Top stories
The top news stories of 2011 in Michigan included:
- Rick Snyder's first year as Governor, including debate over his proposed budget cuts and changes in tax law, repeal of Michigan's item pricing law, passage of a new law authorizing emergency financial managers for cities and school districts to cancel union contracts, and his proposal to build a new bridge over the Detroit River;
- The July 7 Grand Rapids shootings in which 34-year-old Rodrick Shonte Dantzler killed seven people and wounded two others in a spree killing in two homes, and including a lengthy car chase, taking of hostages, and ending with Dantzler taking his own life;
- Detroit's financial crisis, as the city approached insolvency and city and state leaders debated whether state intervention was needed;
- A January 23 shootout at Detroit's Northwestern District police station in which a gunman entered the station and opened fire with a pistol-grip shotgun, shooting four officers after his house was raided earlier in the day based on allegations that he kidnapped a 13-year-old girl who he chained to a toilet in a basement and assaulted for nine days;
- The UAW's negotiation of new four-year contracts with the Big Three auto makers, including substantial signing bonuses and profit-sharing for workers.
The top sports stories in Michigan during 2011 included:
Notable cultural developments in Michigan during 2011 included: Eminem's two-minute "Imported from Detroit" Super Bowl commercial for Chrysler and promoting Detroit; Michigan artists (Eminem, BeBe & CeCe Winans, and Michael Daugherty) winning five Grammy Awards; the disbanding of The White Stripes; Alice Cooper's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; President Obama's White House tribute to Motown; and the death of the "Mother of Motown", Esther Gordy Edwards.
Notable Michigan-related deaths in 2011 included former First Lady Betty Ford; assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian; Meijer founder Fred Meijer; former Congressman Howard Wolpe; former General Motors CEO Robert Stempel; and athletes Jim Northrup, Bubba Smith, Jim Mandich, Robert Traylor, and Lynn Chandnois.
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