland Road, Waterford Twp., 248-681-0040, WaterfordCUMC.org. In-person worship at 8:45 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sundays and online at 10:30 a.m. at Live.WaterfordCUMC.org.
• Central Woodward Christian Church Disciples of Christ, 3955 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy, 248-644-0512, centralwoodwardchristian.com. Sunday worship services are at 10:30 a.m., in person and online at centralwoodwardchristian.com and Facebook at www.facebook.com/CentralWoodward.
• Chapel of Our Lady of Orchard Lake, 3535 Commerce Road, West Bloomfield Twp., www.sscms.edu, 248-683-0310.
• Christian Tabernacle Church, Southfield, ctabchurch.com, 248-213-4770.
• Christ Church Cranbrook, 470 Church Road, Bloomfield Hills, in-person and online worship services, 10 a.m. Sundays, ccc-info.org.
• Christ Lutheran Church and School, 620 General Motors Road, Milford, www.christlutheranmilford.org. Sunday worship services at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.
• Christ, Our Light! Catholic Church, 3077 Glouchester, Troy. Mass times are: Saturday at 4 p.m.; Sunday at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.; weekday Masses (followed by Rosary recitation) are Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at 9 a.m., and Friday at 12:05 p.m., www.coltroy.org, 248-649-5510.
• Christ the Good Shepherd Progressive Catholic Church, 3947 Twelve Mile Road Berkley, church services: Saturday Mass at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday Mass at 10:30 a.m., 248-439-0470, www.cgs-occ.org.
• Christ the Redeemer Parish, 2700 Waldon Road Orion Township, 248-391-1621, www.ctredeemer.org. Weekend Masses are 5 p.m. Saturdays, and 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays.
• Crown of Life Lutheran Church, 2975 Dutton Road Rochester Hills, www.crownoflifechurch.org, 248-652-7720. Sunday worship services are 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
• Church of the Holy Spirit, 3700 Harvey Lake Road, Highland Twp., www.holyspirithighland.com.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints congregations in Oakland County include: Bloomfield Hills, Clarkston, Commerce Twp., Farmington Hills, Lake Orion, Pontiac (Spanish), Rochester, Troy and White Lake Twp. The congregations host worship services on Sundays. For worship times and locations, visit churchofjesuschrist.org.
• Church of the Resurrection, 6490 Clarkston Road, Village of Clarkston, https://clarkstonepiscopal.com, 248-625-2325. Sunday worship services at 10 a.m.
• Clarkston Community Church, 6300 Clarkston Road, Clarkston, in-person and online services at 9:15 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, clarkstoncchurch.com, 248-625-1323.
• Clarkston United Methodist Church, 6600 Waldon Road, Clarkston, in-person and online faith services, 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, clarkstonumc.org, 248-625-1611.
• Commerce United Methodist Church, 1155 N. Commerce Road, Commerce Twp., commerceumc.org/media.
• Community Bible Church, 1888 Crescent Lake Road, Waterford Twp., https://cbcmi.com, 248-674-4871. Sunday worship services at 11 a.m.
• Community Fellowship Seventh-Day Adventist Church, 27800 Southfield Road, Lathrup Village, church services at 11 a.m. Saturdays, http://communityfellowship22.adventistchurchconnect.org, 248-469-8539.
• Community Presbyterian Church, 4301 Monroe Ave., Waterford Twp. In-person worship is 10 a.m., Sundays, cpcwaterford.org, 248-673-7805.
• Congregation Beth Ahm, 5075 West Maple Road, West Bloomfield Twp., 248-851-6880, cbahm.org.
• Congregational Church of Birmingham, UCC, 1000 Cranbrook Road, Bloomfield Hills. Worship services are 10 a.m. Sundays, ccbucc.org, 248-646-4511.
• Congregation Shaarey Zedek, 27375 Bell Road, Southfield, Jewish religious services including daily morning and evening Minyan services, Shabbat morning services and Youth Shabbat activities, shaareyzedek.org, 248-357-5544. Daily minyan services are hybrid services, meeting both in person in the Lee and Gerson Bernstein Chapel (morning services are followed by breakfast), and on Zoom. Shabbat musical services meet on the first Friday evening of each month, in person and on Zoom.
• Cornerstone Baptist Church, Ortonville, in-person worship services, Sundays at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Also online at Facebook at Cornerstone Baptist Church Ortonville, cbcortonville.com, 248 627-4700.
• Cornerstone Church, 4995 N Hickory Ridge Road, Highland, cornerstonehighland.com, 248-887-1600. Worship services at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, 7 p.m. Wednesdays. Also, livestream at 11 a.m. Sundays on YouTube, Facebook, and website.
• Crossroads Free Will Baptist Church, 4804 White Lake Road, White Lake Twp., https://crossroadswl.org, Sunday worship services at 11 a.m. The church has a Blessing Box that is stocked with non-perishable food items, books and other household items for those in need. Donations welcome.
• Destiny Faith Church, 501 University Drive, Pontiac, Destinyfaith.org, 248-322-2200. Worship services at 10 a.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Wednesdays, in person and online.
• Divine Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church, 3000 S. Lapeer Road, Orion Twp., divinegrace.net, Sunday worship services at 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
• Door of Faith Christian Church, Pontiac, online services, 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, mydooroffaith.org.
• Empowerment Church of Southfield, worship services are 7:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sundays at new worship center location, Shriner’s Silver Garden Events Center, 24350 Southfield Road, Southfield, 248-569-2299, empowerment.mi.org. Also virtual worship services, 10:30 a.m. Sundays at empowermentmi.org/stream and on Facebook Live.
• Encounter Church, 600 North Campbell Road, Royal Oak, in-person and online services, 11 a.m. Sundays; Prayer and Bible study is 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, www.encounter360.org.
• Evanswood Church of God, 2601 E Square Lake Road, Troy, 248-879-9240.
• Faith Church in Rochester Hills offers free meals to the community, 5:30-6:45 p.m. Wednesdays, at the church,160 W Hamlin Road, Rochester Hills, faithchurchrochesterhills.org/sharethetable.
• Faith Community Christian Church (meeting at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church), 1550 Walton Blvd., Rochester Hills, 586-703-6249, Reverend Tom Sayers. Traditional service is at 1 p.m., www.faithcommunitychristianchurch.org.
• Faith Covenant Church, 35415 W. 14 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, worship services are at 9:30 a.m. and 11a.m., Sundays, 248-661-9191, 4fcc.org.
• First Baptist Church, 2601 John R Road, Troy, fbctroy.org.
• First Baptist Church, 255 E. Scripps Road, Lake Orion, fbclo.org, 248-693-6203, info@fbclo.org.
• First Congregational Church, 5449 Clarkston Road, Clarkston, (just east of Sashabaw Road), 248-394-0200, www.fcclarkston.com, worship services at 10 a.m. Sundays.
• First Congregational Church of Rochester UCC, 1315 N. Pine, Rochester, worship services at 10 a.m. Sundays, fccrochester.org, 248-651-6225.
• First Congregational Church of Royal Oak, 1314 Northwood Blvd., Royal Oak. Worship services at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, www.fccro.org.
• First General Baptist of Waterford, 2933 Frembes Road, Waterford, wgbchurch.com, 248-673-6481, Sunday school at 10 a.m., worship services at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.
• First Missionary Church, 4832 Clintonville Road, Independence Twp., www.fmcclarkston.org, 248-674-3186. Sunday worship services at 11 a.m.
• First Presbyterian Church Birmingham, 1669 W. Maple, Birmingham, worship services are Sundays, 8:30 a.m. in person, and 10 a.m. in person and livestream, fpcbirmingham.org, 248-644-2040.
• First Presbyterian Church of Pontiac, 99 Wayne Street, Pontiac, fpcpontiac.info.
• First Presbyterian Church of Royal Oak, 529 Hendrie Blvd., 248-541-0108. Sunday worship services are at 10:30 a.m., online services available anytime at fpcro.org, 248-541-0108.
• First United Methodist Church of Troy, 6363 Livernois, Troy. Church services are 10 a.m. Sundays in person and livestream on YouTube and Facebook, www.FUMCTROY.org, 248-879-6363.
• Five Points Community Church, 3411 E Walton Blvd, Auburn Hills. Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m., https://5pointscc.org, 248-373-1381.
• Four Towns United Methodist, 6451 Cooley Lake Road, Waterford Twp. Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m., www.fourtowns.org, 248-766-8868. Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m.
• Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 1950 S. Baldwin Road, Lake Orion. Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m., 248-391-1170, goodshepherdlakeorion.net.
• Grace Gospel Fellowship, 65 East Huron Street, Pontiac; in-person and livestream services are 11 a.m. Sundays and 7 p.m. Wednesdays. Livestream services are at www.facebook.com/GraceGospelFellowshipPontiac, 248-334-2187.
