With the State of Michigan facing a $1.7 billion budget shortfall this next fiscal year, the government is looking for ways to balance the budget without cutting too many services. One of the options in Committee right now is the package of House Bills 4497, 4498, and 4499. These bills would allow current and future prisoners to be released early for good time as long as certain criteria has been met. The bills, although expected to save the state money, have met with opposition from many such as victim's rights groups and legislators not wanting to appear soft on crime.

Currently in Michigan there is a ban on the crime of dueling. Representatives Wheeler-Smith, Sheltrown, and LeBlanc have proposed House Bills 6135, 6136, and 6137 respectively. These bills would repeal the prohibition of engaging in or challenging another person to a duel. The Michigan Corrections Code and sentencing guidelines would also need to be amended accordingly if these bills are passed into law.

Approximately 6,000 people in Michigan are legally using medical marijuana and another 59 applications are submitted to the health department every day. In addition, at any one given time there are countless people using marijuana, and other illicit drugs, illegally. Although marijuana can be detected in a person for up to five weeks after consumption, the effects are usually gone within a few hours. It is this disparity and the extent of the marijuana effects upon driving that are giving the Michigan Courts a new legal challenge.

Arizona, a state not most often talked about in the news, has been put on the spot lately. The reason? A new law, SB 1070, which gives Arizona officers the authority to stop and detain people if they have reason to suspect that someone is here illegally. It gives them, also, the authority to ask for legal documents to show that those people are here in the United State legally and, if unable to produce such documents, gives the officers the authority to arrest them. However, it should be noted that the Arizona state law does say, many times, that at no time is it ok for an officer to stop someone based solely on the color of their skin-there must be a primary offense for which that person is stopped. At that time, there still needs to be a reasonable cause for the officer to ask for such documents. Even with all these precautions in place, there is still much uproar about this new legislation. Many believe that it will lead to racial profiling, especially among Latino people, who are already under much scrutiny, especially in the southwest United States. However, major proponents for the new law say that it is merely a tool needed for the state to do what the federal government has failed to do, and that is keep their borders closed to illegal immigration. This new law has sparked not only many debates, but has even caused other states to look at their own immigration laws. One of those states is Michigan, where Representative Kim Meltzer (R-Clinton Township) has proposed a law similar to Arizona's.