The Republican chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee said Tuesday that he wants Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to personally explain why an expensive new system to collect elected officials’ financial disclosure statements doesn’t work.

Representatives of the Secretary of State’s office and contractors who built the system were grilled Tuesday for roughly an hour and a half by members of two House committees. They were called to testify on a malfunctioning financial disclosure system for elected officials and lobbyists that is part of implementing a voter-approved amendment to the Michigan Constitution.

The back and forth was tense at times as representatives of the secretary of state and the technology company that created the system defended their process and promised improvements by the next filing deadline in July.

Tina Anderson, Benson’s chief of staff, apologized for the crashes and glitches that stopped elected officials from making timely filings and thwarted people from searching filings.

“We know that many system users, including members of these committees, have had less-than-satisfactory interactions with this system,” she said. “On behalf of Secretary Benson, I am here to apologize for these difficult experiences. We take this very seriously.”

She acknowledged the transition to a new system has been rough going, but said it would have been impossible to keep two parallel systems operating simultaneously.

At the end of the session, House Oversight Committee Chair Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay Twp.) said he still was not satisfied with the answers.

“What’s been demonstrated in testimony here today is that there was risk, they were aware of risk,” he said. “I tried to get an answer out of who made these decisions and the answer was team, team, team, team, team. But, at the end of the day, the buck stops at the secretary of state.”

DeBoyer said he plans to send a letter asking Benson to personally appear before the committee next month. A Benson spokesperson said they will be on the lookout for the communication.

“We’ll review the letter when we receive it and make a decision then,” said Secretary of State Communications Officer Angela Benander in a text message. 

Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated the Michigan Campaign Finance Act by using the lobby of a state office building for a press conference to announce she is running for governor. 

That determination was released Monday by the Michigan Attorney General’s office.

This is obviously an embarrassing misstep for the Benson campaign since the Secretary of State is responsible for administering and enforcing campaign finance rules.

The Benson campaign vigorously argued a campaign finance complaint filed by Republican activists was without merit. A provision of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act prohibits elected officials from using public resources for electioneering.

Benson, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, said she moved a media availability from outside the office building to the lobby after filing her paperwork because it was freezing cold. Benson’s campaign also argued she was not acting in her official capacity and was on her personal time as a candidate.

The Benson campaign called the lobby “a public space where First Amendment activity can occur as long as it doesn’t interfere with the operation of the building.”

But the letter signed by Assistant Attorney General Joshua Booth said that is not the case.

“Secretary Benson invited members of the press inside the (Richard A.) Austin Building and then conducted a press conference, professionally dressed, during the day, in the lobby of the building that houses her office,” Booth wrote. “She gave no indication that would lead a reasonable person viewing the press conference to believe that she was there on her ‘personal time.’ Instead, the circumstances would lead a reasonable person to believe that Secretary Benson was acting as Secretary of State with the authority of the Department of State … to invite members of the press inside her office building and use the lobby for the press conference.”

But Booth also said there is no mechanism to fine or otherwise punish the Benson campaign for the infraction because of a loophole in the law. He said the law excludes the Secretary of State while naming other offices covered by the Michigan Campaign Finance Act.

“Consequently, the Attorney General is left with no choice but to simply identify the violation, remind the Secretary of State of her obligations under the MCFA, and warn her against violating them in the future,” he said. He added the Legislature may want to consider closing the loophole that allows for “unequal treatment.”

Benson’s campaign spokesperson called the determination “a new interpretation” of the act which is administered and largely enforced by the Secretary of State.

“We understand the Attorney General is issuing a new interpretation of the law, and we appreciate the added clarity,” said Alyssa Bradley in a text message.

Republicans quickly made hay over the misstep.

“Jocelyn Benson betrayed the trust of taxpayers of Michigan on the day she kicked off her campaign,” said Republican Governors Association Rapid Response Director Kollin Crompton in an email blast, saying “she violated the very campaign finance laws she is supposed to oversee.”

To date, the other announced Democratic gubernatorial candidates are Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and Genessee County Sheriff Chris Swanson. The announced Republican candidates are former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, Senate Minority Leader Aric Nesbitt and U.S. Rep. John James and Anthony Hudson. Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is running as an independent. 

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said Thursday she does not expect to file any more charges after alleging a former top House staffer siphoned off money for his own use from funds earmarked for a $25 million health facility project in Clare.