• Greenfield Presbyterian Church, 2312 Greenfield Road, Berkley, from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m. only, youtube.com/user/GreenfieldChurch, greenfieldchurch.com, 248-544-1800. (After Labor Day, in-person and online worship services are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays.)
• Grace Church, 220 Bogie Lake Road, White Lake Twp. Sunday services are 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m., Gracechurchinfo.net, 248-887-3700.
• Hazel Park First United Methodist Church, 313 E. Nine Mile Road, Hazel Park, 248-546-5955, hpfirst.org. Sunday worship services at 11:15 a.m.
• Heart of the Hills Christian Church, 5085 Orion Road, Rochester, https://heartofthehills.com, 248-841-1679. Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m.
• Hillside Bible Church, 73 N Church St, Ortonville, 248-627-2513, hillsidebible.org, Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m.
• Hilltop Church of the Nazarene, 21260 Haggerty Road, Northville, hilltopnaz.org, Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m.
• Holly Calvary Church, 15010 N Holly Road, Holly, hollycalvary.org, Sunday worship services at 10 a.m. in person and online, Wednesday worship is at 6:30 p.m.
• Holy Spirit Lutheran Church, 4800 Orchard Lake Road, West Bloomfield Twp. In-person worship services at 10 a.m. Sundays, livestream on YouTube youtube.com/@spiritdrivenchurch, 248-682-5441, spiritdrivenchurch.com.
• Immanuel Congregational Church of Christ, Oxford, 248-628-1610, icucc.org, in-person worship services at 11 a.m. Sundays, and online at facebook.com/oxfordimmanuelucc.
• International Christian Church, 1630 Joslyn Ave, Pontiac, worship services at 11:30 a.m. Sundays, 248-494-8757, globalicc.org, facebook.com/icchurch/live.
• Islamic Association of Greater Detroit, 879 West Auburn Road, Rochester Hills, www.childrenofabrahamday.org.
• Jewel Heart Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center, 27745 Woodward Ave., Berkley, www.jewelheart.org.
• Journey Lutheran Church, (joined with Holy Cross Church) 136 S. Washington St., Oxford, in-person and online worship services, 8:45 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, education hour is at 10 a.m., journeylutheran.church, 248-628-2011.
• Kensington Church with locations in Birmingham, Clarkston, Clinton Twp., Orion Twp. and Troy, in-person Sunday worship times, and online services offered streaming on YouTube, Facebook, and website, kensingtonchurch.org.
• King of Kings Lutheran Church, 1715 S. Lapeer Road, Lake Orion, www.kingofkingslakeorion.org. Sunday worship services are at 9:30 a.m. Sundays, online streaming at www.facebook.com/kingofkingslakeorion.
• Kirk in the Hills, 1340 W. Long Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills. Sunday worship services are at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., kirkinthehills.org, 248 626 2515.
• Lakecrest Baptist Church, 35 Airport Rd, Waterford Twp., www.lakecrestbaptist.com, 248-681-3214. Sunday worship services are at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Spanish service at 1 p.m.
• Lake Orion Church of Christ, 1080 Hemingway Road, Lake Orion, www.lococ.org, 248-693-7242. Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m.
• Lake Orion Methodist Church, Lake Orion, www.lakeorionumc.org. Sunday worship services at 10 a.m., in person and online.
• LakePoint Community Church, 1550 W. Drahner Road, Oxford, https://lakepointcc.org, 248-628-0038.
• The Lakes Church, 1450 S Hospital Road, Waterford Twp., www.thelakes.cc, 248-254-7833, Sunday worship services are 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. The 9:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. services are livestreamed.
• Liberty General Baptist Church, 3545 Joslyn Rd, Auburn Hills, https://libertygeneralbaptistchurch.org, 248-431-3498. Sunday worship services at 11 a.m.
• Lifepoint Church, 5601 Scott Lake Road, Waterford Twp., lifepointchristian.com.
• Life Renewal Church, 28312 Grand River, Farmington Hills, https://liferenewalchurch.org, worship is 11 a.m. Sundays.
• Madison Heights Church of the Nazarene, 555 E 13 Mile Road, Madison Heights, mhnaz.org, 248-585-5551.
• Maranatha Baptist Church, 5790 Flemings Lake Road, Clarkston, Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m., www.mbcclarkston.org.
• Marimont Community Church, 424 W Walton Blvd., Pontiac, Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., https://marimontcommunitychurch.com.
• Masjid Mahmood, Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center, 1730 W. Auburn Road, Rochester Hills, ahmadiyyamosque.blogspot.com.
• Metro Detroit Christian Church, 33360 W. 13 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, https://metrodetroit.org, 248-562-7998. Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m.
• Mother of God Chaldean Catholic Church, 25585 Berg Road, Southfield, https://mogccc.com, 248-356-0565.
• Motor City Church, 3668 Livernois Road, Troy, www.motorcitychurch.org, 248-524-2400. Sunday worship services are at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
• Mt. Zion Church, 4900 Maybee Road, Clarkston, mtzion.org. Sunday worship services at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.
• Muslim Unity Center of Bloomfield Hills, 1830 W. Square Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, Muslimunitycenter.org.
• Nardin Park United Methodist Church, 29887 W Eleven Mile Road, Farmington Hills, 248-476-8860, nardinpark.org, www.facebook.com/NPUMC.
• New Heights Baptist Church, Grand Blanc, 10:30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays, newheightsbc.com. For information, email pastornewheights@gmail.com or call 810-866-4563.
• New Hope Christian Fellowship, 6020 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford Twp., https://newhopemi.org, 248-886-1500, Sunday worship services at 10 a.m.
• New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, 23455 W Nine Mile Road, Southfield, www.newhope-mbc.org, 248-353-0675. Sunday worship services at 11 a.m., in person and livestream.
• New Hudson United Methodist Church, 56730 Grand River Ave., New Hudson, newhudsonumc.org. Worship services, 10:30 a.m. Sundays.
• Northminster Presbyterian Church, 3633 W. Big Beaver Road, Troy, 248-644-5920. Worship service at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, in person and livestream, www.facebook.com/TroyNorthminster.
• Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 23925 Northwestern Hwy, Southfield, www.northwestuu.org, 248-281-4902. Worship service at 10:30 a.m. Sundays in person and virtual.
• North Congregational Church, 36520 W. 12 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, northcongregationalchurch.org.
• North Hills Christian Reformed Church, 3150 North Adams Road, Troy, worship services, 9:30 a.m. Sundays, 248-645-1990, northhillscrc.org.
• North Oaks Church, 9600 Ortonville Road, City of the Village of Clarkston, worship services are 10:30 a.m., Sundays, northoakschurch.org, office@northoakschurch.org, 248-922-3515.
• Oakland Church, 5100 North Adams Road, Rochester, worship services, 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, www.oaklandchurch.me.
• Oakland Church of Christ, 23333 West 10 Mile Road Southfield, in-person and online worship services are at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, TheOaklandChurchofchrist.org, 248-355-9225.
• Oakland Hills Community Church, Farmington Hills, ohcc.net, 313-686-4578.
• Oakland Woods Baptist Church 5628 Maybee Rd, Village of Clarkston, www.facebook.com/OWBCClarkston, 248-625-7557. Sunday worship services are at 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
• Oak Pointe Church,1250 South Hill, Milford, in-person or online worship services are 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, opcmilford.org.
• Oak Pointe Church, 50200 W. 10 Mile Road, Novi, in-person or online worship services are 9:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. oakpointe.org, 248-912-0043.
• Oak Pointe Church, 6343 Farmington Road, West Bloomfield, in-person or online worship services are 10:15 a.m. Sundays, oakpointe.org/westbloomfield.
• Oakwood Community Church, 5791 Oakwood Rd, Ortonville, www.oakwoodcc.org, 248-628-6388.
• Orchard Grove Community Church, 850 Ladd Rd; Bldg. C, Walled Lake, Sunday worship services are at 10:10 a.m., www.orchardgrove.org.
• Orchard Lake Community Church, Presbyterian, 5171 Commerce Road, Orchard Lake, worship services are at 9 a.m., and 10:30 a.m. Sundays, olccp.com, 248-682-0730.
• Orchard United Methodist Church, 30450 Farmington Road, Farmington Hills, summer worship services are at 10 a.m., Sundays, June 15 to Sept. 7, (returning to two services, 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., starting Sept. 14). Livestream at youtube.com/c/OrchardUMC and facebook.com/OrchardUMC/live_videos, 248-626-3620, orchardumc.org.
• Our Lady of La Salette, 2600 Harvard Road, Berkley, 248-541-3762, par8551@gmail.com, lasalette-church.org, Mass is at 4:30 p.m. Saturdays, and 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Sundays.
