Free read, June 9-13: ICE protests, education budget battle, Iraqi inspired seafood
Here's what happened this week
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This week in news brought me to Lansing to cover community violence intervention advocates from Detroit, Saginaw and Kalamazoo urge lawmakers for more cash.
The city’s fiscal budget passed earlier this year includes $4.4 million from the city’s general fund for CVI, but state funding for the program’s continuation depends whether both state legislative chambers will agree on spending bills.
Read more from Michigan Chronicle: Detroit Community Violence ‘Shotstoppers’ Push for More Funding in Lansing
While walking up Washington Boulevard downtown Lansing, I brought the Free Press’ Andrea Suhoori to The New Daily Bagel for her first time.
“It’s less than $6!?” Suhoori said at the counter in disblief.
Prices for standard fare Lansing food haven’t seemed to change since 2016. In Detroit, it’s at least $8 to buy any dish of substance from any establishment that’s not a Coney Island.
It might be a sad little town, but I always appreciate the cheap eats and bipartisan hospitality from House and Senate staff every time I venture over to the Capitol.
Good to see you guys!
Here’s what was happening this week:
House Republicans target “woke” universities in budget proposal
Republicans want to cut funding to “woke” universities and giving the money to “non-woke” schools.
Democrats wore their college t-shirts on the Michigan House floor Thursday, urging Republican leaders to boost their higher education funding proposals. Talk of a potential government shutdown is starting to bubble up. Lawmakers must pass a budget proposal before their July 1 deadline. The 2026 fiscal year begins Oct. 1.
House Republicans want to send $2.4 billion to state universities from the state’s $461.3 million general fund — an increase of $76.4 million or 3.3%. But overall funding for universities would decrease of $828.1 million.
In an interview with Michigan advance, House Appropriations Chair Anne Bollin, R-Brighton, said university leaders will have to be frugal.
“Maybe they ought to mind their budgets just like the rest of us. Everybody’s budget is getting tighter,” Bollin said, Ben Solis reports.
Asked about the DEI cuts and more specifically the language targeting transgender women in women’s sports — given the inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals within the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act — Bollin said opposing transgender youth participating in sports is “universal.”
“Frankly, I want to get away from focusing on those parts in the bill and in our policy statements,” Bollin said. “We are talking about educating and we want everybody to feel welcome; to come in and get a good education. And, frankly, we don’t want to see boys in girls’ sports. That’s universal. I don’t want to go into the restroom with a man.”
On Friday, statewide advocacy organizations responded to the budget proposal saying it would strip hundreds of millions of dollars from school meals, transportation, retirement support, mental health and safety.
“It’s clear Michigan Republicans are hellbent on making the Betsy DeVos playbook to gut public education a reality for Michigan families and students,” advocates said in a joint statement. “By ramming through a budget that defunds many critical education services through the legislative process in less than a day, Republicans made it clear they’d rather serve the desires of their billionaire overlords than deliver needed funds and services to our public schools.”
Advocates say it’s not about fiscal responsibility, but cutting funding from public schools and “punishing school districts who don’t abide by the dangerous MAGA Republican ideology.” The groups are urging the Michigan Senate and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to reject the budget bills during budget negotiations.
Read more from Michigan Advance: House GOP slashes university operational funding, penalizes U of M and MSU for large endowments
“Republicans are attempting to deceive Michiganders by pointing to the per pupil allocation, but the devil is in the details. By taking away programs that benefit rural students, students in poverty, English language learners, and those with special education needs, students from Marquette to Monroe will be worse off as a result of this disastrous budget.”
Michigan Republicans’ $21.9 billion budget for K-12 schools passed June 11 provides more money than what was proposed by Senate Dems and Whitmer, but includes big differences in how school money would be spent.
Republicans would send more to wealthier districts and private schools under the GOP plan.
Read more from the Detroit Free Press: Michigan GOP school plan spends more, but axes free breakfast and lunch
Get a taste of the Middle East at Mink this month
Mink, one of my favorite restaurants and the best place to get oysters in Detroit, is serving a new $85 tasting menu that incorporates popular Iraqi ingredients.
The first dish, a duo of oysters, with zahidi date mignonette and amba; a fermented mango condiment popular in Iraqi cuisine.
Cobia Crudo is the second dish on the menu, pictured above, which plates sashimi-grade Cobia fish on top of Turkish olive oil, pickles, hummus and Za’atar cure.
The third dish, the Dolma Trio, features stuffed grape leaves, zucchini, clams and garlic yogurt, which was fantastic.
Fresh, bold flavored oysters are what Mink is known for. It’s tasting menu goes head to head with those from SheWolf or Freya.
I don’t go on dates anymore, but if I did, I would take you here.
Day of protests planned across Michigan
Angry Democrats and leftists atre hitting the streets Saturday in protest of President Donald Trump’s aggressive deportation efforts.
There’s a rally and march set for 1–4pm at Clark Park. U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib and council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero are expected to attend.
In Detroit, federal immigration agents arrested at least four Venezuelan migrants outside a Detroit courtroom Wednesday morning just moments after a judge dismissed their asylum cases, Koby Levin and Malachi Barrett reported.
Immigration advocates and Anti fascist activists demonstrated outside the federal courthouse Wednesday in response.
Activists at a City Council meeting on Tuesday demanded members support their resolution declaring the city of Detroit a sanctuary city that will defy Trump’s orders.
“I understand the want, but when I see majority white folks asking me to make the city a sanctuary city, they're not going to be the ones impacted when ICE comes into our communities,” Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero told Malachi Barrett and I after council session Tuesday.
There’s a growing conversation among Black Detroiters over whether to support noncitizen migrants facing deportation, given the amount of Hispanic voters who voted for President Trump despite mass deportation efforts being the central pitch of his campaign.
I wrote about the debate for the Chronicle here.
There’s a high guy painted on the window of my old office
A fitting visual.