Action Meet Up; Rep. Raskin; Rural Summit

APRIL ACTION MEET UP NEXT WEDNESDAY

THE APRIL ACTION MEET UP WILL TAKE PLACE NEXT WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16TH AT THE 5TH & ELM.

COME JOIN US! 5TH AND ELM CAN HAVE PIZZA PIPING HOT WHEN YOU ARRIVE - CALL (906) 483-2294 IN ADVANCE TO ORDER, THE EARLIER THE BETTER!

WHEN: 6 PM next Wednesday evening, April 16th.

WHERE: 5th & Elm at the Orpheum Theater, 426 Quincy Street in Hancock (Google Map).

SOME NUMBERS…

5

Number of Hands Off! rallies/marches held in the Upper Peninsula this past Saturday, all organized by local Indivisible groups. Across the state at least 55 rallies were held Saturday — here in Houghton but also in Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Traverse City, Sault Ste Marie, Marquette and more. Even Boyne City (pop. 3800) had an event!

9.2, 10.5, 11.4

The percentage drop in the Dow Jones, S&P and NASDAQ stock market averages, respectively, in the two days following Trump’s tariff announcements. Estimates of the dollar value of the stock market declines are anywhere from $3 trillion to $5 trillion. Retirement accounts with funds invested in the US stock market have taken a hit.

12 & 25

The number of permanent and seasonal employees, respectively, of the Great Lakes sea lamprey control program who were laid off by DOGE in February. In mid-March the hiring freeze on seasonal staff was lifted and the 12 probationary staff who had been terminated were allowed to be rehired. The program has suffered at least six weeks of delay this year due to the DOGE actions.

24

The number of staffers laid off last week with no warning, from LIHEAP, the Federal program that helps millions of low-income households pay for heat during the winter. The roughly two dozen workers laid off were the entire staff of the program. $378 million in aid for this winter had not yet been distributed at the time of the layoffs.

60

The risk of the global economy falling into a recession has increased from 40% to 60% in response to Trump’s tariff announcement on Wednesday, according to JPMorgan analysts.

500 

Number of our fellow citizens, including many of you reading this newsletter, estimated to have rallied and marched at the Houghton Hands Off! event on Saturday. A tremendous turn out! Grateful for everyone who participated!!

280,253

The number of announced federal job cuts attributed to DOGE actions in February and March as tracked by outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The government led all sectors in announced job cuts in the first quarter of the year.

3,000,000

Low estimate of the turn out at Saturday’s Hands Off! rallies across the US (and internationally). Estimates range up to 5 million.

20,000,000

Estimated dollar amount Elon Musk spent supporting the conservative candidate in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race. His candidate lost.

26,000,000

The cost to American taxpayers for Trump’s golf outings since taking office in January, according to HuffPost. The estimate is as of the end of last month, so does not include his golf outing this past weekend. As of the end of March Trump had played golf at one of his own resorts nine out of the 10 weekends of his second term.

5 Trillion

The estimate for the cost of enacting Trump’s second term tax cut agenda. The estimate is subject to revision as the bills to enable the tax cuts winds through Congress. Expect it to go higher.

ZOOM TONIGHT - REP. JAMIE RASKIN

MDP SENIOR CAUCUS

Apologies for the short notice, but we’ve gotten word through the Rural Caucus that the Senior Caucus of the Michigan Democratic Party invites us all to attend a half-hour long “Learn over Zoom” session with US Senator Jamie Raskin (D-MD). (Learn more about the Senior Caucus here.)

You must register through Zoom to attend this session!

The Caucus will open the Zoom link at 7:30 PM this evening. They ask that you please join no later than 7:50 PM — no one will be admitted after that time. The Caucus wants to make sure Congressman Raskin has a full half hour to speak, beginning at 8 PM. This session can accommodate 500 or more attendees.

LOCAL ACTION - UNPACK & UNWIND TOMORROW

“Unpack & Unwind” is a casual space to share ideas, vent, ask questions, and connect with others over progressive thoughts and curiosity. No agenda. No group. Just open minds and good vibes. Drop in, speak up, or just listen—whatever feels right.

Meet at the Observatory Lounge on the 7th Floor of Downtown Houghton's Hampton Inn & Suites at 7 PM tomorrow, Wednesday, April 9.

REMINDER: CRAG

CRAG

CRAG stands for Citizens Rally for Accountable Government. It’s a Houghton County based effort organized by Sarah Green, with an emphasis on organizing and motivating citizen participation in local government — by attending meetings, writing letters to the editor, and more. CRAG produces a newsletter and maintains a pretty comprehensive calendar of local events. If you would like to help bring about better local government through citizen involvement, consider joining CRAG.

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS MEETINGS ON COUNTY JAIL

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS - COPPER COUNTRY

The League of Women Voters of the Copper Country is holding discussion meetings where you can learn more about the plans under consideration for a new county jail in Houghton County. The meeting last week in Houghton had to be cancelled due to the inclement weather, but a meeting in Hancock was held last night. Additional meetings in Pelkie (tomorrow) and Calumet (Thursday) are scheduled.

From the League’s website:

“The finalist plans for the HoCo Jail will be formally presented to the Houghton County Board for discussion at their special meeting on April 15, 2025, at 10 a.m. in the courtroom in the Houghton County Courthouse (open to the public). The discussion meeting[s…are] intended to provide an atmosphere where community members can see the plans, ask questions, and generally learn more about the proposed project and its costs before attending the April 15 County Board meeting.”

Find details for the Pelkie and Calumet meetings on the League’s website.

SECOND BERGMAN(LESS) TOWN HALL SCHEDULED TUESDAY APRIL 22ND

FEISTY

Local citizen Bill Fink is organizing another town hall for Rep. Jack Bergman, since he can’t seem to organize one himself.