• Our Lady of the Lakes Catholic Church in-person Mass, Saturday at 5 p.m., Sunday at 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m., weekdays at 8:15 a.m., 5481 Dixie Hwy., Waterford Twp. Livestream Mass at 5 p.m. Saturdays and 9:30 a.m. Sunday, ollonline.org/live.
• Our Lady of Refuge Church, 3700 Commerce Road, Orchard Lake, olorcc.org, 248-682-4099, Mass is 5 p.m. Saturdays and 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. or 11:30 a.m. Sundays.
• Our Lady of Sorrows Church, 23815 Power Road, Farmington, church.olsorrows.com.
• Our Mother of Perpetual Help, 13500 Oak Park Blvd, Oak Park, www.omoph.org. Saturday mass is at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday mass is at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m.
• Oxbow Lake Baptist Church, 10730 Elizabeth Lake Rd, White Lake Charter Township, www.oxbowbc.com, 248-698-3034. Sunday worship services at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.
• Oxford United Methodist Church, 21 E. Burdick St. Oxford, 248 628-1289, oxfordunitedmc.org. People Feeding People (PFP) free breakfast is 9:30-10:30 a.m. Saturdays. In-person worship services and online at youtube.com/channel/UCN2R96oWdXzxDqwdz8YBlrQ.
• Paint Creek United Methodist Church, 4420 Collins Road, Rochester, www.paintcreekumc.org, 248-373-2360, Sunday worship services are at 11 a.m.
• The River Church of Auburn Hills, 315 S. Squirrel Road, Auburn Hills, http://riverchurch.faith, 248-853-1524. Worship services are 9 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. Sundays.
• The River Church, Holly, Lake Orion, Waterford and more locations, livestream and videos of sermons, theriverchurch.cc, 248-328-0490.
• River North Church, 67 N Lynn Ave, Waterford Twp., Sunday School is 10 a.m. Sundays, worship services at 11:15 a.m. Sundays and 7:15 p.m. Wednesdays. Also view sermons online at www.youtube.com/@rivernorthchurch2023, nondenominational family church, 248-724-6559, www.facebook.com/Rivernorthchurch.
• River Of Life Christian Church, 5482 Winell St., Independence Twp., 248-599-3074.
• Rochester Christian Church, 4435 Rochester Rd, Rochester Hills, https://rcc4me.com, 248-652-3353, Sunday worship services at 10 a.m.
• Rochester Church of Christ, 250 W. Avon Road, Rochester Hills, www.rochestercoc.org, 248-651-1933, Sunday worship services at 10 a.m.
• Royal Oak First United Methodist Church, 320 W. 7th Street, Royal Oak, www.rofum.org, 248-541-4100. Worship services are 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays, in person and online, www.rofum.org/live.
• Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 3400 S. Adams Road, Auburn Hills. Mass times are at 4 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday. Weekday Mass services are 9 a.m. Monday through Friday, www.esacredheart.org, 248-852-4170.
• St. Anastasia Roman Catholic Church, 4571 John R Road, Troy, www.stanastasia.org, 248-689-8380.
• St. Anne Catholic Church of Ortonville, 825 South Ortonville Road, Ortonville. Mass times are Sunday at 8:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.; Saturday at 5 p.m.; Monday at 7 p.m. and Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday at 9 a.m., 248-627-3965, churchofstanne.org.
• St. Augustine Lutheran Troy (SALT) Church, 5475 Livernois in Troy, www.saltchurch.net, communications@saltchurch.net, 248-879-6400.
• St. Benedict Catholic Church, 60 South Lynn Street, Waterford Twp., 248-681-1534. Sunday Mass times are 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., streaming at stbencc.org/live-stream.
• St. David’s Episcopal Church, 16200 W. Twelve Mile Road, Southfield, www.stdavidssf.org. Sunday worship services are at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. both in person and via zoom. Food pantry is 9 a.m.-noon Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
• St. George’s Episcopal Church, 801 E Commerce, Milford, 248-684-0495. Sunday worship services 8:30 a.m. and 10:15 a.m., in person and online, www.stgeorgesmilford.org.
• St. George Greek Orthodox Church, 43816 Woodward Ave, Bloomfield Hills, 248-335-8869, www.stgeorgebloomfield.org.
• St. George Orthodox Church, 2160 E Maple Road, Troy, 248-589-0480, www.stgeorgeoftroy.org, www.facebook.com/stgeorgeoftroymi.
• St. James Church, 46325 Ten Mile Road, Novi, Mass times are 8 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Sundays, and 4 p.m. Saturdays. Livestream services, 4 p.m. Saturdays, 248-347-7778, stjamesnovi.org.
• St. John Lutheran Church & School, 1011 University Drive, Rochester. Traditional praise worship services are Sundays at 8 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. Modern praise services are Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 10:45 p.m. The 8 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. Sunday worship services are livestreamed and posted on the website at stjohnrochester.org.
• St. John Lutheran Church, 23225 Gill Road, Farmington Hills, www.stjohn-elca.org, https://form.jotform.com/242835058121149.
• St. John’s Episcopal Church Royal Oak, 26998 Woodward Ave. Royal Oak. Services are 8 a.m. Sundays, in person and 10:15 a.m. Sundays, in-person and online worship, stjohnsroyaloak.org, 248-546-1255.
• St. Joseph Catholic Church, Lake Orion, view Mass services on the church’s Youtube channel, youtube.com/user/stjosephmassarchive, or at Facebook page, facebook.com/StJoeLo, stjoelo.org, 248-693-0440.
• St. Joseph Chapel and Shrine of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, 400 South Blvd. West, Pontiac, https://terrasanctaministries.net.
• St. Mark and St. Mary & St. Philopater Coptic Orthodox Church, 3603 Livernois Road, Troy, www.stmarkmi.org. Divine liturgy services are at 7 a.m. (Arabic) and 8:15 a.m. (English), Sundays.
• St. Mary Catholic Church, 730 S Lafayette Ave., Royal Oak, www.stmaryroyaloak.com, 248-547-1818. Mass at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday.
• St. Mary of the Hills Roman Catholic Church, 2675 John R. Road, Rochester Hills. In-person Mass is 9 a.m. or 11 a.m. Sunday, 248-853-5390, smoth.org. Live online Mass is 4 p.m. Saturday, on Facebook and YouTube.
• St. Mary’s In-the-Hills Episcopal Church, 2512 Joslyn Court, Lake Orion, 248-391-0663, www.stmarysinthehills.org. Sunday Services are at 8:30 a.m.-Simple service of Holy Eucharist and at 10 a.m.-Service of Holy Eucharist with choir and Children’s Church School-Service, livestream on YouTube or Facebook or www.stmarysinthehills.org. Adult Bible Study is held Tuesdays at 10 a.m.
• St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 2040 S. Commerce Road, Walled Lake, 248-624-7676, st-matthew.org. Blended Worship services are 8:45 a.m. Sundays (also livestream on YouTube); Prayer & Praise Worship services are 11 a.m. Sundays; Monday Blended Worship services are 7 p.m.
• St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 48380 Pontiac Trail, Wixom, 248-624-9525, st-matthew.org. Sunday worship services are 10 a.m.
• St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, Divine Liturgy at 9:30 a.m. Sundays, 760 W Wattles Road, Troy, 248-362-9575, stnicholastroy.org.
• St. Owen Catholic Church, 6869 Franklin Road Bloomfield Hills, stowen.org.
• St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church, 1413 E. Thirteen Mile Road, Madison Heights, 248-585-9591, in-person Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m., or online at stpatsmh.org.
• St. Paul Community Lutheran Church, 1133 Joslyn Ave., Pontiac, www.stpaulpontiac.com. 248-758-9019. Sunday worship services at 11 a.m.
• St. Paul Lutheran Church, 202 E. Fifth St, Royal Oak, worship services are 8:15 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays. Livestream also at 8:15 a.m. service, stpaulroyaloak.org, 248-930-3100.
• St. Paul United Methodist Church, 165 E. Square Lake Road, Bloomfield Hills, 248-338-8233, services are at 9:45 a.m. Sundays, SPUMC.net, facebook.com/spumcbloomfieldhills, 248-216-1657.
• St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 620 Romeo Street, Rochester. Open door worship services are at 9:30 a.m. Sundays and sanctuary worship services are at 11 a.m., Sundays, livestream available, facebook.com/stpaulsrochester, stpaulsrochester.org.
• St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, 100 Romeo Road, Rochester, stpfeeds.org.
• St. Rita Catholic Church, 309 E Maple, Holly, 248-634-4841, stritaholly.org. Weekend services are 4 p.m. Saturday, and 9 a.m., 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday.
