Rhinoceros Media
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Independent public records analysis and investigative journalism for Lansing & mid-Michigan. Reader-supported. No ads. Worker-owned cooperative in-progress. rhinocerosmedia.org
From the archive · BRIEF · Mar 2026 Lansing: Email Headers Reveal Deep Green Support Letters Were Platform-Generated All 12 letters of support to council were generated through one paid advocacy platform. #Lansing #Michigan #Energy #Utilities #MichiganPolitics
Lansing: Email Headers Reveal Deep Green Support Letters Were Platform-Generated
All 12 letters of support to council were generated through one paid advocacy platform.
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How to recall a Lansing elected official... rhinocerosmedia.org/how-to-recal...
How to Recall a Lansing Elected Official
Recalling a Lansing elected official is almost entirely a state-law process, not a city one. The charter's only recall provision (2-401) defines who is recallable (the mayor, the City Council members,...
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4-part series that looks at what we know so far about the NOVA Housing Initiative in Lansing... #Lansing #Michigan #HousingCrisis #Housing #HousingIsAHumanRight #HousingFirst
Resolution to end Flock contracts passes Lansing City Council with 7-1 vote... #Lansing #Michigan #Flock #DeFlock #Surveillance "residents... don't want the city's automated license plate reader cameras, and they want the contracts behind them gone." rhinocerosmedia.org/august-24-re...
Lansing City Council Meeting: August 24, 2026
After nearly 100 residents spoke against the city's Flock license plate reader cameras and Police Chief Robert Backus argued for about 35 minutes to keep them, the Lansing City Council voted 7-1 on Au...
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Lansing City Council member submits resolution to end the city's Flock contracts #Lansing #Michigan #Flock #DeFlock #Surveillance #ALPR rhinocerosmedia.org/flock-termin...
Lansing Council will consider ending the city's Flock camera contracts Monday
Ward 1 Council Member Ryan Kost has filed Resolution PEND-4578, up for a vote August 24 as Item 15, asking the city and the Lansing Police Department to terminate every contract with Flock Safety and ...
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Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce announces 2026 endorsements. Among them, Tom Barrett and Mike Rogers, both of whom have anti-worker voting history #Lansing #Michigan #Elections rhinocerosmedia.org/lansing-cham...
The Lansing Regional Chamber's 2026 endorsements serve the chamber, not small business
On August 20, 2026, the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce's political action committee announced its 2026 endorsements: Tom Barrett (U.S. House), Mike Rogers (U.S. Senate), Doug Lloyd (attorney gen...
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The Green Party's candidate for US House in Michigan District 7 previously worked for Republican candidate Perry Johnson's presidential campaign #Michigan #Elections #GreenParty rhinocerosmedia.org/mi7-green-no...
The Green nominee in Michigan's 7th District was a paid Republican campaign worker
Federal Election Commission records show Shane Dedrick, the Green Party's nominee in Michigan's 7th Congressional District, was paid $2,237.50 by Perry Johnson for President, a 2024 Republican preside...
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An entire apartment complex doesn't get declared 'unfit for human occupancy' on its own. So who's responsible? A closer look at Towne Square, College Towne, and the out-of-state owner #Lansing #Michigan #HousingCrisis #AffordableHousing #TenantRights rhinocerosmedia.org/who-owns-tow...
Who's Responsible for the Conditions at Towne Square and College Towne
Samuel Okner's Evanston, Illinois company owns two apartment complexes half a mile apart in south Lansing. In April 2025 the city declared part of one, College Towne, "unfit for human occupancy"; in A...
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Let's talk about real "public safety." The more societies spend on social control, the less they have left for social investment. But social controls are both deadly and unsustainable, requiring more oppressive means of terrorizing communities and draining resources that actually help people.
