Corrections officers and their supporters are rallying in Lansing today, urging lawmakers to stop stalling and act on bills to give them the same pension benefits as state police.

Under the legislation, corrections officers would move from a 401(k)-only plan to a hybrid pension system shared with state police, a step aimed at improving hiring and retention in the Corrections Department.

Byron Osborn, president of the Michigan Corrections Organization, said he questions the integrity of the legislative process and is frustrated the bills passed both chambers with bipartisan support last year but are still being withheld from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's desk.

"We believe 100% that this was an orchestration of sorts," Osborn contended. "We don't know who orchestrated it, or why. But the fact remains that nobody has offered up any reason as to why these bills still have not been sent to the governor."

Osborn noted the Senate filed a lawsuit against the House for not sending the bills to the governor and they are awaiting a Michigan Court of Appeals date. Meanwhile, Rep. Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, the Speaker of the House, said he is seeking a legal review before advancing bills passed in the previous session.

Osborn emphasized Michigan's corrections system has faced a staffing crisis for almost a decade and his organization has spent years working with lawmakers to fix the retirement plan for their officers. He warned the delay in passing the pension bills is hurting their recruitment efforts.

"We've got a number of our facilities running anywhere from 25% to 35% short, which as you can imagine is causing just a ton of mandatory overtime," Osborn pointed out. "It's causing more and more people to resign and find other jobs because they just can't keep up the pace and it's dangerous."

As of early this year, data showed the Michigan Department of Corrections had more than 2,200 job vacancies, including nearly a thousand corrections officer positions. The staffing shortage drove overtime costs to almost $120 million in fiscal year 2024.


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Ukrainians who fled the war in their home country for temporary roots in North Dakota are waiting with worry about their ability to keep working in the U.S., as the future of a key support program is up in the air.

Separate from refugees or asylum-seekers, humanitarian parole gives people escaping a global conflict a chance to work and live temporarily in an American community. As reported by North Dakota News Cooperative, several hundred Ukrainians in North Dakota fall under that status, taking on a range of local jobs the past two years.

Yaroslav Riazanov is one of them, and with the Trump administration trying to roll back immigration relief, he is living day-to-day.

"My work permit expires in a couple of days," Riazanov explained. "I need to work because I have a lot of bills to pay, you know, it's a big stress for me."

Legal wrangling continues over humanitarian parole, with the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowing programs with four other countries to be suspended. Supporters of the Ukrainian designation said there is still too much uncertainty about applications for those folks, renewing concerns they will be forced back to a war-torn region. The White House insists the programs do not have strong enough vetting.

Michael Southam, cofounder of FM Volunteers for Ukraine, a volunteer group in North Dakota sponsoring Ukrainians approved for work status, said although it is not meant as a pathway to citizenship, some participants want to stay in stable settings longer, seeing the opportunity to better their own lives and those around them.

"They've come here at the expense of their sponsor or themselves, not the government," Southam pointed out. "They work, they contribute locally; they have their children going to our schools, they contribute through volunteer activities."

He hopes elected leaders realize the local effects and see the benefit of maintaining the programs.
While a humanitarian parolee cannot apply for a green card, they could qualify for another visa, which potentially opens doors to longer-term residency.


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By Kaleb Clark / Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi reporting for the Kent State NewsLab-Ohio News Connection Collaboration.

Ohio Senate Bill 11 would eliminate noncompete agreements at most workplaces. Proponents say this would allow workers more freedom to go from one job to the next. But others warn that non-compete clauses are in place so that individuals don’t go to a competing workplace or company and reveal valuable assets. 

In general, noncompete agreements restrict the ability of workers to go to work for their employer’s competitors for a certain amount of time after leaving their jobs. 

“These are hurting my constituents disproportionately because they're getting their first jobs out of college and they're trying to pay for school, and these noncompete agreements are being used to stifle them, moving up into the ranks of employment," said Senator William Demora, D-Columbus, a co-sponsor of the bill with Sen. Louis Blessing, R-Colerain Township.

“If somebody offers them more wages or better working conditions to work the same job…to pay them more and give them better benefits, they should be able to go take that job to provide better for their family,” Demora added.

Four states — California, Minnesota, North Dakota and Oklahoma — ban all noncompete agreements, according to the Economic Innovation Group, a national organization that advocates against them. Many other states have some restrictions on how they can be used.

“Non-competition agreements hurt workers, employers and the public without doing anything more to prevent unfair competition than existing tools,” wrote Neil Klingshirn in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Klingshirn is a partner at Employment Law Partners, a firm in Independence, who has represented workers and businesses that have had trouble with non-compete agreements for 40 years. He explains that non-competes do little good but mostly harm.

“While non-competes may battle unfair competition, it’s like using a lawnmower to weed a garden," Klingshirn wrote.“When you’re done, you don’t have weeds, but you don’t have much of a garden, either.”

Tony Long, General Counsel at the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, said the change could be “harmful… for some employers that rely on these to protect information and technology.”

He doesn’t believe Ohio should ban all noncompete agreements. Instead, he’d like to see more of a “balanced approach,” and said he is working with Chamber of Commerce member companies to try to get the bill amended.

“We just feel that more conversation has to be held on, ‘how do you protect with a non-solicitation agreement, a trade secret agreement, a confidentiality agreement, those types of things?’”

Demora, the bill’s co-sponsor, says the bill’s pros still outweigh these drawbacks. 

“I think the Chamber is a little short-sighted, because in the end, this is helping. If you help workers, you help the business,” he said. “If workers are happier, they're more productive, and they're more willing to stay on longer.”


This collaboration is produced in association with Media in the Public Interest and funded in part by the George Gund Foundation.


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Workers' rights advocates are celebrating a new law mandating "good faith and fair dealing" in Washington's workers' compensation system.

They said the law will curb abuses which have denied workers fair claims.

Doug Palmer, a workers' compensation attorney in Vancouver, explained Washington does not allow private insurers to provide workers comp coverage. Instead, employees are covered either by the state or large employers. Palmer said it means large companies and municipalities pay claims directly, which motivates them to be stingy.

"It creates a lot of incentives for self-insured employers like Boeing, like Weyerhaeuser, to minimize those workers' compensation costs, despite evidence on the claim," Palmer pointed out.

Palmer cited the example of an injured police officer who faced unexplained pay cuts for nearly a year, despite clear entitlement to the workers' compensation claim. He noted the new law now requires employers to treat injured workers' interests as equal to their own.

Previously, penalties for violations were as low as $500, which is insignificant for large companies. Under the new law, Palmer emphasized, fines for unreasonable delays in benefits will be increased and employers can lose their self-insurance certification if they violate the law too many times.

"That is really the ultimate penalty because they want to have that control over the claim," Palmer stressed.

This win has been in the works for years, Palmer added, starting in 2020 with several related bills. He recommended if an injured worker believes their employer is not managing their claim in good faith they can file a complaint with the Department of Labor and Industries.


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