The Sun and News, Saturday, September 17, 2022/ Page 11Trump back in Michigan Oct. 1 to stump
for Republicans running for state office
Yue Stella Yu
Bridge Michigan
Former President Donald
Trump will return to
Michigan on Oct.1 to stump
for the state’s top Republican
candidates, he announced
Thursday.
Trump will hold a rally at
7 p.m. at the Macomb
County Community College
Sports and Expo Center in
Warren. The event will fea-
ture three Republicans he
has endorsed: gubernatorial
candidate Tudor Dixon,
attorney general hopeful
Matt DePerno and secretary
of state candidate Kristina
Karamo.
Trump's visit will be five
weeks before the Nov. 8
general election and comes
as all three statewide
Republican candidates trail
in polls and fundraising to
Democratic incumbents.
Dixon, a Norton Shores
former steel executive, is
down double-digits to
incumbent Democrat Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer in recent
polls and has lagged signifi-cantly in fundraising. As of
Aug. 22, Dixon’s campaign
had just over $523,000 in
the bank compared to $
million for Whitmer.
Michigan is a swing state,
however, and Trump’s
appearance could galvanize
support among Republicans
for an election that could be
decided by turnout. A pro-
posal enshrining abortion
rights into the state constitu-
tion is also on the ballot, and
conventional wisdom holds
that could dramatically
boost turnout amongDemocrats.
In April, Trump held a
rally for DePerno and
Karamo in Washington
Township in northern
Michigan, weeks ahead of
the Michigan Republican
Party Convention, where
both Trump-endorsed candi-
dates won GOP nomination.
At that rally, Trump said
DePerno and Karamo would
ensure “Michigan is not
rigged and stolen again in
2024,” repeating baseless
claims about widespread
voter fraud.In 2020, Trump lost to
President Joe Biden by more
than 154,000 votes, a result
confirmed by numerous
audits and an investigation
by a Republican-led state
Senate committee.
The former president
endorsed Dixon just days
ahead of the Aug. 2 primary,
calling her a “conservative
warrior” who “won’t be
stopped.”
Dixon defeated her pri-
mary opponents by a land-
slide, winning 80 of the 83
counties in Michigan.Special prosecutor named in voting tabulator
case involving Barry County Sheriff
Jayson Bussa
Editor
Muskegon County prose-
cutor D.J. Hilson will deter-
mine whether or not Barry
County Sheriff Dar Leaf and
eight other individuals will
face criminal charges in what
the state has classified as a
conspiracy to obtain, test and
tamper with voting tabula-
tors.
Late last week, the
Prosecuting Attorneys
Coordinating Council
assigned Hilson, a democrat
who has served in his role in
Muskegon County since
2013, to the case.
Other defendants in the
case include Matthew
DePerno, the Republican
nominee for attorney gener-
al, and State Representative
Daire Rendon, a Republican
from Lake City.
"Prosecutor Hilson will
review the investigation and
information for possible
charges,” the Prosecuting
Attorneys Coordinating
Council said in a statement
last week. “At this time, no
charges have been filed
against any of the possible
defendants.”
Hilson’s assignment
comes after Michigan attor-
ney general Dana Nessel
sought the appointment of a
special prosecutor to take the
reins of a months-long case
that had been executive by
her office and Michigan
State Police. Nessel will be
facing DePerno in
November’s general elec-
tion, therefore, sought a spe-cial prosecutor in order to
eliminate any conflict of
interest.
Despite the move,DePerno has been very pub-
lic in his thought that Nessel
is targeting him for her own
political gain.
In her petition for a special
prosecutor, issued in early
August, Nessel alleged that
nine individuals played a
role in gaining unauthorized
access to voting tabulators
and transporting them to
Oakland County in order to
conducting tests on them at
hotels and short-term rental
properties.
The petition stated that, in
all, the group got their handson five different voting tabu-
lators. This included a tabu-
lator from Irving Township
Hall. The attorney general’s
office stated that township
clerk Sharon Olson handed
over the tabulator to a “third
party,” at the behest of Leaf.