The charges allege David Coker, who was an aide to then-House Speaker Jason Wentworth, spent $820,000 that was supposed to be used for the project to, instead, buy coins, gold bars and firearm accessories, among other things. At a press conference to announce the charges, Nessel said a dearth of relevant experience by a grant seeker should be a warning signal.  

“They have no track record,” she said. “They can’t show that they’ve done anything in terms of major projects that have been successful of this kind or really even any kind at all. So, that’s a major red flag.”

The earmark was slipped into the 2023 state budget anonymously, which was allowed at the time. Since then, the Legislature adopted rules that require every earmark to have a sponsor, and the House requires those sponsors’ names to be made public before budget votes.

Nessel said ending anonymous earmarks is a step in the right direction.

“I’m very encouraged by these actions to bring more sunshine into the appropriations process and support any further guardrails the Legislature sees fit to prevent fraudsters from stealing our hard-working tax dollars,” she said.

Coker was charged Wednesday with seven felonies alleging he misused public funds. Nessel alleges the fraud was committed using faked invoices from his for-profit consulting firm.

Coker’s not-for-profit organization, Complete Health Park, was paid $9.9 million from the grant before the funding was halted. Nessel said her office is looking into how it might recoup the expended funds.

The not-for-profit paid $3.5 million for the property, which was purchased from state Representative Tom Kunse (R-Clare). Nessel said Kunse is not suspected of wrongdoing.

Coker’s attorney said his client was cooperating with the inquiry, and the charges came out of the blue. Joshua Blanchard told Michigan Public Radio his client was trying to bring a major project to build a health services campus to Clare.

 “He disclosed everything to the state, been aboveboard about every bit of it all along and, for whatever reason, Dana’s office decided they wanted a press conference and so they issued charges,” said Blanchard.

The next step will be for the state to outline the charges and the evidence to a judge  at a preliminary hearing scheduled for May 23.

Nessel’s office is also looking into two other cases of possible earmark fraud, including spending by a not-for-profit formed by businesswoman and major Democratic Party donor Fay Beydoun on a $4,500 coffeemaker and first-class plane tickets and a $2 million grant to fund a study on bringing low-orbit rocket launch sites to Michigan.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed bills Wednesday to give state officials another month to file asset and financial disclosure reports as the state tries to fix its filing website. Without the new law, the filing deadline would be Thursday and many officials would be in violation.

“Michiganders deserve to know how their government is working for them,” Whitmer said in a statement released by her office. “That’s why I’m proud to sign Senate Bills 99 and 100, so we can cut confusing red tape, help more Michiganders run for office, and increase transparency in our government.”

The reports are required under a 2022 voter-approved amendment to the Michigan Constitution, although it’s up to the Legislature and the governor to adopt laws to comply with the constitutional provision. The proposal also made changes to Michigan’s term-limits amendment.

The filing process for the reports has been bedeviled by system crashes and other problems that would prevent lawmakers from meeting the deadline and have made it difficult for the public to access the records.

Sen. Jonathan Lindsey (R-Coldwater) said the fix is long overdue and complained that the Secretary of State’s office kept making changes to the disclosure forms.

“Let’s not forget as we’re [passing the bills to push back the filing deadline] that the reason we have to is because Secretary of State [Jocelyn] Benson could not read the law, she could not understand the law and she could not manage a department to implement the law and run a basic website that allowed us to plug in the information,” he said in a speech prior to votes to finalize the bills.

A spokesperson for Benson said her department “has been working nights and weekends to make sure the online system is ready” by the deadline.

The new law moves the deadline to June 13, specifies a form to be used and allows filing by email while the problems are fixed.

“Ultimately, we want this to be accessible,” said Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield), a bill sponsor who also chairs the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee. “We want legislators to have ease of filling it out and we want the public to have the ease of accessing it.”

Moss said a smoothly operating system is necessary to give the public a view into sources of income and assets that might present a conflict of interest.

“So that if somebody introduces a bill you can easily go into this database, this publicly available database, look up the lawmaker and say, hey, this person is introducing this bill, but they’ve got a financial interest to introduce this bill,” he told the Michigan Public Radio Network. “Then you’d be able to call it out and then voters would be able to make their decision about it.”

But a spokesperson for Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said the department is concerned provisions in the new law will actually reduce transparency.

“Specifically, these bills do not require officials to describe the value of their assets, investments, and liabilities,” said Department of State Chief Communications Officer Angela Benander in an emailed statement.