Reimagining Public Safety | Robert Reich
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich explains how we are living through the culmination of forty years of increasing s
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From the archive · INVESTIGATION · Apr 2026 Federal Housing Dollars in Lansing: The Network Around the LHC Roughly $200M in federal LIHTC flows through LHC's pipeline; three insiders sit at the choke points. #Lansing #Michigan #FollowTheMoney #DarkMoney #Housing
Federal Housing Dollars in Lansing: The Network Around the LHC
Roughly $200M in federal LIHTC flows through LHC's pipeline; three insiders sit at the choke points.
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From the archive · BRIEF · Mar 2026 Lansing: Email Headers Reveal Deep Green Support Letters Were Platform-Generated All 12 letters of support to council were generated through one paid advocacy platform. #Lansing #Michigan #Energy #Utilities #MichiganPolitics
Lansing: Email Headers Reveal Deep Green Support Letters Were Platform-Generated
All 12 letters of support to council were generated through one paid advocacy platform.
rhinocerosmedia.org
Any documents we've received from FOIA requests related to investigations are now organized and available here: #Lansing #Michigan #FOIA #PublicRecords rhinocerosmedia.org/foia/documents
FOIA documents
Every produced document across the FOIA log, in one place, grouped by request.
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BWL has a mayor-appointed board with no term limit. They set rates, raised them a fifth straight year, while running a growing surplus and paying its top three executives nearly a million dollars combined. #Lansing #LansingMI #TermLimits #Utilities #CEOSalaries rhinocerosmedia.org/bwl-board-en...
Is board entrenchment a problem at Lansing's Board of Water and Light? An unelected board with no term limit sets the utility's rates with no elected vote.
On August 11, 2026 the Lansing Board of Water and Light's board of commissioners adopted FY2027 rate increases (residential electric ~2.1%, water 2.39–3.34%, steam 5.51%, effective October 1) in an 8-...
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Recap of Lansing City Council meeting August 10, 2026 BWL rate increases NOVA gets a contractor Proposed CATA changes more... #Lansing #LansingMI #CityCouncil #PublicRecords rhinocerosmedia.org/august-10-re...
Lansing City Council, August 10, 2026: two developer tax breaks sent to committee, three charter board ordinances adopted, a healthcare question sent to the ballot.
A chronological record of Lansing's August 10 meetings, a 5:30 Committee of the Whole and a 7:00 regular session, both chaired by Vice President Trini Pehlivanoglu with Council President Peter Spadafo...
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Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, Consumers and others provide letters of support for a data center in Mason #DataCenters #ConsumersEnergy #Lansing #Michigan rhinocerosmedia.org/mason-data-c...
In Mason, the Lansing Chamber and Consumers run a familiar play
In June and July 2026 the Mason City Council received six letters supporting a proposed hyperscale data center at 3388 W. Columbia Road. Three of the six signers, Consumers Energy, the Lansing Regiona...
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On the ballot tomorrow: Approval to sell the City Market/Lansing Shuffle property. Here is what the public record says: #Lansing #LansingMI #Michigan #Vote #Privatization
Busy week, here's the roundup... Brownfields and TIFs Rising utility rates Automated parking tickets (East Lansing) Flock update #LansingMI #Lansing #Michigan #Politics #PublicRecord #TIFA #Utilities #Flock #Surveiilance rhinocerosmedia.org/newsletter/2...
Weekly roundup: July 27 – August 2, 2026
This week: Lansing's untested brownfield subsidy promises, rising sewer charges replacing struck-down taxes, and BWL's per-kilowatt-hour rate gaps.
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Lansing redirects 24 years of school, city, and county taxes into developer subsidies on a 'but-for' promise the city never tests #Lansing #Michigan #Brownfields rhinocerosmedia.org/lansing-brow...
The 'We Couldn't Build It Otherwise' Subsidy Lansing Doesn't Verify
To redevelop a contaminated lot in Lansing, a developer can have the public pay for the cleanup and collect the property's taxes for years, on a 'but-for' promise that the project could not happen oth...
