Daily Briefs

Michigan bill lets teachers carry concealed guns in schools


LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Republican lawmakers are renewing their attempt to let gun owners carry their weapons inside Michigan schools, day care centers and other gun-free zones.

Fast-tracked legislation up for a vote in a Senate committee Tuesday would allow concealed pistol license holders with extra training to carry in nine areas that are currently off limits. The full Republican-led Senate plans to vote Wednesday on the bill that is opposed by gun-control advocates and others.

The legislative action will come days after a gunman killed 26 people at a Texas church.

The bill is expected to be changed to close a legal loophole that currently lets CPL holders openly carry in gun-free zones.

Republican Gov. Rick Snyder vetoed similar legislation in 2012 in the aftermath of the massacre at a school in Connecticut.

 

Man charged after 15-year-old shot outside Michigan school
 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A 21-year-man faces charges including careless discharge of a weapon in a shooting that wounded a 15-year-old girl outside a Michigan school.

Police say the girl was in a SUV with her parents and Kahlil Jamal Withers-Fleming about 4:30 p.m. Friday when a shot was fired inside the vehicle, which was parked in a lot at Pattengill Academy in Lansing.

Withers-Fleming was arraigned Monday on a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon and a misdemeanor of careless discharge of a weapon causing injury. Court records don’t list a lawyer for him.

Police haven’t said how the shooting happened, but the charges suggest it was accidental.

The girl isn’t a student at Pattengill, a school for fourth- through sixth-graders. Officials say 80 to 90 students were inside at the time.

 

Supreme Court to decide who pays for judge’s legal mess
 

DETROIT (AP) — Who pays the bill? The Michigan Supreme Court is hearing the case of a judge who so far is on the hook for a $1.1 million award to a former Dearborn court employee.

The Supreme Court must decide whether Judge Mark Somers is responsible or Dearborn taxpayers. Justices heard arguments Tuesday.

Julie Pucci was awarded $734,000 and legal fees in 2011. She said her job as deputy court administrator was eliminated after she complained that Somers was sending religious messages on stationery and proselytizing from the bench.

Before trial, Somers signed an order making Dearborn taxpayers responsible for any liability in the firing of employees. But the Michigan appeals court says Dearborn can’t be forced to pay Pucci because the verdict against Somers was in his “personal capacity.”

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