• St. Stephens Episcopal Church, 5500 N Adams Road, Troy, www.ststephenstroy.org, 248-641-8080, In-person Sunday worship services are at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. Online service at 10 a.m.
• St. Stephens Missionary Baptist Church, 69 S. Astor St., Pontiac, 248-335-5873, www.saintstephenmbc.com. Sunday worship services are at 11 a.m.
• St. Thomas Chaldean Catholic Church, 6900 West Maple Road, West Bloomfield Twp., www.stccc.org.
• St. Thomas Orthodox Church, Divine Liturgy at 10 a.m. Sundays, 29150 W. 10 Mile Road, Farmington Hills, 248-471-1059, stthomasalbanianorthodoxchurch.org.
• St. William Parish, 531 Common St., Walled Lake, stwilliam.com, 248-624-1421.
• Sashabaw Presbyterian Church, Clarkston, worship services via Zoom, services at 11 a.m. on 1st, 3rd and 5th Sundays of the month, and at 6 p.m. on 2nd and 4th Saturdays of the month. Email sashabawpresbyterianchurch@gmail.com for a link to services, sashabawpresbyterianchurch.org, 248-310-0792.
• Scott Lake Baptist Church, 811 Scott Lake Road, Waterford Twp., Sunday worship services at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m., also livestream, https://hisscottlake.org.
• Seymour Lake United Methodist Church, 3050 S. Sashabaw Road, Oxford, in-person or online services at 10 a.m. Sundays, 248-572-4200, email- office@seymourlakeumc.org, seymourlakeumc.org.
• Shepherd of the Lakes Lutheran Church, 2905 S. Commerce Road, Walled Lake, worship services are 10 a.m. Sundays, and Wednesdays at 7 p.m. during Lent and Advent, www.shepherdlakes.org, 248-624-4238.
• Shrine Catholic Church, 12 Mile and Woodward, 248-541-4122, https://shrinechurch.com.
• Silver Lake Church Of The Nazarene, 20 W Walton Blvd., Pontiac, https://slcpontiac.org, 248-977-4698.
• Spirit of Grace Church, 2399 Figa Ave., West Bloomfield Twp., 248-682-0270, Sunday worship at 10 a.m., spiritofgrace.church, facebook.com/spiritograce/videos. The church has a diabetic food pantry for those in need with dietary restrictions. The church seeks donations of non-perishable food items for diabetics including: proteins, nuts, grains and beans, sugar-free foods, low carb and high fiber foods as well as shopping bags and unused boxes. Drive-up diabetic food pantry hours are 10 a.m.-noon, 3rd Saturdays of the month.
• Spiritual Life Center, Troy, www.slctroy.com, 248-925-6214. A Message of Hope is 10 a.m. Sundays at www.youtube.com/c/SLCTroy.
• Temple Beth El Synagogue, 7400 Telegraph Road, Bloomfield Hills, www.tbeonline.org. In person services are Friday at 7 p.m. Online services are Saturdays at 10 a.m. and Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on Zoom, www.tbelive.org and facebook.com/tbeonline/live, 248-851-1100.
• Temple Israel, West Bloomfield Twp., streaming video at temple-israel.org.
• Temple Kol Ami, 5085 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield Twp., tkolami.org, 248-661-0040.
• Temple Shir Shalom, 3999 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield Twp., www.shirshalom.org, 248-737-8700.
• Thrive Church, a Global Methodist Church, 680 W. Livingston Road, Highland Twp., www.thrive-church.us, 248-887-1311.
• Troy Church of the Nazarene, 6840 Crooks Road, Troy, troynaz.org, 248-802-7650. Worship Services and Bible Study, 11 a.m. Sundays and 6 p.m. Wednesdays.
• Unity of Farmington Hills worship service in person and online at 10 a.m. Sundays, youtube.com/channel/UCi90mgzXUDpw0k21_3JXlTg, Unityfh.com.
• Unity of Lake Orion, 3070 S. Baldwin Road, Orion Twp., unitylakeorion.org, 248-391-9211. Sunday worship services are 10 a.m. Sundays, in person and livestream on Facebook.
• Unity of Royal Oak, 2500 Crooks Road, Royal Oak, unityofroyaloak.org, 248-288-3550. In-person Sunday worship services at 10 a.m., livestream on YouTube and Facebook.
• Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington, 25301 Halsted Road, Farmington Hills, uufarmington.org. Sunday worship services at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, in person and livestream.
• University Presbyterian Church, 1385 S. Adams, Rochester Hills, universitypres.org, 248-375-0400.
• The Village Church of Ortonville, 93 N Church St. Ortonville, www.facebook.com/oumvillagechurch, 248 627-3125.
• Walled Lake United Methodist Church, 313 E Northport St., Walled Lake. Sunday worship services at 9:30 a.m. in person, or at Facebook Live, facebook.com/walledlakeumc and YouTube, youtube.com/channel/UCjOTQmG5DAGUdd_ghKdp2FQ, walledlakeumc.org, 248-624-2405.
• Warren’s Amazing Grace Lutheran Church, 29860 Dequindre, Warren. Sunday worship services are at 10 a.m. in person and livestream at www.aglc-warren.org, 586-751-7750.
• Waterford Seventh-day Adventist Church, 5725 Pontiac Lake Road, Waterford Twp., www.waterfordadventist.org, 248-681-3334. Worship services in person and livestream, 11 a.m. Saturdays.
• Welcome Missionary Baptist Church, 143 Oneida St, Pontiac, www.welcomemissionarybaptistchurch.com, 248-335-8740. Sunday worship services are at 8:30 a.m. in person and livestream on Facebook at www.facebook.com/welcomemissionary.church.
• Wellspring Bible Church, 485 Farnsworth, White Lake Twp., worship services are at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, wellspringbiblechurch.org, 248-682-0319.
• West Bloomfield United Methodist Church, 4100 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield Twp., worship services are at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, westbloomfieldumc.org, 248-851-2330.
• White Lake Presbyterian Church, 4805 Highland Road, White Lake Twp., 248-887-4654, www.whitelakepc.org.
• Williams Lake Church, 2840 Airport Road, Waterford Twp., www.facebook.com/williamslakechurch, 248-673-5911, www.williamslakechurch.com.
• Woodside Bible Church, with 14 locations in Southeast Michigan, in-person service times vary by location, online services at 8:15 a.m.10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Sundays, live.woodsidebible.org, 248-879-8533.
• Zion Lutheran Church, 143 Albany St., Ferndale, in-person and online worship services at 10:30 a.m. Sundays, www.zionlutheranmi.org.
To add a church to this list, send an email to Kathy Blake at kblake@medianewsgroup.com.
— MediaNews Group
Spirit of Grace Church in West Bloomfield Township hosts drive-up Diabetic Food Pantry every third Saturday of the month. (Photo by Jim Bugg)
Today is Saturday, Aug. 9, the 221st day of 2025. There are 144 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Aug. 9, 1945, three days after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, a U.S. B-29 Superfortress dropped a nuclear device over Nagasaki; the bombing and subsequent radiation poisoning killed an estimated 74,000 people.
Also on this date:
In 1173, construction began on the campanile of Pisa Cathedral—better known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
In 1854, Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” which described Thoreau’s experiences while living near Walden Pond in Massachusetts, was first published.
In 1936, Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Berlin Olympics as the United States took first place in the 400-meter relay.
In 1969, actor Sharon Tate and four other people were found murdered at Tate’s Los Angeles home; cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his followers were later convicted of the crime.
In 1974, Gerald Ford took the oath of office to become US president after Richard Nixon’s resignation; in a speech following, Ford declared that “our long national nightmare is over.”
In 1988, President Ronald Reagan nominated Lauro Cavazos to be secretary of education; Cavazos became the first Hispanic to serve in the Cabinet.
In 2014, Michael Brown Jr., a Black 18-year-old, was shot to death by a police officer following an altercation in Ferguson, Missouri; Brown’s death led to sometimes-violent protests in Ferguson and other U.S. cities, helping fuel a national “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Today’s Birthdays:
Basketball Hall of Famer Bob Cousy is 97.
Tennis Hall of Famer Rod Laver is 87.
Jazz musician Jack DeJohnette is 83.
Comedian-director David Steinberg is 83.
Actor Sam Elliott is 81.
Singer Barbara Mason is 78.
College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player John Cappelletti is 73.
College Football Hall of Famer and former NFL player Doug Williams is 70.
Actor Melanie Griffith is 68.
Actor Amanda Bearse is 67.
Rapper Kurtis Blow is 66.
Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas is 65.
Hockey Hall of Famer Brett Hull is 61.
TV host Hoda Kotb (KAHT’-bee) is 61.