“Michigan is behind nearly every other state in requiring transparency from lawmakers and public officials,” she said. “We should be doing everything we can to make our state a leader for government transparency and accountability.”  

Health care advocates are pushing back against a new congressional Republican plan that would make cuts to Medicaid. In Michigan, that includes services for people enrolled in the Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion plan that was adopted in 2013.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services says 2.6 million Michiganders are enrolled in Medicaid. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration issued a report earlier this month — before the Sunday-night rollout of the GOP budget proposal — warning of the potential impact of Medicaid cuts by the federal government.

“It’s foundational to our health care system, whether you rely on Medicaid or access healthcare through another payer,” said Monique Stanton of the Michigan League for Public Policy, a human services advocacy organization.

Stanton said one in four Michiganders get health coverage through Medicaid. She said that means hospitals and other providers rely on Medicaid funding to keep their doors open for people who come in with Medicaid, private coverage or no insurance at all.

Stanton said the 2014 Healthy Michigan Medicaid expansion cut in half the amount of money that care providers were losing by treating people who could not afford to pay. She said that helped many rural hospitals and clinics keep operating.

“We did not necessarily have the rate of health care and hospital closures in other states – specifically states that did not have expanded Medicaid,” she said during a media call reacting to the GOP plan. “So, this could really have a specific impact in rural Michigan.”

Anthony Wright with the health care advocacy organization Families USA said the GOP plan would essentially push people off the Medicaid rolls “by putting paperwork and bureaucratic barriers in the way of people getting on and staying on health coverage.”

“This means asking many to re-enroll not just once but twice a year,” he said. “This means having more convoluted and complex requirements for determining eligibility and income that could otherwise be done easily and electronically. And this means work-reporting requirements even though the overwhelming majority of non-elderly, non-disabled adults on Medicaid are working, but simply at low-income jobs that don’t provide health coverage.”

Republicans behind the proposal have said it’s necessary to cut waste and reach the Trump administration’s budget-cutting goals, and to sustain a tax cut from President Donald Trump’s first administration. 

The Michigan Court of Appeals has refused to consider a request by the Oxford High School shooter to withdraw his guilty pleas and challenge his life-without-parole sentence.

The appeals court panel rejected the request in an order issued Tuesday that said the appeal was denied “for lack of merit in the grounds presented.”

Tate Myre, Hana St. Juliana, Madisyn Baldwin and Justin Shilling were killed and six other students and a teacher were injured in the 2021 shootings.

The shooter, Ethan Crumbley, was sentenced to life without parole after pleading guilty to 24 counts that included murder and terrorism.

When Crumbley filed his appeal in January, he was assigned a new legal team through the State Appellate Defender Office. That team argued that he had ineffective legal counsel during his appearances before the trial court. The filing also argued the life-without-parole sentence was unconstitutional and that the Oakland County Circuit Court judge failed to ensure the shooter’s rights were protected. His attorneys also argued the then-16-year-old likely suffered from the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome and mental health issues at the time he pleaded guilty.

His parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, were convicted of involuntary manslaughter for failing to secure the gun used in the shootings and ignoring signs that he posed a threat.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is responding to critics of her meetings with President Donald Trump by answering that they’ve yielded results. Whitmer, a Democrat serving her final term as governor, and widely considered a possible future presidential contender, says she still has fundamental disagreements with President Donald Trump. She also says face time with Trump, including a now-famously awkward Oval Office encounter, was worth it to win 21 new fighter jets heading to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County.

The Michigan Public Radio Network spoke with the governor Wednesday about cutting a deal with a president with whom she’s had an adversarial relationship.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Rick Pluta: Why does this Selfridge deal matter, not just to Macomb County, not just to metro Detroit, but to the entire state of Michigan?

GW: Yeah, you know, this is a big deal. So the A-10, which is our fighter mission at Selfridge, is being retired. And the fighter mission matters because we think about Selfridge, it has an economic impact on the state of $850 million a year. There are 30,000 jobs in Michigan that are related to Selfridge directly. And so not having a fighter mission would be a huge problem, not just for Selfridge but for a defense economy that we’ve been building out, advanced manufacturing. We think about aerospace as well as bases in Grayling, Alpena, and in Battle Creek. This has a massive impact on the state of Michigan. So I’ve been working to try to get a new fighter mission at Selfridge every year since I’ve been elected governor, and my predecessors did, as well, and we got it done, 21 F-15 EXs. This is the cutting edge, state-of-the-art planes and it’s gonna have a generational impact on our economy.

