Whitmer Leads Schuette Everywhere Except North MI
Whitmer leads Schuette in every geographical area of the state except for northern Michigan, where he’s up 45 percent to 41 percent, according to the press release and data released by MRG.
The Democrat leads the Republican by 12 percentage points (50 percent to 38 percent) in generally Republican West Michigan.
The former Senate Minority Leader leads by 23 percentage points with women voters (55 percent to 32 percent) and by 21 percentage points with Independent voters (37 percent to 16 percent).
Schuette has 46 percent of voters carrying a negative perception of him, while 26 percent of voters have a negative perception of Whitmer. She’s favored positively by 39 percent, and Schuette has a positive perception among 24 percent.
MRG President Tom SHIELDS attributed Schuette’s favorability to his “bitter primary battle,” and said Whitmer “has put together an impressive coalition of metro Detroit and West Michigan voters, women and young voters that Schuette has not been able to crack.”
The poll, not paid for or sponsored by any outside third parties, consisted of 600 likely Michigan voters contacted via live interviews from Oct. 14 to Oct. 18, with 30 percent of the sample coming from cell phone users. The margin of error was 4 percent.
To date, both candidates state they are in favor of Prop 1, however Nessel has always been a supporter of marijuana rights, where Schuette has only recently caved to popular support.
________________________________________________________________________
Half a Mill in Drug Money Seized
The raid happened at a check cashing place and a small business next door at the intersection of Connor and East Warren. Police say they’ve been watching these establishments for quite some time.
“They were operating selling marijuana as if this was already a recreational state,” said Lt. Jonathan Parnell with Detroit police.
“We already knew that the location was not licensed,” Parnell said. “It’s not licensed through LARA with the state of Michigan. There’s no application, it was just a nondescript building.”
“Conducted surveillance on this location and actually carried out two undercover buys from this location,” Parnell said. “We were able to develop probable cause where we were able to execute a search warrant here next door and as well as both of the suspects’ residences.”
Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of drug money was confiscated. The amount of cash found at the business was more than $150,000. At the owners home, another $240,000.
“They were rather surprised, but they were taken into custody without incident,” Parnell said.
Two men in their 30s were arrested and are now facing possession with intent to deliver narcotics charges. Also, it wasn’t just marijuana police found during the raid that has them concerned.
“Preliminarily, one of those substances tested for heroin and the amount that we found was in the area of 400 grams,” Parnell said. “There was some other substances found. They’re suspected of being fentanyl, so they have to be handled with care.”
Police say there are other unlicensed businesses operating similar to this establishment, and they say those businesses too will be raided and shutdown.
________________________________________________________________________
Sebewaing Council Turns Down Ordinance
There were about 75 people that attended the meeting to voice their opinions on the proposed ordinance and during the Public Hearings for the proposed Master Plan and Recreation Plan. With the defeat of the ordinance the developers of the proposed facility have no ordinance to work under and without an ordinance cannot proceed.
The Master Plan and Recreation Plan proposals were discussed at a public hearing for about a half an hour with representatives of Delta Institute of Chicago that developed it. The council will take the input from the residents and go back and look at the plan before it could be approved at a future meeting.
________________________________________________________________________
No Debates for AG Race
Nessel agreed Friday to the 1 p.m. debate at the Kellogg Center, the product of two cancellations and weeks of back-and-forth in an attempt to get the two candidates at the same place at the same time.
Leonard cited an evening conflict as the reason for declining the Oct. 30 debate, to which the Nessel camp said they would clear their calendar to meet the sitting House Speaker at any time of the day.
“I am willing and eager to debate Tom Leonard head-to-head to give voters an opportunity to hear about the serious issues facing our state,” Nessel said. “Tom is spending millions of dollars on ads falsely distorting my record, but won’t agree to spend two hours on stage beside me defending his own. Tom, I ask you to join me on the debate stage so that Michiganders can learn about your career of pay-to-play politics and lack of legal experience.”
Leonard sent out a release last month that he wanted both Nessel and Graveline, who he referred to as “the second Democrat” in the race, on the debate stage at the same time When a Macomb County gathering agreed to have the independent on the stage, Nessel cancelled.
Graveline is the former assistant U.S. attorney who hopped into the race after Nessel won the Michigan Democratic Party’s (MDP) endorsement in April. The independent didn’t get the required 30,000 signatures needed to get on the ballot. Instead, he got a federal judge to rule the state’s signatures threshold for independent candidates was too high.
So Graveline was ordered on the ballot, but his late entrance in the race, tiny political base and scant funds have not made him a legitimate contender. Mitchell Research and Communications’ last poll had him at 2 percent, the same as Taxpayer Party candidate Gerald VAN SICKLE and 7 points behind Libertarian Lisa GIOIA.
________________________________________________________________________
Michigan Lawmakers Nix Marijuana-Infused Alcoholic Beverages
LANSING - On Tuesday, October 2nd, the state House approved legislation that would prohibit the use, possession or sale of cannabis-infused beer, wine, liquor and mixed drinks in Michigan by a 101-4 vote.Gov. Rick Snyder is expected to sign the measure, which would make Michigan the latest state to prohibit the mixture of liquor and cannabis.
In July, California’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control issued a memo spelling out its current stance that infused alcoholic beverages of any stripe – whether infused with THC, CBD or basically any cannabinoids – are prohibited.