Pro and College Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders is 58.
Actor Gillian Anderson is 57.
Actor Eric Bana is 57.
Producer-director McG (aka Joseph McGinty Nichol) is 57.
NHL player-turned-coach Rod Brind’Amour is 55.
Actor Thomas Lennon is 55.
Actor Nikki Schieler Ziering is 54.
Latin rock singer Juanes is 53.
Actor Liz Vassey is 53.
Actor Kevin McKidd is 52.
Actor Jessica Capshaw is 49.
Actor Ashley Johnson is 42.
Actor Anna Kendrick is 40.
FILE- In this Aug. 6, 1945, file photo, smoke rises around 20,000 feet above Hiroshima, Japan, after the first atomic bomb was dropped. On two days in August 1945, U.S. planes dropped two atomic bombs, one on Hiroshima, one on Nagasaki, the first and only time nuclear weapons have been used. Their destructive power was unprecedented, incinerating buildings and people, and leaving lifelong scars on survivors, not just physical but also psychological, and on the cities themselves. Days later, World War II was over. (AP Photo, File)
EAST LANSING — It caught some by surprise at July’s Big Ten media days when Michigan State wide receiver Nick Marsh sat at the podium and described his reasons for taking less money than he could have made elsewhere to come back to the Spartans.
There he was, this 18-year-old star football player — speaking in Las Vegas, no less — playing a position that begets money and fame and privilege immeasurable.
Instead, Marsh put the focus on his deep connection to God.
“All money is not good money,” Marsh said. “So I’m building something here at Michigan State, a foundation, a brotherhood, a family. And I think that’s more important than money. I think family and God is more important than materialistic things.”
Family and God have been two of the big themes of Michigan State’s offseason, at least among a large contingent who participate in a bible study group hosted by some members of the team. The effect has brought teammates together at a key time for the program during an age when the influx of money into the sport has challenged the role of faith in athletics.
“I think that there’s been a Jesus revolution on this team,” defensive lineman Grady Kelly said back in April. “I think that there’s guys that are not only claiming to follow Jesus and to be Christians, but guys that are willfully and lovingly submitting their lives to him.”
Faith and football have long been connected, whether that be in the form of day-to-day prayers and worship or more publicized expressions of faith. Tim Tebow, the two-time national championship-winning quarterback and 2007 Heisman winner at Florida, was one of the most outwardly expressive of his faith. His prayer kneel celebration became a viral trend, and his eye black writing of John 3:16 led to millions of Google searches for the verse when he completed a 2012 NFL game in which he threw for 316 yards and 31.6 yards per completion.
The current crop of Michigan State players grew up watching Tebow, not only how he played football but also how he represented his faith.
“He’s supposed to be this first-round, All-American, amazing player. He’s preaching now, you know what I’m saying,” defensive lineman Quindarius Dunnigan said. “Football is just a platform. It’s a gift from God. And at the end of the day, if that’s not what he wants you to do, he’ll let you know. And you just gotta find peace with that.”
For now, the Spartans’ own platform is still football. Saturday’s first scrimmage of fall camp is a big step toward embarking on the second season of the Jonathan Smith era, attempting to build off a 5-7 debut in East Lansing. The 2025 season begins Aug. 29 at home against Western Michigan.
The Spartans’ bible studies are held at players’ houses, most led by Dunnigan, Kelly and linebacker Jordan Hall. The study sessions are part of the larger Athletes in Action sports ministry, which has been active on campus for decades. At their study sessions, players discuss their faith and how it applies to their lives well beyond the football field. The sessions aren’t mandatory (they can’t be at a public institution), but they are well attended.
“Really, we just host it,” Hall said. “It’d be at my house or Grady’s house or Q’s house, but we’re just having conversations and letting the Holy Spirit kind of flow through those rooms that we’re having.”
Added linebacker Darius Snow: “We have a lot of guys on the team that are very faithful, very religious. And I know that everybody has their own beliefs, but I’m a Christian man, and it’s beautiful to see people diving into that.”
Faith has long been prominent with the Michigan State football team. Individually, players have expressed their faith openly, including quarterback Kirk Cousins. Back when Mark Dantonio coached the team, he sometimes handed his kickers prayer cards to motivate them, like he did when Matt Coghlin kicked a winning field goal in an upset of No. 7 Penn State in 2017. This summer, recently graduated running back Nate Carter released a book about his faith. And players have long been involved in Athletes in Action, which hosts Tuesday night meetings at the Skandalaris Football Center.
Faith has a freeing effect for Michigan State’s players, who escape the day-to-day emotional whims of their football careers through their religious beliefs.
“I think that the biggest thing about Jesus in sports is when we have our identity in the world, we ride these ebbs and flows of performance,” Kelly said. “Everything’s performance-oriented. So when I do good, I’m on top of the world. When I do bad, I hate myself and I’m shameful and guilty, and that affects performance, too. So when you put your identity in Christ, your value as a person — no matter your performance — is unwavering, it’s unchanging, because he’s constant.”
To Michigan State’s religious players, they see their abilities on the football field as gifts from God that enable them to spread the gospel. The bigger the platform they build, the greater their opportunity to do so.
“I think as Christians, we’re called to be disciples and make people aware of the gift of Christ,” Hall said. “And given the platform that college football gives us players, it would be a disservice to not use that platform to spread the gospel to somebody who might not ever hear the gospel.”
Michigan State linebacker Jordan Hall (5) gets set for a play during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Iowa, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023, in Iowa City, Iowa. Iowa won 26-16. Hall is one of several MSU players who have been hosting bible study sessions with teammates. (CHARLIE NEIBERGALL — AP Photo, file)
ANN ARBOR — When asked who the player is to watch this season on their side of the ball, most players often take a few moments to consider the question before formulating an answer.
Max Bredeson, a Michigan captain last season and a fullback/tight end, did not hesitate with his response when the question was posed to him late last month before Big Ten media days and the start of preseason camp.
“I mean, it shouldn’t be a surprise you, but I’ll put all my chips in for Marlin Klein,” Bredeson said of the tight end who is the heir apparent to first-round NFL Draft pick Colston Loveland. “That’s my guy. I’m excited for him to go do it.
“At Michigan, we’ve always had the tight end, and Marlin and Colston came in the same class. Marlin’s ready to go. He’s heard so many times how much talent he has. This is a guy who’s done hearing that, and he’s all about wanting to go do it.”
Klein has heard plenty about his talent and potential, and perhaps that’s because the German native started the game so late. He was a fine soccer and basketball player, but when he decided to move from Germany to Georgia to play at Rabun Gap-Nacoochee, that potential was all everyone was banking on.
Now, the 6-foot-6, 250-pound junior has developed that potential and is expected to pick up where Loveland left off. Klein recently made Bruce Feldman’s “Freaks List” at No. 35, an improvement from No. 90 the year before. Feldman noted Klein’s speed and agility.
“Oh, that’s cool, but winning every game this season is more important to me,” Klein told reporters on Friday of his appearance on Feldman’s list. “But yes, it’s cool. A national championship will be even cooler.”
Loveland, who led the team in receiving last year, was asked the previous two seasons to be more of a pass-catcher. He could block, but that’s not how he was needed in the offense.
Chip Lindsey, in his first season as Michigan’s offensive coordinator, believes he has a complete tight end in Klein and likes the fact that he has been an important part of the offense in terms of mixing it up and being physical.
“He’s one of the best blockers in the country, in my opinion,” Lindsey said this week. “But what’s surprising is he’s got really good speed. He can get vertical quick. Big, rangy target. You like that as a quarterback, where obviously it’s a lot easier if a guy is covered and throw it to the spot and let him go get it.
“But the guy is kind of a dirty work, lunch-pail kind of guy, or a blue-collar guy. Love his attitude and approach. He likes the physicality of the position. And I think that’s probably why him and Max play off each other so well. They’re both wired the same way. A really talented kid. I’m excited to coach him, and hopefully he’ll have a big role in our offense.”
Klein knew that if he was ever going to find his way onto the field, he’d have to develop as a blocker.
“Coming in here from high school, like I never blocked (a) soul in high school,” Klein said with a laugh.
He credits former Michigan tight ends for teaching him the all-around nature of the position, guys like Luke Schoonmaker, Joel Honigford, AJ Barner and Loveland.
“You want to chase the best, compete with the best each and every single day, and I was able to learn from (them),” Klein said. “But it really took a lot of hard work, a lot of steps for me.”
Bredeson is known for his tenacious blocking. Klein said much Bredeson’s selflessness in terms of playing the game has rubbed off on him the last few seasons.
