Before closing out the end of the year, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last month vetoed 11 marijuana, retirement and tax-related bills and signed into law another six bills passed by the GOP-majority Legislature.
Author: Michigan Advance
Inflation has been slowly decreasing over the last few months, but the price of food is still higher than normal. High food costs are making it more difficult for food banks to purchase enough food to meet demand.
Michigan Advance’s Clay Wirestone writes, “Libraries don’t serve aggrieved individuals. They serve masses of people, either students or communities. A family can always choose not to check out an offending volume. They can choose not to visit the library altogether. A whole town or school still needs access to information, especially to new ideas or controversial subjects. Together, they learn and grow in compassion.”
Researchers from the Commonwealth Fund and Yale School of Public Health tracked age-stratified demographics, risk factors and the dynamics of infection and vaccination to understand the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccines nearly two years after they were approved.
Upton said he leaves office in a political environment more toxic than any other point during his decades in Congress.
Higher building costs, a shrinking supply of low-cost rental units and more people with higher incomes choosing to rent rather than buy are driving the increase in higher-priced rentals and corresponding decline in low-cost units.
Colorado voters passed Prop 123, which will allow 0.1% of the state income tax rate to go toward a number of grants and programs to increase affordable housing, assist unhoused people or prevent eviction, and provide rental assistance, among other provisions.
Sponsors say the bills will create more affordable housing options, particularly in cities, which in turn will help alleviate the shortage of affordable housing for Michigan families.
The union representing hundreds of nurses at Ascension Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo announced late Friday that the group has reached a tentative agreement with the hospital’s administration that would avert a potential strike, boost wages and offer additional benefits.
North Carolina Republicans base their case on something called the “independent state legislature theory,” which holds that the U.S. Constitution’s Elections Clause makes legislatures the sole authority over federal elections.
Thirty-nine ISDs have created the “talent together” partnership to offer solutions to make it easier for Michiganders to become educators. This is the largest education collaboration of its kind in state history, serving students in 63 counties statewide.
A record number of women will soon serve in state legislatures, breaking the previous cap of female lawmakers by at least 69 seats and bringing total representation to more than 32%, according to the Center for American Women and Politics.
A bipartisan bill package aimed at preventing sexual assault and protecting survivors cleared the Michigan Senate on Tuesday, nearly two years after the measures were first introduced.
The U.S. Senate approved legislation Tuesday that would enshrine protections for same-sex and interracial marriages, codifying many of the rights that would disappear if the U.S. Supreme Court were to overturn those landmark decisions the way it overturned the nationwide right to an abortion this summer.
House Bill 4722, which narrowly passed the House in a late-night session last October, essentially strips a local Michigan municipality’s ability to regulate short-term rentals through local zoning ordinances or makes them subject to a special-use or conditional-use permit.
Amid a surge in visits to pediatric emergency rooms, doctors and public health officials are advising families to take preventative measures to stop the spread of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and other respiratory illnesses.
American Electric Power said last year that it plans to spend $23.3 billion between 2022 and 2026 on transmission and distribution. But there’s been growing concern at the state and federal level that too much of it is occurring without enough transparency and oversight to ensure transmission owners are appropriately planning for new technology, considering more cost-effective regional approaches or alternate solutions and not ripping off their ratepayers.
Following the spray-painting of antisemitic symbols on a West Michigan Democratic Party office, a newly elected state lawmaker says he plans to introduce legislation that would better deal with such incidents.
“This is something that a lot of us in the policy world have already known for a long time — that when Congress failed to act on expanding or continuing the monthly child tax credit payments that were part of the American Rescue Plan, that a lot of Michigan kids and families were going to suffer as a result,” Anne Kuhnen, a tax policy analyst for the Michigan League for Public Policy (MLPP), said.