The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has awarded Michigan more than $90 million to expand COVID-19 vaccine programs. Michigan has seen a surge of COVID-19 cases, even while vaccination efforts ramp up across the state.
Category Archive: State
As the United States seeks to end its coronavirus crisis and outrun variants, public health officials recognize it is essential for as many people as possible to get vaccinated. Making that easy is a major part of the plan, unfortunately, it hasn’t been for everyone.
As Michigan is in another deadly surge of COVID cases — with both positivity rates and hospitalization rates rising — the question of how much variants of the virus are driving the surge is still up in the air.
A U.S. House elections panel on Thursday heard from witnesses about the need to craft a new formula that identifies which states or jurisdictions have problematic histories of racial discrimination when it comes to access to the ballot box.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Wednesday that a total of 672,259 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 16,092 have died from the virus — an additional 6,311 cases and 10 deaths since Tuesday.
The U.S. Department of Education (USED) has waived the federal requirements for school accountability in Michigan, but schools should still plan on administering standardized tests this spring.
COVID-19 metrics have met the threshold to close some businesses, but the state is keeping them open
DHHS spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said the state “will continue to monitor the data to make decisions including three key metrics: case rates, percent positivity, and hospitalizations.” Sutfin said the DHHS’ goal “is to reengage while reducing public health risk, which is why we move slowly to maintain progress and momentum with thoughtful public health measures.”
In a preview of the arguments likely to be repeated as the Biden administration and Congress work toward conservation goals, Democrats on a U.S. House panel earlier this month outlined what they say is a need for aggressive action on climate.
Bills you may have missed, from allowing dogs in outdoor dining to banning state nondisclosure deals
Members of the Michigan House and Senate introduced nearly 200 bills in the final two weeks before the Legislature’s two-week spring break.
In Michigan, Republican lawmakers this week introduced a 39-bill package that would ban unsolicited mass mailing of absentee ballot applications, prohibit pre-paid postage on absentee ballot envelopes for absentee ballots, require a photo ID, curb the hours people could drop off their ballots in boxes and require video surveillance of such drop boxes.
Infrastructure is important for everyone. We need a strong public system for roads and transportation, for drinking water, for energy. And when that system is neglected, we all bear the burden as a society.
On Equal Pay Day, marking the day when white women will have earned the same amount on average as men have at the end of 2020, the Michigan Progressive Women’s Caucus announced a package of bills Wednesday to address the state’s gender wage gap and form a commission on pay equity within the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
A proliferation of low-wage and hourly jobs with few or no benefits, depleted savings and rising household costs in Michigan paved the way for a state where nearly four in 10 workers were struggling to make ends meet going into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Michigan Association of United Ways reported Tuesday.
In his first week in office, President Joe Biden paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands as his administration reviewed fossil fuel development policy. Now that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has taken office, the administration is gearing up to begin that process. A forum comprising the energy industry, conservation groups, labor organizations and others will meet virtually March 25 in the first public event of the review.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday the $122 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding that will go to states “to support their efforts to reopen K-12 schools safely this month and equitably expand opportunity for students who need it most.”
The new child tax credit expansion is temporarily bringing more money — through both monthly cash payments and tax returns — to families across large chunks of the income spectrum, including those who have been financially hurting the most, both during and before the pandemic.
According to a Wednesday COVID-19 data update from Sarah Lyon-Callo, director of the DHHS Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health, Michigan has the ninth-highest number of cases and the 10-highest case rate in the U.S. in the last seven days.
In honor of Sunshine Week, Julie Stafford, president of the Michigan Press Association (MPA) Board of Directors and publisher of the Greenville Daily News, writes about why the idiom “No news is good news” is rarely true, and why good journalism is critical to democracy and a functioning society.