“I don’t think I had that same approach when I came in, in 2022. Being able to learn from him and (his) almost kind of psycho mentality about the game of football, it’s just been so much fun for me,” Klein said. “When I first got here, I was like, this might be a little crazy. But hanging around him and just really seeing how much he actually loves the game of football, that’s why he is the way he is, and that’s why he is the best at what he does in the country.”
Klein said he has always felt like he belonged in the college game; it simply took him a little bit longer to reach the level of his teammates who had played for years. He knew it would be a challenge, but it’s one he sought.
Last spring, with the help of tight ends coach Steve Casula, who’s now also a co-offensive coordinator, Klein said he began to realize he’s much more than just potential.
“We went to the jungle,” Klein said.
The jungle, as Klein described it, involved only the two of them and it was run-game specific.
“It was really the most critical time of my life,” Klein said. “And it was never good enough, but that was really just because he tried to push me to my best. He helped me to (reach) the standard, which is the Michigan standard, and the Michigan standard is a championship standard. So that equals the best.”
The jungle was not a fun place to be in real time. But looking back, it was game-changing for Klein.
“The way (Casula) describes the jungle is really like we’re locked in,” Klein said. “He was the most critical person on me, but it wasn’t a personal thing. I knew he wanted the best for me. Each and every single day, the meetings weren’t the most fun for me, (but) I have to get better now. He pushed me every single day. It was the biggest blessing that ever happened to me, and that took my game to the next level.”
Michigan tight end Marlin Klein (17) had 13 catches for 108 yards last season. (DAVID GURALNICK — The Detroit News)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Democrats’ rush to schedule an emergency election to remake U.S. House districts and counter rival moves by Texas Republicans has created a dilemma for county officials who are being urged to plan for an election that hasn’t been scheduled and might never happen.
Orchestrating an election in a state of nearly 23 million registered voters across 58 counties is a time-consuming and costly endeavor under any circumstances, but Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Democratic-dominated Legislature already have blown past deadlines intended to give local officials adequate time for organizing everything from printing mail ballots in multiple languages to lining up staff and securing locations for in-person voting.
Democrats are considering new political maps that could slash five Republican-held House seats in the liberal-leaning state while bolstering Democratic incumbents in other battleground districts. If Democrats succeed, that could leave Republicans with four House seats in the state among 52 overall.
Those revised maps could be formally unveiled as soon as next week, in advance of a Nov. 4 election.
The office of the state’s chief elections overseer, Secretary of State Shirley Weber, met Monday with local election officials to discuss planning for the pending election. Though an election has not been called, “staff around the state need to begin preparing for the possibility of a special election,” Weber spokesperson Jim Patrick said in an email.
Meanwhile, it’s not known if the state will cover the cost of the potential November election or if counties — many cash-strapped — will be saddled with the bill. A 2021 special election in which Newsom beat back a recall attempt cost over $200 million to conduct.
“We are going to be under some tight time pressures,” said Orange County Registrar of Voters Bob Page, whose office is rapidly planning for the proposed election.
“We really can’t lose all or most of August by waiting” for the Legislature and the governor to act, Page added. “It’s a risk I have to take.”
Los Angeles County Clerk Dean Logan, who oversees elections in the county of nearly 10 million people, warned that “without upfront state funding and a clearly defined calendar, counties can face challenges meeting the demands of an election.”
“Ensuring voters are served accurately, securely, and equitably must remain the top priority, and that takes preparation,” Logan added in a statement.
Texas and California — the two most populous U.S. states — are the leading actors in a back-and-forth push to remake the balance of power in the U.S. House, kicked off when President Donald Trump called for Texas to redraw district lines with the GOP’s fragile House majority imperiled in the upcoming 2026 midterm elections.
The party that controls the White House is typically punished by voters in midterm elections.
“We are entitled to five more seats” in Texas, Trump insisted Tuesday in a CNBC interview. He pointed to California’s existing maps, which are drawn by an independent commission unlike the Texas maps crafted by a partisan legislature: “They did it to us.”
Other states — including New York, Florida and Indiana — could get into the power struggle that’s emerging as a national proxy war for control of Congress.
Newsom has said he would only move forward with the election if Texas succeeds in recasting its own House maps. The Texas push is on hold, after Democrats fled the state to prevent a legislative vote on the Republican redistricting plan.
In an online post, Page wrote that state rules require the governor to issue a proclamation calling a statewide election at least 148 days before the date of the election — that would have been June 9. As part of any action, the Legislature would have to waive that requirement this year.
He warned of a possible enforcement action by the U.S. Justice Department if ballots for members of the U.S. Military and overseas voters are not issued by Sept. 20.
Page said if he waited for the Legislature and the governor to formally call the election, “it would be too late for me to actually conduct the election.”
If it goes through, “We are going to make this work,” Page added.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom calls for a new way for California to redraw it’s voting districts during a news conference In Sacramento, Calif., Friday July 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Bilateral meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterparts were a regular occurrence early in his tenure.
But as tensions mounted between Moscow and the West following the illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and allegations of meddling with the 2016 U.S. elections, those became increasingly less frequent, and their tone appeared less friendly.
Here’s what to know about past meetings between Russian and U.S. presidents:
Putin and Joe Biden
Putin and Joe Biden met only once while holding the presidency –- in Geneva in June 2021.
Russia was amassing troops on the border with Ukraine, where large swaths of land in the east had long been occupied by Moscow-backed forces; Washington repeatedly accused Russia of cyberattacks. The Kremlin was intensifying its domestic crackdown on dissent, jailing opposition leader Alexei Navalny months earlier and harshly suppressing protests demanding his release.
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and U.S President Joe Biden shake hands in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool, File)
Putin and Biden talked for three hours, but no breakthroughs came out of the meeting. The two exchanged expressions of mutual respect, but firmly restated their starkly different views on all of the above.
They spoke again via videoconference in December 2021 as tensions heightened over Ukraine. Biden threatened sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine, and Putin demanded guarantees that Kyiv wouldn’t join NATO –- something Washington and its allies said was a nonstarter.
Another phone call between the two came in February 2022, less than two weeks before the full-scale invasion. Then the high-level contacts stopped cold, with no publicly disclosed conversations between Putin and Biden since the invasion.
Putin and Donald Trump
Putin met Trump met six times during the American’s first term -– at and on the sidelines of G20 and APEC gatherings — but most famously in Helsinki in July 2018. That’s where Trump stood next to Putin and appeared to accept his insistence that Moscow had not interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election and openly questioned the firm finding by his own intelligence agencies.
His remarks were a stark illustration of Trump’s willingness to upend decades of U.S. foreign policy and rattle Western allies in service of his political concerns.
“I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump said. “He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.”
Putin and Barack Obama
U.S. President Barack Obama met with Putin nine times, and there were 12 more meetings with Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president in 2008-12. Putin became prime minister in a move that allowed him to reset Russia’s presidential term limits and run again in 2012.
FILE – Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, listens to U.S. President Barack Obama in Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016. (Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
Obama traveled to Russia twice — once to meet Medvedev in 2009 and again for a G20 summit 2013. Medvedev and Putin also traveled to the U.S.
Under Medvedev, Moscow and Washington talked of “resetting” Russia-U.S. relations post-Cold War and worked on arms control treaties. U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton famously presented a big “reset” button to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a meeting in 2009. One problem: instead of “reset” in Russian, they used another word meaning “overload.”
After Putin returned to office in 2012, tensions rose between the two countries. The Kremlin accused the West of interfering with Russian domestic affairs, saying it fomented anti-government protests that rocked Moscow just as Putin sought reelection. The authorities cracked down on dissent and civil society, drawing international condemnation.
Obama canceled his visit to Moscow in 2013 after Russia granted asylum to Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower.
In 2014, the Kremlin illegally annexed Crimea and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The U.S. and its allies responded with crippling sanctions. Relations plummeted to the lowest point since the Cold War.
The Kremlin’s 2015 military intervention in Syria to prop up Bashar Assad further complicated ties. Putin and Obama last met in China in September 2016, on the sidelines of a G20 summit, and held talks focused on Ukraine and Syria.
Putin and George W. Bush
Putin and George W. Bush met 28 times during Bush’s two terms. They hosted each other for talks and informal meetings in Russia and the U.S., met regularly on the sidelines of international summits and forums, and boasted of improving ties between onetime rivals.
FILE- Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, and U.S. President George W. Bush look on during their news conference in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, southern Russia, Sunday, April 6, 2008. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)
After the first meeting with Putin in 2001, Bush said he “looked the man in the eye” and “found him very straightforward and trustworthy,” getting “a sense of his soul.”
In 2002, they signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty -– a nuclear arms pact that significantly reduced both countries’ strategic nuclear warhead arsenal.
Putin was the first world leader to call Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attack, offering his condolences and support, and welcomed the U.S. military deployment on the territory of Moscow’s Central Asian allies for action in Afghanistan.
