Chad Livengood Profile picture
Politics Editor at The @DetroitNews | Michiganian | @crainsdetroit @delawareonline @SpringfieldNL @JacksonCitPat @CMLife alum | CLivengood@detroitnews.com
Sep 1 4 tweets 2 min read
In Michigan last week, Donald Trump lamented the “big” auto plants are being constructed in Mexico.

Except there’s a ginormous auto plant being built 6 miles from where Trump was standing.

Trump sending mixed messages on competing with China.

My column:
detroitnews.com/story/opinion/… Trump invites Chinese automakers to build vehicle assembly plants “in Michigan or at least some place in our country."

But then he opposes a Chinese auto supplier (Gotion Inc., partly owned by Volkswagen) building a plant in Michigan.

Well, which is it?

detroitnews.com/story/opinion/…
Jan 1, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
As of this morning, there are no white men in Michigan's highest-ranking posts in state gov't.

Women hold 5 of the top 7: governor, attorney general, secretary of state, Senate majority leader & Supreme Court chief justice

Black men hold the other two: Lt. Gov & House Speaker Gov. Whitmer vows to 'get things done' in 2nd term, calls for gun reforms

detroitnews.com/story/news/pol…

via @CraigDMauger & @detroitnews
Jan 17, 2022 11 tweets 4 min read
Meet Kelley Miller (left), 54, of Mulliken, Mich. Kelley was paralyzed from the neck down in a 2011 car accident. She needs a ventilator to breathe and requires 24-7 care @ home. For a decade, Michigan's auto insurance safety net for catastrophic injuries has provided that care🧵 I first wrote about Kelley Miller back in April when the impact of the Legislature's 45% cut in payments to home health care agencies that care for injured drivers came into focus.

Because her ventilator can fail, Kelley needs an RN and aide at home.

crainsdetroit.com/auto-insurance…
2/
Jan 15, 2022 4 tweets 5 min read
Two years before the pandemic, ⁦@Ford⁩ made a billion-dollar bet that tech talent wants to work in hip urban centers close to dining, etc…

An economist at Ford’s rival @GM sees a new trend in where people want to work snd eat lunch.

My column: crainsdetroit.com/voices-chad-li… ICYMI: 'Behind-the-scenes work is done' as Ford puts Michigan Central Station back together

crainsdetroit.com/detroit-rising…

#Detroit #DetroitCRE #Corktown #Ford
Nov 23, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read
NEW from me: A federal judge in Detroit has disqualified attorneys for @Allstate Insurance Co. and an entire law firm in an auto insurance medical bill lawsuit for their "scorched-earth tactics" and lying under oath.

Eye-opening ruling in a RICO lawsuit:

crainsdetroit.com/law/allstate-a… Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Stafford let @Allstate's attorneys have it in a biting 28-page opinion that found one lawyer lied on an affidavit and under oath about having an unethical conversation with a pharmacist Allstate was suing over his billing.
crainsdetroit.com/law/allstate-a…
Aug 9, 2021 20 tweets 8 min read
CAUTION: I'm about to write a long thread about the state of home health care in Michigan right now following the upheaval of our state's system of care for catastrophically injured motorists.

Michigan legislators, take cover... John Wicke, the 52-year-old quadriplegic man I wrote about last week, is still living at Sparrow Hospital because his home health care agency quit because the Legislature & @GovWhitmer cut their pay by 45% on July 1.

crainsdetroit.com/voices-chad-li…

2/
Apr 6, 2021 5 tweets 3 min read
Michigan hospitals @ 100% capacity amid #COVID19 surge:
Ascension St. Joseph, Tawas City
Beaumont Wayne
McLaren Port Huron
McLaren-Oakland, Pontiac

At 99% capacity:
St. Joseph Mercy, Ypsilanti
Bronson Methodist, Kalamazoo
Henry Ford Macomb, Clinton Twp.
Hurley Medical Ctr, Flint 2 more hospitals to watch in the coming days...

McLaren Flint & Sparrow Hospital in Lansing are both at 97% occupied.

As of Monday, Sparrow had 112 COVID patients, almost as many as Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit (115)

Beaumont Royal Oak has most COVID patients (173, 79% full)
Mar 28, 2021 8 tweets 7 min read
The stress & chaos of teaching during a once-in-a-century pandemic has some Michigan teachers weighing a departure from public education.

This month in #CrainsForum, I partnered with @chalkbeatDET for a report on teacher turnover destabilizing schools.
crainsdetroit.com/crains-forum/c… #CrainsForum content is free and not behind the @crainsdetroit paywall.

crainsdetroit.com/crains-forum
Mar 26, 2021 5 tweets 4 min read
.@MIGOP chairman @RonaldWeiser repeatedly referred to @GovWhitmer, AG @dananessel & Secretary of State @JocelynBenson as "the three witches" and made a "burning at the stake" remark in front of a Oakland Co. Republican crowd last night.

VIDEO: facebook.com/paul.taros/vid…

#misogyny Weiser also acknowledges in the video that he skipped the University of Michigan Board of Regents meeting yesterday afternoon to go recruit a Republican candidate to run for the Michigan State University Board of Trustees.
Mar 4, 2021 7 tweets 8 min read
Detroit @MayorMikeDuggan is turning away 6,200 doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccines because it's not as effective as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and preventing #COVID19 illnesses

crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/de… via @annalise_frank & @crainsdetroit My column in @crainsdetroit: Why Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan's rejection of J&J vaccine is dangerous in Michigan's fight to end the pandemic

crainsdetroit.com/voices-chad-li… #COVID #covid19 #CovidVaccine #COVIDVaccination
Feb 10, 2021 6 tweets 4 min read
New column from me:

Michigan business leaders want political civility? Show Mike Shirkey the door.

crainsdetroit.com/voices-chad-li… via @crainsdetroit "Just one thing...," @SenMikeShirkey says in a hot mic moment before telling @LtGovGilchrist he won't back down about "any of the points I was trying to make" about @GovWhitmer.

