Daily Briefs

Health club’s appeal over transgender woman fails


MIDLAND, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court won’t intervene in a lawsuit over a transgender woman in the women’s locker room at a Midland health club.

Yvette Cormier was offended by the transgender woman. She says her membership at Planet Fitness was wrongly terminated in 2015 after she complained and warned other women at the club.
Planet Fitness told her that it allows people to use the locker room that matches their identity.

But Cormier says her rights under Michigan’s consumer-protection law were violated when the club didn’t disclose an unwritten policy about transgender members.

The state appeals court said Cormier’s case can go to trial. The state Supreme Court on April 2 said that decision will stand.

 

Man gets life in  prison for Michigan workplace shooting


DETROIT (AP) — A man convicted of murder for killing a man at a trucking business before allegedly fatally shooting another man in a different suburban Detroit community has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Forty-six-year-old Vernest Griffin of Sterling Heights was sentenced Monday. A Wayne County jury earlier found him guilty of first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the February 2018 fatal shooting in Taylor of 60-year-old Keith Kitchen. Griffin declined to address the court.

Authorities said Griffin had lost his job at the company in November 2017.

Griffin also is awaiting trial in Oakland County on first-degree murder and gun charges in the slaying of 58-year-old Eriberto Perez at an aluminum stamping firm in Pontiac. Griffin was captured after a shootout with officers.

 

Native American tribe seeks to set water quality standards
 

BARAGA, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan-based Native American tribe wants to implement water quality standards under the Clean Water Act for its reservation.

The Daily Mining Gazette of Houghton reports the Environmental Protection Agency is seeking public comment on the proposal by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s application. If approved, the tribe would be allowed to develop and maintain its own water-quality standards for surface waters on its reservation.

Concerns about water quality potentially affecting the Upper Peninsula reservation are linked to cattle farming; commercial logging, mining; runoff from road salt; illegal dumping; industrial discharge; septic systems; and lawn chemicals. The newspaper says the public comment period is open until May 23.

Officials announced earlier this year that the EPA awarded a $195,000 grant to the tribe to modernize its environmental data reporting system.

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