The second Town Hall is scheduled for Tuesday, April 22nd at 7:00 PM. The Keweenaw Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (KUUF) at 604 Bridge Street in Houghton will again be the venue. Over 150 people turned out for a chance to ask questions and speak their minds to the empty chair that Rep. Bergman had been invited to sit in. Would love to see you there on the 22nd.

SAVE THE DATES!

HOUGHTON COUNTY DEMOCRATS — SUMMER EVENTS

• June 7:  Keweenaw PrideFest Tabling (Calumet Colosseum)

• June 13:  March in Bridgefest Parade (Hancock/Houghton)

• June 13-14:  Bridgefest Tabling (Houghton)

• July 4:  March in South Range 4th of July Parade

• July 12:  March in Strawberry Festival Parade (Chassell)

• August 16:  Pastyfest Tabling (Calumet)

• August 21-24:  Houghton County Fair Tabling (Hancock)

• August 31:  (Tentative) HCDP Community Picnic 

More information will follow about marching, and opportunities to staff the HCDP Information Table at some of these summer events!

Spring Fling May 3rd

JOIN US AT THE 63RD ANNUAL SPRING FLING BANQUET AND FUNDRAISER

SATURDAY, MAY 3

DINNER, AWARDS, AND SILENT AUCTION

PLEASE SUBMIT AUCTION DONATIONS AND AD ORDERS NO LATER THAN TUESDAY, APRIL 15

All businesses, organizations, and individual donors will be recognized in the printed program, on signage at the event, and in an HCDP email newsletter.

To donate items for the auction or to place an ad in the program, contact Nancy Verive. Email: [email protected] ph: 812-573-1403.

This year’s theme:

MEETING THE MOMENT

TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!
$55 PER PERSON / $45 FOR STUDENTS AND SENIORS

MDP Rural Caucus Summit

News from Lansing

• NON-CITIZEN VOTING IN MICHIGAN EXTREMELY RARE: After a deep dive analysis of voting in the 2024 General Election the Michigan Department of State has concluded that incidents of non-citizens voting are “extremely rare”. Only 15 incidents that appear to be non-citizens voting were found in the General Election. In October 2024, another case of a non-citizen allegedly casting a ballot was found. Those 16 cases, out of 5.7 million votes cast represent a vanishingly small 0.00028% incident rate. The incidents are being referred to Attorney General Dana Nessel for potential prosecution. MORE: WTOL 11 Toledo

• TWO LAWS IN 90 DAYS: With Republicans now in control of the State House, legislating has slowed to a crawl. In the first three months of this legislative session lawmakers managed to pass only two bills, the smallest number in twenty years. The state legislature has also met fewer times and introduced less legislation compared to the last time Michigan had a divided government, back in 2007. MORE: Bridge Michigan

• McMORROW ANNOUNCES SENATE RUN: State Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who represents the 8th District in the state Senate (Oakland and Wayne Counties) became the first candidate to launch a campaign for Michigan's open U.S. Senate seat on Wednesday. McMorrow is looking to succeed Senator Gary Peters, who is stepping down at the end of his term next year. MORE: Detroit News

News from Washington

The news out of Washington continues to be challenging to stay on top of, as the Trump White House takes a wrecking ball to the federal government and to the laws of our nation. Below are a few items from this past week, only a sample of the serious mischief the Trump administration is up to:

• WHITE HOUSE PUSHES TO “CLOSE” SIGNALGATE ISSUE AS SCANDAL GROWS: Despite the attempt by the White House to shut off discussion of “Signalgate” Congress doesn’t seem to be falling into line. Even some Republicans have indicated that investigation of the incident is needed, and indeed is on-going. Furthermore, it’s now come to light that National Security Advisor Michael Walz, who organized the Signal chat on the Yemen bombing, has made at least 20 chats on the commercial messaging app to discuss sensitive issues. MORE: Daily Beast

• REPUBLICAN THREATS TO SOCIAL SECURITY ARE VERY REAL: Already declining customer service levels at Social Security could get a lot worse. DOGE has already cut 7,000 positions at the agency, but the Trump administration is drafting plans to begin layoffs of potentially thousands more employees as soon as this week. MORE: Washington Post via MSN (no paywall)

• TRUMP SHOWS HIS DISDAIN FOR WORKERS: We’ve gone from the most pro-union presidential administration in American history to the most anti-union one. On Thursday Trump claimed he was shoring up national security by stripping collective-bargaining rights from perhaps one million federal employees, none of whom had anything to do with a security breach, much less one so appalling as Signalgate. MORE: The American Prospect

• NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT IDENTIFIED AS A RESULT OF TRUMP AND MUSK’S LAYOFFS: ABC News reports: “Foreign adversaries including Russia and China are targeting government workers who have been laid off amid the Trump administration's attempt to downsize to recruit as spies, according to new intelligence.” MORE: ABC News

• COMPARISON OF STOCK MARKETS IN WORLD’S TOP ECONOMIES AS OF THIS PAST FRIDAY AM:

Governmental & Community Meetings

TUE APR 08

This month's regular meeting of the Houghton County Board of Commissioners is this afternoon at 3 PM in the Conference Room on the fifth floor of the Houghton County Courthouse. Find more information on the Board's webpage (find the Microsoft Teams virtual meeting info in the Agenda at the bottom of the page).

The Calumet Village Council meets in a Working Session tonight at 6 PM in the Village Council Chambers. Further information can be found on the Village website.

WED APR 09

The Houghton City Council meets at 5:30 PM on Wednesday. The Meeting Agenda can be found in the Searchable Document Center of the Council's website.

This newsletter is paid for with regulated funds by the Houghton County Democratic Party, and is not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.

Contact us by email at [email protected] or by text or voicemail at 906-523-1233