He has called Bush “a decent person and a good friend,” adding that good relations with him helped find a way out of “the most acute and conflict situations.”
FILE – President Donald Trump, left, and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the beginning of a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
A reboot matching the brilliance of its predecessor? Ugh, as if. But Alicia Silverstone is “confident” Peacock’s upcoming “Clueless” series will do its very best to “honor” the original.
Silverstone, 48, who starred as fashion-forward “virgin who can’t drive” Cher Horowitz in the 1995 film — which celebrated its 30th anniversary last month — is executive producing the streamer series, and told the “Today” show she’s “really excited” for the reboot.
“The goal is to make it honor what everyone loves about ‘Clueless’ and Cher,” she told Savannah Guthrie Thursday, “But also bring something fresh and new to it. … We’re in baby stages right now.”
“Clueless” also previously lived on the small screen with an ABC sitcom that aired from 1996 and 1999, as created by the uber-quotable film’s writer-director Amy Heckerling.
PARK CITY, UTAH – JANUARY 20: Alicia Silverstone visits the IMDb Portrait Studio at Acura House of Energy on Location at Sundance 2024 on January 20, 2024 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Monica Schipper/Getty Images for IMDb)
A big increase in the tax on university endowments is adding to financial uncertainty for the wealthiest colleges in the U.S., leading several already to lay off staff or implement hiring freezes.
Spending more endowment money on taxes could also lead colleges to reduce financial aid, cutting off access to elite institutions for lower-income students, colleges and industry experts have warned. President Donald Trump signed the tax increase into law last month as part of his signature spending bill.
The new tax rates take effect in 2026, but colleges such as Harvard, Yale and Stanford already are citing the tax as one of many reasons for making cuts across their universities. Each will be on the hook to pay hundreds of millions more in taxes, while also navigating reductions in research grants and other threats to funding by the Trump administration.
A tax on college endowments was introduced during Trump’s first administration, collecting 1.4% of wealthy universities’ investment earnings. The law signed by Trump last month creates a new tiered system that taxes the richest schools at the highest rates.
The new tax will charge an 8% rate at schools with $2 million or more in assets for each enrolled student. Schools with $750,000 to $2 million will be charged 4%, and schools with $500,000 to $750,000 will continue to be charged the 1.4% rate.
The tax applies only to private colleges and universities with at least 3,000 students, up from the previous cutoff of 500 students.
“The tax now will really solely apply to private research universities,” said Steven Bloom, assistant vice president of government relations for the American Council on Education. “It’s going to mean that these schools are going to have to spend more money under the tax, taking it away from what they primarily use their endowment assets for — financial aid.”
This small group of wealthy colleges faces a tax increase
The law will increase the endowment tax for about a dozen universities, according to an Associated Press analysis of data from the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are expected to pay the 8% rate next year. The schools facing the 4% rate include Notre Dame, Dartmouth College, Rice University, University of Pennsylvania, Washington University in St. Louis and Vanderbilt University.
FILE – This aerial image shows the Princeton University campus in Princeton, N.J., Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey, File)
Some universities are on the edge of the law’s parameters. Both Duke and Emory, for instance, were shy of the $750,000-per-student endowment threshold based on last fiscal year.
Endowments are made up of donations to the college, which are invested to maintain the money over time. Colleges often spend about 5% of their investment earnings every year to put toward their budgets. Much of it goes toward scholarships for students, along with costs such as research or endowed faculty positions.
Despite the colleges’ wealth, the tax will drastically impact their budgets, said Phillip Levine, an economist and professor at Wellesley College.
“They’re looking for savings wherever possible,” Levine said, which could impact financial aid. “One of the most important things they do with their endowment is lower the cost of education for lower- and middle-income students. The institutions paying the highest tax are also the ones charging these students the least amount of money to attend.”
For example, at Rice University in Houston, officials anticipate the college will need to pay $6.4 million more in taxes. That equates to more than 100 student financial aid packages, the university said, but Rice officials will explore all other options to avoid cutting that support.
How colleges are adjusting to financial pressures
In the meantime, some universities are going forward with staff cuts.
Yale University says it will have to pay an estimated $280 million in total endowment taxes, citing the tax in a campus message implementing a hiring freeze. Stanford University announced plans to reduce its operating budget by $140 million this upcoming school year, which included 363 layoffs and an ongoing hiring freeze. The university spent months trying to determine where to reduce its budget, but said it would continue to support undergraduate financial aid and funding for Ph.D. students.
Research universities are under increasing financial pressure from reductions in funding from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and other federal agencies.
No university knows this pressure better than Harvard, the country’s wealthiest college. Its $53 billion endowment puts it at the top of the list for the new tax, but it’s also seeing massive portions of research funding under threat in its ongoing battle with the White House.
The federal government has frozen $2.6 billion in Harvard’s research grants in connection with civil rights investigations focused on antisemitism and Harvard’s efforts to promote diversity on campus. But the impact of other administration policies on the university could approach $1 billion annually, Harvard said in a statement.
FILE – People walk between buildings on Harvard University campus, Dec. 17, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
“It’s not like Harvard is going to go from one of the best institutions in the world to just a mediocre institution. That’s probably not going to happen,” Levine said. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be a bad thing — that there won’t be pain and that students won’t suffer.”
Mumphrey reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writer Sharon Lurye in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.
FILE – An woman walks past Rice University’s Lovett Hall, the oldest building on campus, Jan. 23, 2001, in Houston. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan, File)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Republicans on Friday warned they would escalate efforts to end a nearly weeklong holdout by Democrats if they don’t return to vote on new congressional voting maps sought by President Donald Trump in a widening battle over redistricting across the U.S.
The dozens of Texas House Democrats who left the state on Aug. 3 have shown no signs of buckling for now: A group of them was headed to California to meet with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who wants to redraw his own state’s lines in retaliation if Texas puts in place redrawn maps for the 2026 midterm elections.
Texas has been the epicenter of Trump’s push to gerrymander congressional maps to shore up Republicans’ narrow House majority before next year. The Texas House of Representatives was set to convene again Friday, and GOP leaders warned they would ratchet up pressure if the holdout continued, including expanding efforts to try to remove Democratic lawmakers from office.
“We have an agenda to pass priorities critical to Texans, and we will get it done. I’ll call special session after special session—no matter how long it takes—until the job is finished,” Abbott posted Friday on the social platform X.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has pledged legal action to try to get the missing Democrats removed from office if they do not return to the House chamber. State Rep. Gene Wu, the chairman of the state House Democratic Caucus faced a Friday deadline to respond to a similar effort filed by Gov. Greg Abbott with the state Supreme Court.
Democratic Texas Rep. Gene Wu, center, surrounded by other Texas House Democrats and Democratic members of Congress, speaks during a press conference at the Democratic Party in Warrenville, Ill., Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Abbott has threatened to keep calling state lawmakers into special sessions until outnumbered Democrats return to face the redistricting vote, telling them they can’t stay away forever. The current special session ends Aug. 19, and the missing lawmakers already face mounting fines for every day they are gone, and civil arrest warrants issued by the state House.
Friday will mark the third time the 150-member state House has tried to convene since Democrats left the state. The state constitution requires at least 100 members present for the House to do business, and Republicans hold an 88-62 majority in the chamber.
Trump wants five more seats out of Texas to potentially avoid a repeat of the 2018 midterms, when Democrats reclaimed the House and proceeded to thwart his agenda and impeach him twice.
While their minority status allows them only to delay, the Texas holdout has inspired Democrats and progressives around the country.
Newsom wants Democratic gerrymandering in California if Texas proceeds, though voters would have to bypass an independent redistricting commission. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, both of whom have appeared alongside Texas Democrats who relocated to their states, have also declared their intent to push new maps if they are necessary to neutralize Republican maneuvers.
The dynamics could embroil the 2026 midterm campaign in legislative and court battles testing Trump’s power over the Republican Party, Democrats’ ability to mount opposition and the durability of the U.S. system of federalism that balances power between Washington and individual states.
Lathan is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Empty chairs belonging to House Democrats remain empty during session convocation in protest to a redistricting map in the State Capitol, Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Rodolfo Gonzalez)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fast-growing brush fire has forced thousands of people to evacuate in a mountainous area north of Los Angeles.
The Canyon Fire ignited Thursday afternoon and grew to more than 7.6 square miles by 11 p.m., according to the Ventura County Fire Department. At least 400 personnel were battling the blaze along with several planes and helicopters. It remained uncontained late Thursday and was spreading east into Los Angeles County, officials said.