RP: How did this come to be? Why now?

GW: Well, you know, after the election — I had been trying to get the Biden administration to do this — after the elections, I said, well, let’s keep going. I’m going to keep trying to work with the Trump administration to get it done. And I was at the National Governors Association dinner at the White House. I raised it at that first opportunity with U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that night, as well as when I sat next to Donald Trump at the dinner, you know, and I’ve had many conversations and meetings with the president on this issue. I’ve been relentless on this and they were receptive. And despite the fact that we’ve got a lot of differences and we don’t agree on a lot of things, I take every opportunity to make the case for Michigan, whether it’s about tariffs, Asian carp, or ice storms. Selfridge has been a part of all those conversations every time, too.

RP: As you mentioned, you’ve said you will work with everyone, anyone, but you have gotten a lot of pushback from folks within the Democratic Party about your work with this president. Now that this Selfridge deal is done, what’s next? What are your plans for continuing to work with this administration?

GW: I oppose this administration and a lot of things that they’re doing, whether it’s around their — what they’ve done on — you know, I mean, it’s voluminous, the ways that we disagree, the things that we disagree on — from their tariff policy, the chaos that’s been leaked, to the violation of people’s civil rights, to the potential Medicaid cuts that are coming that are going to impact Michigan hospitals and Michiganders everywhere. That being said, I’ve got a duty to continue to try to get as much done for our state as I can. I’ve got to work with people that I don’t always agree with. I always have, and I always will, try to do what’s right for Michigan and that means continuing the conversation on preventing Asian carp from infiltrating the Great Lakes, getting relief for victims of the ice storm. It means continuing to work to try to get more economic development done in Michigan. So I will both fight back when I need to, and try to get Michigan’s priorities done wherever I can.

RP: Finally, Governor, do you think Democratic voters, that is voters in your party, know that you still fundamentally disagree with President Trump?

GW: Yeah, of course they do. My values haven’t changed. My oath is to serve the people of Michigan. It means standing up for our rights, it means fighting back when they’ve got tariff policies that are making Michiganders lose jobs or their costs go up. It also means getting at the table and being there to get a huge investment like Selfridge over the finish line. I can do both. I will do both, that’s the ethos I’ve always led with.

A case involving a frozen embryo that’s at the center of a divorce dispute will not be heard by the Michigan Supreme Court. The court declined the case in an order released Friday.

The Supreme Court order leaves in place an appeals court decision that awarded the embryo to ex-husband David Markiewicz. The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in December of 2023 that he would get custody because he has the closest biological connection to the embryo and should not be forced to have another child with his ex-wife, Sarah Markiewicz. The appeals court panel divided on the question, with one judge ruling the embryo should go to the ex-wife.

Sarah Markiewicz became pregnant three times through in vitro fertilization. The embryo at issue in the court case, as in Sarah’s other IVF pregnancies, was made with the ex-husband’s sperm, while the egg was donated by the ex-wife’s sister. The couple also has one child conceived naturally.

Sarah Markiewicz argued for possession of the frozen embryo because it could be her final opportunity to have another child. She also argued she was entitled to the embryo under the Michigan Reproductive Freedom for All amendment to the state constitution.

David Markiewicz said earlier he would either have the embryo destroyed or donated for scientific use if he won the case.

“My client is very happy and relieved that he can now put this chapter behind him,” said his attorney, Trish Haas, in an email to Michigan Public Radio. “His disposition of the pre-embryo will now be his personal choice.”

The Supreme Court order was unsigned, but Justice Brian Zahra wrote a concurring statement calling on the Legislature to enact standards to avoid future conflicts as IVF becomes more common.

“Broadly speaking, the primary issue is how the law should classify and treat human embryos, frozen or otherwise, which, at a minimum, have the potential to develop into autonomous human beings,” he wrote. “This question implicates some of the most perplexing debates in society, invoking deep-seated and conflicting beliefs about morality, ethics, religion, human life, and personal autonomy.” 

The Republican chair of the Michigan House Oversight Committee has delivered a subpoena calling on Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to turn over materials related to training and managing elections.

The subpoena was authorized last week as Republicans complained the Democratic Secretary of State has refused for months to turn over the entirety of materials related to conducting elections.

“I got to tell you, only the guilty need to feel guilty,” Rep. Jay DeBoyer (R-Clay) told the Michigan Public Radio Network. “What is [it] that they’re afraid to provide to us?”

