Lawmakers on Tuesday announced proposed bipartisan legislation that would create a new license and add more regulations for marijuana caregivers. On Wednesday, cannabis activists held an already-planned rally in Lansing to protest the bills that leaders told the Advance earlier this week they had heard were in the works.
State of Michigan
With only 18 days left to finalize the rest of the state budget before the new Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 begins, leaders tell the Advance they’re confident there will be a negotiated budget in time to avoid a government shutdown — but there is some concern about higher education funding due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Two bills aimed at ending taxes on menstrual products on Thursday passed through the House Tax Policy Committee.
Michigan parents are split on whether or not students should be required to get vaccinated or wear a mask this school year, according to a study done by the K-12 Alliance of Michigan, a Lansing-based advocacy group.
David Hecker writes, “A series of anti-worker and anti-educator policies passed during former Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration is holding them back and diminishing their voices.”
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) reported Wednesday that a total of 951,192 Michiganders have tested positive for COVID-19 and 20,347 have died from the virus — an additional 4,494 cases and 90 deaths since Monday
For the past six years, Democratic state lawmakers in Michigan have introduced legislation that would end the sales and use tax on menstrual products. But, each time the bills were introduced, they never garnered enough support from Republicans that the legislation would make it to the governor’s desk. But this year that could change.
After months of hearings on legislation restricting voting rights, Michigan Republicans, as expected, unveiled on Monday a citizen-led ballot measure. The advantage of going this route is that the GOP-controlled Legislature has the power to approve it, thus going around Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has vowed to veto bills that hit her desk.
A new study shows the State of Michigan had 29 armed demonstrations in the last 18 months, ranking fifth in the nation. The report was released Tuesday by the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). According to Roudabeh Kishi, ACLED’s director of research and innovation, over 3% of Michigan’s protests are armed, 1% above the national average, which is 2%.
Several recent studies have found the COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted the financial stability of LGBTQ+ individuals across the United States.
On Wednesday, Michigan’s Children, a Lansing-based nonprofit advocating for children and families, urged all of the state’s 891 school boards to “do their job and act to ensure school safety through effective mask-wearing by students and staff” to ensure a safe start to the 2021-22 school year.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a state of emergency Tuesday for Branch, Hillsdale and St. Joseph counties to address the impacts of severe thunderstorms and straight-line winds on August 11 and 12.
As the Taliban continues to gain control of Afghanistan after the U.S.-supported Afghanistan government and military crumbled, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Friday that the state is prepared to welcome Afghan citizens fleeing their home.
A GOP bill to preemptively prohibit mandatory employee vaccinations saw the light of day Thursday, in a House committee hearing saturated with COVID-19 conspiracy theories and anti-vaxxer rhetoric
Michigan is experiencing a COVID-19 surge comparable to spring 2020 based on current trends, said Sarah Lyon-Callo, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) director of the Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health. Although the number of vaccinated Michiganders is slowly growing, the increase in all COVID-19 metrics is growing much faster.
Top U.S. health officials announced a plan Wednesday to begin offering COVID-19 booster shots to Americans starting Sept. 20, with the scheduling of the additional shot to be based on when a person was fully vaccinated. The new round of jabs will be extended to those who received the two-dose vaccine from either Pfizer or Moderna, and can be taken eight months after an individual’s second dose.
Doug and Alek are joined by Michigan Advance Editor-in-Chief Susan J. Demas to discuss her recent column about the current state of affairs as it pertains to the COVID-19 pandemic, journalistic niceties, the shift in the way journalists operate amid an ultra polarized political climate, access journalism, and the highs and lows of mountain climbing (see what we did there?)
In just over 17 months COVID-19 has infected 922,687 Michiganders in total. The state hit the grim milestone of 20,000 COVID-19 deaths on Friday, with the state reporting Monday that 20,030 total residents have now died.