Michigan residents and small business owners targeted by the Whitmer administration got a long-delayed chance to speak on April 23 as the Republican-controlled state House held its first hearings on government overreach during the COVID lockdowns.

Two business owners and a lawyer described how they were targeted by Attorney General Dana Nessel, the Whitmer administration, and local government at the House's Weaponization of State Government hearing.

Gov. Whitmer declared barbers and hairdressers “nonessential” in 2020. Six barbers and hairdressers defied the lockdown orders and were criminally charged for cutting hair at the Michigan Capitol on May 20, 2020.

Five years later, Karl Manke, an Owosso barber, is awaiting a ruling in the Shiawassee County Circuit Court to drop the fines, he said in the subcommittee hearing. During the lockdown period, state government entities temporarily suspended his barbershop and occupational license when he reopened his shop, according to Kallman Legal.

The 77-year-old racked up $9,000 in fines, but Manke kept working to pay bills. He believed Whitmer’s executive orders violated his rights, and the Michigan Supreme Court ultimately agreed in October 2020.

Manke's fines included $1,500 for having hair and neck strips on his barbershop floor and having a comb in his pocket during a televised media interview. He was also fined $6,000 for cutting hair without a license on the steps of the Michigan Capitol during Operation Haircut, a protest of Whitmer’s orders in May 2020. Though his license was later reinstated, the state refused to drop the fines.

When the Michigan Supreme Court ruled in September 2020 that Whitmer’s orders were unconstitutional, the charges against Manke were dropped.

Manke told the subcommittee he was never notified about the loss of his license.

Rep. Angela Rigas, R-Alto, chair of the Weaponization of State Government subcommittee and a hairstylist for 25 years, said the $1,500 fine for having a comb in a pocket was unusual.

Subcommittee member Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, compared Manke to Michiganders who are still in prison for marijuana violations that occurred before cannabis became legal in Michigan.

Whitmer tapped emergency orders through the state health department after reaching the limit of her executive-order powers.

Holland restaurant owner Marlena Pavlos-Hackney testified about Attorney General Dana Nessel's determined effort to arrest her before she could appear on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show to speak about reopening her business against pandemic orders.

Emails obtained by Michigan Capitol Confidential in 2021 revealed that Nessel explicitly stated her desire to have Hackney arrested before she could go on Carlson's show. Hackney's testimony and present situation will be covered more fully in an upcoming CapCon story.

The Service Employees International Union is renewing its efforts to take money from the paychecks of Michigan residents who care for dependents at home. Michigan Capitol Confidential recently talked with two caregivers who have firsthand knowledge of the union’s effort to revive a scheme from decades past.

The SEIU for many years targeted people who received payments from a state health care program for taking care of their loved ones at home. The union skimmed an estimated $34 million from home caregivers, most of whom were caring for their own relatives. Many were not even aware that they had been pushed into the union. Although lawmakers ended the dues skim in 2013, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation last October restoring the practice. The union is now actively pursuing new dues-payers around the state.

Michigan Capitol Confidential spoke with Barbara, a Wayne County resident who asked that her last name and city not be disclosed. A union representative visited her house recently on two separate occasions, she said. Barbara cares for her special needs daughter, an adult, at home.

When Barbara didn’t answer the door, the union workers left literature. Later, two representatives arrived in separate vehicles to visit her.

The two union recruiters, Barbara told CapCon, said she should sign up for union representation because it could mean more money for her. But the SEIU has no power to negotiate contracts for home caregivers, whose compensation is decided by the legislature. The union reps left after Barbara gave them a firm no.

Jeanne Delph of Cheboygan County provides full-time care for her adult son, who has special needs. In 2005, the union started taking part of her paycheck without her authorization. She tried to reclaim the money then but did not succeed.

The SEIU quietly swept 60,000 home-based caregivers into its ranks in 2005, assisted by a mechanism established under Gov. Jennifer Granholm. Caregivers who did not consent to withdrawals saw the union take money from their paychecks in a practice the Mackinac Center for Public Policy dubbed a dues skim.

Home caregivers enjoyed protection from the dues skim for 11 years after the state ended the practice.

Last fall, lawmakers reestablished the legal mechanism by which the union could enroll caregivers as members and collect dues. It's not as easy for unions to take that money, however, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2016 Janus v. AFSCME ruling, which protects public sector employees from being required to join a union as a condition of employment.

Barbara told CapCon that classifying her and others like her as public employees doesn’t make sense. If she has an employer, she said, it’s her child, not the government. Her child, who receives a stipend from the government, is the one who hires the caregiver.

The union did not respond to an email seeking comment.

If you or someone you know have been visited by the SEIU, please contact CapCon with your story. The Mackinac Center can also help you as a caregiver understand your rights.