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Events from the year 1984 in Michigan.

The Associated Press selected the state's top news stories as follows:

1. The July 16 decision by Consumers Power to shut down the Midland Nuclear Power Plant which was 85% complete, but had experienced massive cost overruns and total costs in excess of $3.6 billion;2. The takeover of the Michigan Senate by Republicans in February 1984 following special elections to replace two Democratic Senators who had been ousted in 1983 recall elections targeting legislators who voted in favor of a 38% income tax increase;2. The resurgence of the automobile industry, including increased sales and profits and the announcement by Mazda that it would build a $450 million plant in Flat Rock, Michigan;4. The United Auto Workers' six-day strike against 17 General Motors plants in September;5. The defeat of Proposition C, a ballot initiative dubbed "Voter's Choice" which would have rolled back taxes to 1981 levels, required voter approval for future tax increases, and reduced Detroit's non-resident income tax;5. The resurgence of the state's economy, including a decline in unemployment and a state budget surplus of $282 million;7. The sentencing of Upjohn heir Roger A. Gauntlett, age 43, to "chemical castration" for the repeated rape of his teenage stepdaughter. 8. The tarnishing of Detroit's image due to violent outbreaks in October, including a shooting death and other violence amid the celebration of the Detroit Tigers' October 14 victory in the 1984 World Series, and hundreds of fires set in Detroit on October 30, "Devil's night";8. The federal civil rights trial, following protests over lenient state court sentencing , of Chrysler plant superintendent Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz, in the racially motivated Murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American man who was beaten to death in June 1982 with a baseball bat after an altercation at the Fancy Pants Lounge, a Woodward Avenue strip club. Ebens was convicted on June 28 in the federal case and sentenced on September 18 to 25 years in federal prison. 10. The comeback of Chrysler Corporation after repaying federal loan guarantees in 1983 and achieving record earnings of $803 million in the quarter from April to June 1984; and10. The House of Judah controversies, including the trial and conviction of three members of the religious camp in South Haven arising out of the July 1983 beating death of 12-year-old John Yarbough, the conviction of another member for raping a 13-year-old girl, the removal of 66 children from the camp, and the death of two other children in a mobile home fire in October 1984.

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