The lieutenant governor just listened.

Feb 9, 2021 4 tweets 3 min read
JUST IN: @SenMikeShirkey is apologizing for comments he made in a videotaped meeting with Hillsdale County Republicans. His statement doesn't say what exactly he's apologizing for.

He's on tape saying he contemplating challenging @GovWhitmer "to a fistfight on the Capitol lawn." Michigan GOP leader @SenMikeShirkey apologizes after calling U.S. Capitol riot a "hoax from day one"

crainsdetroit.com/government/mic…
Jan 14, 2021 8 tweets 3 min read
UP NEXT: Michigan Attorney General @dananessel and her Flint water investigation team led by Solicitor General Fadwa Hammoud and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy are holding a press conference on today's charges against ex-Gov. Rick Snyder and his former top aides. Nessel's press conference can be viewed live here:
Jan 13, 2021 6 tweets 3 min read
Bars and restaurants can reopen Feb. 1 with mask requirements, capacity limits and a curfew, @GovWhitmer says at Capitol news conference.

She didn't have details to share yet on what the limits will be or how late the curfew will be.

Ohio has a 10 p.m. curfew. for bar closures. Image Under today's @MichiganHHS epidemic order, here's what the state is allowing to be open and what's not through the end of January. @crainsdetroit Image
Jan 13, 2021 5 tweets 4 min read
HAPPENING NOW: @GovWhitmer holding a press conference with MDHHS Director @robertmgordon, @DrKhaldun and chief operating officer Tricia Foster.

She's talking #COVIDvaccine distribution and expected to address reopening of bars and restaurants on Feb. 1.

clickondetroit.com/health/good-he… Gov. Whitmer starts press conference by touting feds action yesterday to release more vaccine doses after she and other governors wrote a letter to @SecAzar pushing for it.
Jan 12, 2021 4 tweets 3 min read
TAKE NOTE: Detroit @MayorMikeDuggan has made a decision to stick to Phase 1B and NOT skip to Phase 1C as @GovWhitmer has allowed for the rest of the state.

Here's his math:

1/3 of Detroiters who died from #COVID19 in 2020 were over age 75.
40,000 over 75 years old
100,000 65-74 Duggan said he understands Whitmer's decision to make vaccines available to 65 & up, but notes he, @MarkHackel, @CountyExecEvans & @davidwcoulter are getting the brunt of the calls.

Hackel critical of Whitmer for opening up floodgates to 65-74 year-olds.
crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/ha…
Dec 29, 2020 8 tweets 4 min read
➡️ @GovWhitmer just blocked another precedent-setting tax burden shift by the Michigan Legislature.

She vetoed $220M in general fund tax dollars lawmakers designated for the Unemployment Trust Fund, which is traditionally funded by a tax on employers.

crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/wh… GOP lawmakers wanted to make other areas of gov’t pay for a continued 6-week extension of unemployment benefits.

And, again, employers fund the trust fund, not average Joe who works on a 1099 & is ineligible got UI. Legislature wanted to make Joe pay in.

crainsdetroit.com/voices-chad-li…
Dec 15, 2020 5 tweets 2 min read
HAPPENING NOW: @GovWhitmer holding a press conference to announce that COVID-19 case growth is declining and hospitalizations are stabilizing after limited business closures in mid-November.

"What we're doing is working," she said.

More on data here: crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/ne… Gov. Whitmer renewing call for Legislature to pass $100M state-based economic stimulus/aid for families and small businesses hit hardest by the pandemic and shutdowns ordered by her administration.
Nov 10, 2020 12 tweets 7 min read
I got a little sidetracked yesterday with breaking news, phone interviews and Zoom meetings and apparently, according to some people, wasn't tweeting enough about Republicans not accepting the election results.

I interviewed GOP consultant @stusandler...

Thread continued... Interview Sandler and @AdrianHemond for a Great Lakes Bay Economic Club about the election.

Sandler refused to concede @JohnJamesMI, one of his clients, lost.

"There are states where (Trump) is down by 2/10ths of a percentage point," Sandler said.
Nov 8, 2020 5 tweets 4 min read
The most-read article in @crainsdetroit last week was not about the election. It was about the resurgence of #COVID19 in Michigan.

@GovWhitmer raises new alarms about dwindling hospital beds amid 2nd COVID surge crainsdetroit.com/coronavirus/wh… via @crainsdetroit The No. 2 most-read story in @crainsdetroit last week was an election dispatch from @annalise_frank:

Chaos at TCF Center as crowds of election challengers shout 'Stop the vote'

crainsdetroit.com/elections/chao… #Election2020 #Election2020results
Nov 7, 2020 4 tweets 3 min read
"This is nothing more than political theater," state Rep. Cynthia Johnson, D-Detroit, says in remarks at emergency Senate/House oversight committee meeting, where Republicans plan to vote on subpoenas for election records from @MichSoS. "This is crazy and we should not allow it." Image "Where is the evidence?" asked state Rep. @darrincamilleri, D-Trenton.

Camilleri says @MI_Dems have accepted the election results that Republicans will have a 58-52 majority next year, questions why GOP doesn't do the same with outcome of the presidential election in Michigan.