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On top of the Board of Water and Light's proposed electric and water increases, the city sewer charge is going up too, funding a court-ordered cleanup that runs into the 2030s #Lansing #Michigan #Utilities rhinocerosmedia.org/lansing-sewe...
Lansing's Rising Sewer Charge Replaced a Tax the Courts Struck Down
LANSING, Mich. — The sewer charge on a Lansing utility bill is going up again, a few dollars at a time, for work with no near-term end: keeping raw sewage out of the Grand River. The newest piece, an ...
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Inspired by public comment and presentation at Monday's council meeting, we took a closer look at how BWL determines their electricity rates #Lansing #PublicUtility #Electricity #Utilities rhinocerosmedia.org/bwl-per-kilo...
BWL's proposed 2027 rates charge small households more per kilowatt-hour than large industry; hearings August 1 and 4.
On page 87 of the Board of Water and Light's proposed 2027 rates, effective October 1, a household using 500 kilowatt-hours a month would pay about 21 cents per kilowatt-hour and the largest industria...
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East Lansing approves a five-year contract for SafetySticks - solar-powered parking cameras that read your license plate and mail a $42 parking ticket. "People are going to get angry about this." - Council member Whelan, before voting yes #EastLansing #Police rhinocerosmedia.org/east-lansing...
East Lansing's New Parking Cameras Pay the Vendor More Than the City
On July 21, 2026, the East Lansing City Council approved a five-year contract for automated 'SafetyStick' parking cameras that mail $42 tickets to the registered owner. On each ticket the vendor, Muni...
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Three summer tax breaks for developers, public hearings are in August... #Lansing #Michigan #Brownfield #Taxes rhinocerosmedia.org/lansing-thre...
Lansing's Three Summer Tax Breaks for Developers
Lansing is moving three development tax breaks through its two economic-development authorities this summer: up to $709,650 for a South Cedar Street lot where a Chick-fil-A already opened, a twelve-ye...
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Lansing City Council meeting recap for July 27, 2026 4–4 tie killed the 4% housing tax-break ordinance - would've let developers claim an 18-year break with no council vote or hearing 50 homeless-housing "ModPods" still in storage 11 months later, $610,800 spent, still no opening date
Update on the Flock status in Lansing. "...three years on, at least 28 license plate readers, a live video camera, and a gunshot sensor, on a citywide network with nationwide lookup." #Lansing #Michigan #Surveillance #Flock #Crime rhinocerosmedia.org/flock-foia-r...
No Policy, No Logs, No Audits: What Lansing's Flock Records Show
On July 24, 2026, the City of Lansing answered a public-records request on its Flock Safety surveillance network. Assistant City Attorney Elizabeth Krochmalny certified under MCL 15.235(5)(b) that no ...
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A breakdown of Mason's July 20 city council meeting and the ongoing data center dispute #Mason #Michigan #DataCenters rhinocerosmedia.org/mason-data-c...
Mason's July 20 City Council Meeting
On July 20, 2026, the Mason City Council voted 5-2 to adopt Resolution 2026-22, non-binding "guiding principles" for how it would spend the tax revenue a proposed hyperscale data center would generate...
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This new 6-part series explores private capture of public money in Lansing, the organizations that operate under this public-to-private cycle, and the city's recent actions to make it easier... "...this year, one deal after another is being turned into a process that runs without a public vote."
AIPAC and other outside groups have spent nearly $50 million in support of Haley Stevens in the Michigan Senate primary. They're among the biggest dark money spenders this year. Watch.
Meet the Biggest Super PACs of 2026
Voters are increasingly opposed to U.S. aid to Israel, cryptocurrency, and AI data centers.That's why the Big Money grou
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The Los Angeles Police Department let its Flock contract expire over the weekend in part because it was regularly "investigating" and surveilling innocent people. @jasonkoebler.bsky.social reports. Read now: www.404media.co/lapd-regular...