There are, in fact, two subpoenas — one names Benson and the other the Michigan Department of State.  But they are otherwise identical. They were transmitted electronically Tuesday via an official portal. The request sets a deadline of 4 p.m. on May 14. The Secretary of State’s office confirmed it had received the documents.

House Republicans and Benson, who is the state’s top election administrator, have been trading jabs for weeks related to materials requested by the House Elections Committee. The Oversight Committee is the only House panel that has subpoena power and so the subpoena had to go through that panel.

The information request is wide-ranging, but DeBoyer focused on training materials.

“What other way are they going to find out if the training that they’re providing to local clerks is in accordance with state election law,” he said. “If the Secretary of State won’t provide the training information, there’s no way to find out if they’re training them according to election law.”

Benson has accused House Republicans of stoking doubt about the security of Michigan elections while GOP leaders say slow-walking their requests does exactly that.

Benson has already provided some of the material and says much of what the committee asked for is sensitive and would compromise election security, so it must be vetted before sharing.

Benson Chief Communications Officer Angela Benander called the announcement “an unnecessary press release about a subpoena that’s also unnecessary.”

“As we’ve communicated multiple times, we are in the process of producing the requested training materials on top of the hundreds of documents we’ve already provided to the committee,” Benander said in an email to the Michigan Public Radio Network. “But we will not provide open access to sensitive information that could jeopardize the security of our elections, and we’re prepared to make this case in court.”

The state House is poised to vote on legislation this week to allocate $75 million toward recovery efforts in northern Michigan following the massive ice storm that swept through the region last month.

The damage includes downed trees and utility poles, damage to buildings and schools and businesses forced to close.

State Rep. Parker Fairbairn (R-Harbor Springs) told the Michigan Public Radio Network that some communities would be bankrupted if they had to shoulder the cleanup and recovery costs on their own.

“The signal to people at the end of the day is, we’re here to help,” he said. “I mean, we’re estimating somewhere between $200- and $300 million worth of damage. I think it’s going to be much more than that and there’s a lot of things we can’t really estimate right now.”

The $75 million appropriation would help leverage another $225 million in federal disaster funds. If approved this week by the House, it would still have to be approved by the Michigan Senate.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has declared a state of emergency across much of northern Michigan. She also asked President Donald Trump for a federal emergency declaration which would make the area eligible for more federal relief.

There was also a bill introduced last week that would lift minimum school instructional day requirements for schools located in counties covered by the governor’s winter storm emergency decree. Those counties include Alcona, Alpena, Antrim, Charlevoix, Cheboygan, Crawford, Emmet, Mackinac, Montmorency, Oscoda, Otsego and Presque Isle.

Rep. Cam Cavitt (R-Cheboygan) said it does not make sense to require students to remain in school to make up days lost due to a natural disaster.

“Our students just went through one of the most horrifying storms they will ever experience,” said Cavitt in a written statement.

“Things have been hard…We need to take steps to help these kids and their families, not force them to sit in schools that lack air conditioning until July.”

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive Thursday calling on the state health department to create a report on how big proposed cuts to the federal Medicaid program would affect Michigan.

The executive directive instructs the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) to create a report within 30 days detailing the effects of a congressional Republican proposal that could cut $880 billion from Medicaid over 10 years. Whitmer wants data and personal stories to help congressional Democrats shut down a Republican budget resolution if it includes Medicaid cuts. But she said it is already clear the impact in Michigan would be huge.

“Statewide, Medicaid covers 2.6 million people,” she said. “That’s over a quarter of our population. “That number includes a million children, nearly 170,000 seniors and 300,000 people with disabilities.”

Whitmer was flanked by health care workers as she signed the directive at a hospital in Royal Oak. She said hospitals, clinics and other providers would have to reduce services and find other ways to make up for lost funding if Medicaid is slashed.

Whitmer said rural hospitals, which are also large local employers, would likely be the hardest hit. She said using Medicaid cuts to extend tax cuts and reduce the federal budget is a bad deal for taxpayers.

“This won’t make government more efficient,” she said. “It’ll just raise your costs, eliminate local jobs and put lives in danger.”

Republican leaders have said they are not targeting Medicaid, but it is not clear how they would hit their rollback goals without big cuts to Medicaid and other entitlement programs.

“There’s simply no way to do it without drastic cuts to Medicaid,” said U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), who serves on the GOP-led congressional committee that is supposed to come up with health care cuts and savings. “And let me make this very clear, we will make sure every Republican is on record on what they are cutting.”