Members of the Senate in bipartisan votes Tuesday passed legislation that would require individuals charged with animal cruelty or neglect to post bond to cover the cost of care for their animals pending trial or agree to forfeit their animals.
Attorney Bob LaBrant asked the Department of State to opine on the legality of lobbyists potentially attempting to work around the $76 gift limit for officials by asking for reimbursement for anything spent above that amount.
Members of the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission spent more time bickering than mapping on Tuesday, but the body was able to complete a third map configuration for Detroit's Senate seats this week.
Members of the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission this week began drawing new iterations of Detroit's Senate seats that were thrown out as unconstitutional late last year, with four versions in the works.
A draft Senate map for the Detroit area drawn by professors at Michigan State University, done as a potential guide for the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission as they redraw the area under court order, could mean at least one open seat, an opportunity for a Republican pickup and some changes for incumbent senators.
Jews and Muslims in Michigan have lost loved ones and are hurting because of the ongoing war in Israel and Gaza, Rep. Samantha Steckloff said Tuesday, adding anything state government does in response should acknowledge that amid a push from House Republicans to take up a nonbinding resolution on the situation.
Sen. Jeremy Moss, the Senate's lone Jewish member, said Friday he thinks the Senate should adopt a resolution regarding the Hamas attack on Israel, pushing back on criticism that the chamber has yet to act on a resolution introduced Wednesday by a Republican senator offering support to Israel in the wake of the attack.
Nine bills in the Legislature's effort to reform the juvenile justice system based on recommendations from the Juvenile Justice Task Force passed the Senate on Thursday.
A six-year statute of limitations applies to the collection of late filing fees and fines assessed under the state's Campaign Finance Act by way of the Revised Judicature Act, and uncollectable or unpaid fees must still be considered when determining a candidate's ballot qualification, Attorney General Dana Nessel wrote in a formal opinion issued Wednesday.
Members of the Senate largely along party lines voted Wednesday in support of a bill to extend a deadline for allowing overseas military members to cast electronic ballots to September 2025 over the objections of a key proponent of the original legislation creating the program.