“Why are you talking to them?” Hank Millbourne remembers friends saying to him during the 1980s gay scene in Detroit about other gay men. “They have the package.”
Millbourne had only a passing idea of what the “package” was, but he was quickly taught the alleged telltale signs of it: darkened fingernails from using AZT, then the only approved treatment for HIV. In Black Americans, it had the odd side effect of turning some people’s fingernails dark black.
The Michigan Senate Elections Committee voted on three bills Wednesday that could reform voting procedures to mandate photo identification being presented when applying for an absentee ballot or casting a ballot.
Dozens of bills aimed at boosting ethics, transparency and financial disclosure laws have been introduced in the Legislature this year from both parties, with lawmakers making the case that their respective bills would give Michiganders the most access to state government.
Michigan Advance’s Susan J. Demas writes, “At this point, after we’ve watched so much senseless death and the explicit right-wing tactic of turning public health into a gun-toting culture war, it’s OK for those who have tried to be good citizens to be angry.”
U.S. Rep. Cindy Axne is pushing for tenants’ rights to extend to residents of manufactured housing communities to protect them from predatory rent hikes.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Thursday her priorities for K-12 education that uses federal funds and a state surplus to close the equity gap for Michigan’s schools.
A year after George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer, his family returned Tuesday to Washington, D.C., where lawmakers have been attempting to craft a bipartisan bill to overhaul the nation’s policing laws. Congress failed to act by the anniversary of Floyd’s death — the deadline that President Joe Biden had urged lawmakers to meet. Instead of signing legislation named for Floyd into law on Tuesday, the president met with Floyd’s family members in a private gathering at the White House.
Members of a U.S. House panel on Monday debated whether some state elections laws disenfranchise certain voters, including people of color, and split along party lines in their conclusions.
Peter Ruark of Human Capital argues that “businesses who perceive a labor shortage can do what businesses normally do in a market economy when they cannot find enough workers: Look at ways to make their jobs more attractive to workers, including investing in better wages and benefits.”
“Michigan has gone farther than other states in dealing with the toxic legacy of PFAS contamination, [but] unfortunately, these chemicals are so persistent and so widespread that they are literally accumulating in our own human waste.”
– Christy McGillivray, political and legislative director at Sierra Club Michigan, commenting on a new report from the Sierra Club and the Ann Arbor-based Ecology Center of Michigan
From statehouses to Congress, Republicans have launched into a fight against the teaching of “critical race theory,” which just a year ago was a niche academic term. Experts in critical race theory say it’s about acknowledging how racial disparities are embedded in U.S history and society, and the concept is being mischaracterized by conservatives. But GOP lawmakers in the past few months have succeeded in pushing it to the top of state legislative agendas.
Michigan’s governor would be required to report when they travel out of state to legislative leaders and undocumented individuals would be able to receive a driver license under bills introduced recently in the Michigan Legislature.
State and national experts on Thursday discussed the need to incorporate equity in current and future infrastructure plans while wrapping up the Michigan Environmental Justice Conference.
A Senate committee on Wednesday continued discussions on bills in a sweeping GOP voting restriction package that’s been widely criticized by voting rights activists and Democratic officials.
The U.S. House on Wednesday passed a resolution condemning the March 16 mass shooting in Atlanta and reaffirming Congress’ commitment to combating racism and violence against the Asian American community, which has seen a spike in hate crimes since the onset of the pandemic.
Michigan’s coal-fired power plants are annually generating more than 1 million tons of waste that’s laden with lead, mercury and arsenic and poses significant dangers to the health of residents and the state’s groundwater and surface water, the Michigan Environmental Council said in a new report released Tuesday morning.
Todd A. Heywood writes, “Despite all the hoopla and PR, one group of Americans continues to get a confusing message about when and whether to take the vaccine: the immunocompromised community. But federal guidance on vaccination for this group is complicated. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website recommends vaccination, but then refers individuals to their primary care doctors to discuss their specific case. Why?”
Anna Gustafson writes, “But it is that absence that has been so vital this year; it is that emptiness that has paved the way for life. Do not mistake this silence for a lack of numbers: Those of us who have followed the COVID-19 health orders coming from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) fill our state. And, now, after more than a year of listening to the scientists, wearing our masks and social distancing, life is moving towards something almost jarringly familiar, towards something that is beginning to remind us of the lives we were living some 14 months ago.”
