WSV’s Amanda Yearling takes a moment to ruminate over why she loves the Three Rivers Public Library ahead of an important Park Township Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday.
COVID-19
Doug and Alek are joined by Justine Galbraith, an English teacher who recently penned an op-ed titled ‘I’m a teacher. Why am I considered expendable?’ for Michigan Advance. Galbraith shares the fear, frustration, and anxiety she has experienced as an educator amid a global pandemic, while Alek and Doug serve as a two-man hype team for teachers, listing their favorite fictional educators, and lamenting over the lack of Capri Sun, trail mix, and pizza parties they’ve experienced since reaching adulthood.
In March 2020, the pandemic hit Michigan, bringing upheaval to schools. When Gov. Gretchen Whitmer closed schools buildings that month due to the climbing number of COVID-19 cases, districts across the state scrambled to craft a plan to meet students’ needs virtually. Over the last year, the pandemic has highlighted the inequities the struggling, underfunded Partnership schools face while they work to make ends meet during this current school year.
The Michigan Senate passed on Tuesday a new $2.3 billion supplemental funding bill for COVID-19 relief that also contains what Democrats referred to as a “political poison pill.”
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Monday that Great Start Readiness Program (GSRP), Head Start, adult education and young adult special education classroom teachers are now eligible to receive up to $500 grants under a new expansion of the MI Classroom Heroes COVID-19 grant program.
Teacher Justine Galbraith writes, “Who are we to you? If we’re indeed essential, tasked with propping up our entire society: Pay us. Care about our health. Value our LIVES over a few months of your kid’s education. If we’re what we suspect – expendable, disposable – be ready for more of us to walk out the door. Many of us already have one foot out.”
In Michigan, the seven Democrats in the U.S. House voted for and all seven Republicans voted against President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic aid package early Saturday, in a rush to both boost COVID-19 vaccine funding and get legislation to the president’s desk before unemployment benefits expire in mid-March. The package, dubbed the American Rescue Plan, passed 219-212.
Naomi Ludman, Chair of the Cass County Democratic Party, writes why Michigan State Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey should resign.
States struggling to provide enough COVID-19 vaccines are likely just a few days away from a pivotal development in the vaccination race: the availability of a shot that requires only one dose.
White House officials said Monday that thawing temperatures and a weekend of around-the-clock work has begun to clear a backlog of 6 million COVID-19 vaccines that were delayed due to last week’s devastating winter storms.
President Joe Biden and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer joined Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Friday afternoon for a tour of the pharmaceutical company’s Portage facility — home to the first COVID-19 vaccine doses that were shipped in December.
A group of hardworking volunteers has already begun to plan the 2021 64th annual Three Rivers Water Festival. This year’s Festival will return following the first-ever cancellation of last year’s event, made necessary by the COVID-19 pandemic.
A coalition of organizations is calling on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to increase its COVID-19 vaccination efforts for the 33,000 people incarcerated in state prisons.
The 2020 census had a challenging year with the COVID-19 pandemic. Now a delay in census data from the U.S. Census Bureau will likely throw a wrench in the plans of the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission (ICRC), which needs the data to draw new legislative and congressional districts.
Doug and Alek are joined by Watershed Voice columnist, local author & psychotherapist Charles Thomas to discuss Taylor Swift pulling a Prince, Mark Cuban’s decision to temporarily stop playing the National Anthem before Dallas Mavericks games, and coping with mental health issues in the midst of a global pandemic.
The U.S. had a mental health professional shortage before the pandemic, and Southwest Michigan was no exception. Every county in Southwest Michigan had been designated as a mental health professionals shortage area by the Healthcare Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
WSV’s Beca Welty writes, “February in southwest Michigan might seem like an impossible time to enjoy your favorite meal on the deck of your ideal restaurant, but Martell’s in Kalamazoo has transformed that dream into a reality. Like a few of their sister restaurants in the Millennium group, Martell’s has installed cozy igloos for outdoor dining, and I was one of the lucky few to indulge in the experience.”
Unconscious bias in medical care and a history of experimentation and exploitation of Blacks for medical knowledge has left many in the Black community questioning everything about the vaccines — from the racial demographics of who has been inoculated already, to whether people of color were studied in the safety and efficacy trials and whether the vaccines even work. State officials hope to ease those concerns and erase racial disparities in COVID vaccination rates.