Jarvis DeBerry writes, “[…] in the U.S., neither a Black woman’s money, education or status serves as protection from mistreatment in labor and delivery. Financially secure Black women with Ivy League degrees have to worry just like those with less money and education if doctors or nurses will do (or not do) something that costs them their lives or their babies’ lives.”
Author: Michigan Advance
The University of Michigan health system is joining a growing number of major medical institutions opening clinics specifically aimed at treating and studying patients with lingering, serious symptoms from a brush with COVID-19. That could be as many as 10% of people who caught the coronavirus, one of the nation’s chief doctors recently testified.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (MICRC) in charge of drawing the state’s new U.S. House and state House and Senate district lines for the 2022 elections is gearing up to kick off its series of 16 public hearings across the state which begins today, Tuesday, May 11.
Senior Policy Advisor at FLOW (For Love of Water) Dave Dempsey asks the State of Michigan to stop neglecting Michigan’s groundwater which according to Dempsey is “increasingly under threat.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been named one of seven John F. Kennedy Library Foundation’s Profile in Courage Award recipients for her effort to address the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michiganders who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 should beware of scammers claiming to be from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Attorney General Dana Nessel warned Monday.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Monday that a total of 849,420 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 17,771 have died from the virus — an additional 5,035 cases and 29 deaths since Saturday.
The state’s Return-to-Office Workgroup has provided Gov. Gretchen Whitmer with recommendations on how employers can begin to plan for a safe, phased reopening of offices. The effort is designed to address effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, now headed into its 14th month.
Over the last two years, under the leadership of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and former Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Director Robert Gordon, Michigan made it easier to get and keep important benefits. The state now provides additional resources to low-income individuals, seeks to treat residents with respect and has reduced pointless complexity. Many challenges remain and the department’s new leader, Elizabeth Hertel, has an opportunity to accelerate these improvements.
Reported incidents of antisemitism in Michigan are up 240% since 2015, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of Michigan.
Inforum Michigan, a leading women’s organization, was recently holding a virtual information session to discuss the issue of sexual assault when Kalimah Johnson happened to stumble on the conversation via social media.
Given that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month and Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who is African American, was a featured guest, Johnson was interested in the presentation since she counsels sexual assault victims. So she stopped to check it out. Worthy provided her perspective and shared her efforts to bring justice to victims, but only four of the 14 women serving as ambassadors were Black.
Among bills introduced by the Michigan Legislature this month, gay conversion therapy would be prohibited for minors under SB 367, sponsored by Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak), or HB 4651, sponsored by Rep. Felicia Brabec (D-Pittsfield). At least three Michigan cities have previously banned the practice, which, according to the Human Rights Campaign, falsely claim to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
The GOP-led state Legislature’s ongoing feud with Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has seeped into the budget process for the next fiscal year, with the state House proposing major funding cuts and attempting to exert more control through a quarterly budgeting process.
Now that the U.S. House of Representatives has passed a measure to eliminate a critical deadline associated with the seminal Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Dearborn) is hopeful that the legislation — decades in the making — will move forward.
On Thursday, April 15, members of a U.S. House Natural Resources panel agreed on the need to clean up and cap abandoned oil and gas wells, but disagreed along party lines about the extent of the federal government’s role in well regulation.
During the pandemic, there’s been a lot of focus on students, but policymakers have primarily stressed schools’ reopening plans, standardized tests and sports seasons. But one issue that has largely taken a backseat is the effect that grief has had on young Michiganders.
Rick Haglund writes, “It once seemed unthinkable that Michigan, home to a powerful United Auto Workers union that organized automakers through such historic events as the “Battle of the Overpass” at Ford Motor and the Flint Sit-Down Strike at General Motors, would join mostly southern states in trying to crush labor unions.”
While the pandemic continues to worsen here in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday urged Michiganders who contract COVID-19 and have pre-existing conditions to consider an antibody treatment.