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Michigan Tag

In Jackson, MI, transgender man Niki Joly became a gay hero in 2016 and 2017 after he managed to put on a gay festival and have ordinances dropped that discriminated against gay people. The local paper named him Citizen of the Year. But that was not enough attention for Joly because police finally arrested him for arson for burning his own house down in 2017. That fire killed his three cats and two dogs.

This Case of the Week focuses on a real-world example of the application of the self-defense law doctrine of “regaining innocence.” One of the five elements of a claim of self-defense justification for a use-of-force against another person is the element of innocence, which denies the justification of self-defense to a person who was the initial aggressor in a fight. “Initial aggressor” generally means the person who was the first to threaten or use unlawful physical force against another. So that’s that, right? The initial aggressor loses the legal justification of self-defense? Not so fast! As the late-night TV infomercials say, “Wait! There’s more!”

EVERYTHING IS OFFENSIVE! That's how it is nowadays. Eastern Michigan University's Women's Resource Center (WRC) has decided to stop hosting The Vagina Monologues because it excludes some women...like females that don't have vaginas. Since copyright laws won't allow them to change the dialogue, the school has chosen to get rid of it. How do I science?

The Huron Daily Tribune fired reporter Brenda Battel after she accidentally left an insulting voicemail for Michigan Republican Senate candidate John James. From The Daily Caller:
“Man, if he beats her [incumbent Democrat Sen. Debbie Stabenow]… Jesus! F***ing John James. That would suck! Whew, I don’t think it’s going to happen though,” Battel continued.

As we move ever closer to the 2018 midterms, all eyes are fixed on House and Senate races.  The need for President Trump to maintain, even expand, the number of seats in both Houses of Congress cannot be overstated, so it's heartening to see Republican candidate for Senate John James surging in Michigan. James, a combat veteran and businessman, describes himself as a "conservative Republican" and is seeing a surge not only in support via polling but in donations as money is flowing into his campaign.  While James is still a bit of a long-shot against incumbent Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow who has held that seat since 2000, the recent surge opens the possibility of a stunning—and very welcome—upset.

We often cover fake hate here at LI, but this case in Grand Rapids, Michigan is particularly disturbing because it involves children.  Several black children under the age of eight concocted a story about a white man urinating on one of them. It turns out that the children had invented the story about the white man (it was one of the children who had urinated on another child) to avoid getting in trouble.  The fabrication, however, resulted in the arrest of an innocent 60-year-old man and the usual outrage-before-facts from the left.  Even the local NAACP weighed in with their outraged outrage.

The recent surprise primary victory for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York convinced the socialist wing of the Democratic party that their time had finally come. One race they truly wanted to win was the Democratic primary for governor of Michigan. They even flew in Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to help the campaign but it didn't work.