“Irving Township Clerk
Sharon Olson indicated that
she was asked by Barry
County Sheriff Dar Leaf to
cooperate with investigators
regarding an election fraud
investigation. Subsequent to
this conversation, Olson turn
over her tabulator to a third
party.”
Leaf contends that he
never coerced Olson – or
anyone else – to turn over
machines. However, Leaf
and his attorney, Stefanie
Lambert, who is also a
defendant in the case, have
not wavered in their accusa-
tions of voter fraud playing a
role in the outcome of the
2020 presidential election in
Michigan.
Olson has since signed on
as a plaintiff in a recent-
ly-filed federal lawsuit,
attempting to decertify
Michigan’s 2020 presidential
election results and run the
election over as soon as pos-sible. Olson was joined by
such parties as the Macomb
County Republican Party,
non-profit group the Election
Integrity Force and Donna
Brandenburg, who is a nomi-
nee for governor by the U.S.
Tax Payers party.
In response to the state’s
initial investigation, Leaf and
Lambert filed a lawsuit
against Nessel, Secretary of
State Jocelyn Benson and the
Michigan State Police, claim-
ing that they were interfering
with Leaf’s investigation into
voter fraud. That lawsuit was
recently thrown out by the
Michigan Court of Claims
because Leaf failed to sign it.
Leaf and the group of
potential defendants face the
prospect of a variety of
charges, including using a
computer system to commit
a crime, willfully damaging a
voting machine, malicious
destruction of property and
fraudulent access to a com-
puter or computer system.
If Leaf faces legal charges
and must fund a defense,
Chairman of the Barry
County Board of
Commission Ben Geiger
already said that the county
would not foot the bill.Dar Leaf D.J. HilsonFormer President
Donald TrumpTTES to begin 90-trial
utilizing a second
staffed ambulance
Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Thornapple Township
Emergency Services will try
out having a second staffed
ambulance available 12
hours a day, as part-time
staffing is available, to
accommodate second calls
and transfers.
The Township Board on
Monday unanimously
approved going ahead with a
90-day trial for the second
staffed ambulance, which
was recommended by new
TTES Chief Bill Richardson.
“There is currently a need
for a second hit ... coverage
for our community, but the
second hit call volume is not
enough to make the opera-
tion self-sustaining,”
Richardson wrote in a memo
to the board. “The need con-
tinues to grow due to the
lack of primary ambulance
coverage in our surrounding
communities. This lack of
coverage decreases our pri-
mary ambulance availability
in our own area to cover our
residents.”
TTES on Sept. 5 convert-
ed to round-the-clock staff-
ing for its primary ambu-
lance and fire engine, a move
that Richardson says will
allow for consistent
advanced life support ser-
vice and quick response time
to fire calls.
Richardson, who did not
attend Monday's meeting
because he was attending a
seminar, wrote in the memo
that, so far this year, TTES
has assisted on calls outside
the township 256 times,
leaving the community with-
out coverage for about 512
hours, or 21.3 days. Just last
month, TTES had eight
instances of double hits,
defined as a call that comes
in while first responders are
already responding to anoth-
er call, according to town-
ship documents.
In addition, the chief
wrote, there is a need for
advanced life support and
basic life support transfers
from Spectrum Health
Pennock Hospital in Hastings
to hospitals in the Grand
Rapids metropolitan area.“Pennock Hospital aver-
ages over four patient trans-
fers daily to Grand Rapids
and Kalamazoo hospitals,”
Richardson wrote. “The
greater Grand Rapids hospi-
tals also have a need for
transfers out of its facilities
where waiting times can be
12-plus hours.”
Richardson is to meet
with the emergency medical
service liaison from
Spectrum Health next week
to discuss ways the two
organizations can work
together to handle patient
transfers.
The plan would be to staff
the second ambulance from
8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with an
on-call model at night,
Richardson wrote.
“This model assures our
citizens are protected while
the ambulance is on a trans-
fer for emergency trans-
port,” he wrote.
Richardson projects the
move would generate three
additional calls per 12-hour
shift, generating about
$1,800 in revenues against
staffing costs of $812.