A California Department of Corrections fire crew looks on as the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
A resident rides a golf cart as he exits his property while the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
A firefighter battles the Canyon Fire on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Residents evacuate as the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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A California Department of Corrections fire crew looks on as the Canyon Fire burns on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The fire is burning just south of Lake Piru, a reservoir located in the Los Padres National Forest. It’s close by Lake Castaic, a popular recreation area burned by the Hughes Fire in January. That fire burned about 15 square miles in six hours and put 50,000 people under evacuation orders or warnings.
Sunny, hot and dry conditions were expected in the area where the Canyon Fire was burning on Friday, with the daytime high near 100 degrees Fahrenheit and minimum humidity in the mid-teens, according to the National Weather Service. Winds were expected to be light in the morning and grow from the south to southwest in the afternoon.
In LA County, around 2,700 residents evacuated with 700 structures under an evacuation order, officials said late Thursday. Another 14,000 residents and 5,000 structures were covered by an evacuation warning. Areas within the Val Verde zone had been reduced from an order to a warning.
The evacuation zones in nearby Ventura County were relatively unpopulated, Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson Andrew Dowd said Thursday. Fifty-six people were evacuated from the Lake Piru recreation area.
Dowd called the blaze a “very dynamic situation” caused by hot, dry weather, steep and rugged terrain and dry fuel.
LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents the district, urged residents to evacuate.
“Extreme heat and low humidity in our north county have created dangerous conditions where flames can spread with alarming speed,” Barger said in a statement. “If first responders tell you to leave, go—without hesitation.”
The new blaze comes as a massive wildfire in Central California became the state’s largest blaze of the year, threatening hundreds of homes and burning out of control in the Los Padres National Forest.
The Gifford Fire had spread to 155 square miles by Thursday night with 15% containment. It grew out of at least four smaller fires that erupted Aug. 1 along State Route 166, forcing closures in both directions east of Santa Maria, a city of about 110,000 people. It has injured at least four people. The causes of the fires are under investigation.
Wildfire risk will be elevated through the weekend across much of inland California as a heat wave gripping the area intensifies. August and September are typically the most dangerous months for wildfires in the state.
A firefighter battles the Canyon Fire on Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, in Hasley Canyon, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
The West Bloomfield School District has been cleared to raze a beloved century-old former elementary school after the Michigan Court of Appeals on Thursday dissolved an order suspending the demolition.
A conservation group called Heart of the Lakes had argued the West Bloomfield school board violated the Open Meetings Act by failing to publicly deliberate other options for the former Roosevelt Elementary School building, located on Cass Lake Road in Keego Harbor, and instead “rubber stamped” a plan for demolition.
But the three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals noted in its 13-page unanimous decision that two board members urged the rest of the board during its March 18, 2024, meeting to reconsider demolition before the board approved project bids by a 4-2 vote.
“Therefore, the Board did deliberate on the bids and did not merely rubber-stamp recommendations. Although the Board did not discuss each of the bids individually … the OMA (Open Meetings Act) does not require a specific level of deliberation,” wrote judges Adrienne Young, Kristina Robinson Garrett and Randy J. Wallace, all appointed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. “Plaintiffs cite no provision of the OMA, or other law, that required the Board to discuss each individual bid before voting.”
The lawsuit, initially filed in Oakland County Circuit Court, alleged that the school district conducted “secret” deliberations outside of public session in a “concerted effort” to destroy the building.
The school board voted in September 2023 to demolish the structure, saying it was no longer safe and that maintaining it would be an irresponsible use of taxpayer funding.
“This was not an easy decision,” West Bloomfield Superintendent Dania Bazzi said in a statement Thursday. “But Roosevelt is no longer a safe or viable space for modern learning. We remain committed to keeping resources focused on students and their futures.”
The nonprofit land conservation group Heart of the Lakes has taken the opposite view, claiming the district’s decision is financially unsound. During the March 2024 meeting, the board declined a $1.7 million offer from an architectural firm that wanted to renovate the building into rental units.
The court decided that the school district had the right to determine the most viable course of action.
“… The public has an interest in maintaining an independent education system, and the School District has the right to manage its property,” wrote the appellate panel.
The 70,000-square-foot former school opened in 1920 and closed in 2022, when students were moved to another building in the West Bloomfield school system.
Parents, historians and elected officials banded together in an effort to save it for future use. Heart of the Lakes sought an emergency court order in March 2024, soon after the board approved bids to level the former school, to stop the demolition.
The following month, the Court of Appeals issued an order putting the teardown on hold and giving activists time to file appeals and argue their case.
But the three-person Appeals Court panel wrote in Thursday’s decision that Heart of the Lakes failed to file its lawsuit within the statutorily required 60 days after the board approved and publicized the minutes from its Sept. 18, 2023, meeting, when they initially approved the demolition.
“The court’s decision reinforces what we have maintained from the start, that our process was transparent and lawful,” Bazzi said.
Messages seeking comment on any further appeal weren’t immediately returned by Heart of the Lakes or its attorney, Derek Howard.
Demolition was initially planned for June 2024 before the court ordered the stay. District officials didn’t say when the leveling may commence now that the court has made its decision.
The cost of the demolition, based on the approved bids, is $558,000 — $93,000 for the asbestos abatement and $465,000 for the teardown. The land has been appraised at $1.2 million, according to a district report, so West Bloomfield schools was poised to make a $650,000 profit.
However, in a court filing, the district said it has been paying more than $4,700 per month to maintain the building — for a total of about $61,000 since the demolition was planned last June.
The district said it “will continue working closely with contractors to ensure all environmental and safety standards are met during demolition.”
The former Roosevelt elementary school, in Keego Harbor, Feb. 4, 2025. (David Guralnick/The Detroit News)
ATLANTA (AP) — Two Atlanta transit police officers were shot after they tried to confront a man urinating in a train station, investigators say.
Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority Police Chief M. Scott Kreher tells local news outlets that officials are looking for the man, who got away after shooting at the officers as they tried to arrest him late Thursday.
The shooting happened just before midnight at MARTA’s Five Points station, the downtown transfer point for the system’s trains.
Kreher told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the man became irate and refused to cooperate when officers approached him. Officers decided to arrest the man, but Kreher said he pulled out a handgun and shot over his shoulder at the officer. He grazed a female officer in the knee and struck a male officer in the arm.
The female officer has been released from the hospital but is also reporting hearing loss because she was so close when the gun was fired. Kreher said she is expected to fully recover. The male officer was undergoing surgery Friday for his arm injury.
Cameras show the man then got on a train and rode two stops south, throwing his gun on the roof of the West End station. Police haven’t publicly identified the man but say they know who he is and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force is looking for him.
The gun has been recovered.
The Five Points station reopened when trains started running Friday morning.
By ERIC TUCKER and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has subpoenaed New York Attorney General Letitia James as part of an investigation into whether she violated President Donald Trump’s civil rights, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The subpoenas sought records related to the lawsuit James filed against Trump over alleged fraud in his personal business dealings and a separate lawsuit involving the National Rifle Association, according to the people, who could not publicly discuss details of the investigation and spoke to the AP on Friday on the condition of anonymity.
They mark an escalation of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to scrutinize perceived adversaries of the president, including those like James who had investigated him before his election win last November.
A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, Geoff Burgan, declined to confirm the subpoenas but issued a statement that said, “Any weaponization of the justice system should disturb every American. We stand strongly behind our successful litigation against the Trump Organization and the National Rifle Association, and we will continue to stand up for New Yorkers’ rights.”
In a separate statement, James’ personal attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, said “if prosecutors carry out this improper tactic and are genuinely interested in the truth, we are ready and waiting with the facts and the law.”
“Investigating the fraud case Attorney General James won against President Trump and his businesses has to be the most blatant and desperate example of this administration carrying out the president’s political retribution campaign,” Lowell said. “Weaponizing the Department of Justice to try to punish an elected official for doing her job is an attack on the rule of law and a dangerous escalation by this administration.”
A spokesperson for the Justice Department, Natalie Baldassarre, declined to comment.
James, a Democrat, has sued Trump and his Republican administration dozens of times over his policies as president and over how he conducted his private business empire. Trump is appealing the multimillion dollar judgment she won against him in a lawsuit alleging that he defrauded banks and other lenders by giving them financial statements that inflated the value of his properties, including his golf clubs and penthouse in Trump Tower.
Trump says his financial statements actually understated his wealth and that any mistakes in the documents were harmless errors that played no role in banks’ lending decisions. He and his lawyers have repeatedly accused James of engaging in “lawfare” for political purposes — a claim she has denied.
News of the subpoena comes as the Justice Department advances an investigation into the Trump-Russia probe that shadowed Trump for much of his first term as president and as the administration has engaged in a widespread purge from the workforce of law enforcement officials who had been involved in examining the activities of Trump and his supporters.
FILE – New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks Feb. 16, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
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