Youth criminal justice stakeholders told lawmakers this week that some families of juveniles in Michigan owe upwards of $100,000 in non-restitution related fees to the court. They added that the time and money dedicated to collection of those fees outweighs any benefit to the state and Black families often bear the highest debts.
State of Michigan
The bills would repeal a ban on local project labor agreements and a law preempting local government’s ability to set labor standards including higher-than-state-minimum wage and other benefits — nicknamed the “Death Star” bill in reference to “Star Wars.”
The “Restaurant Workers Bill of Rights” would raise wages and improve work conditions for restaurant staff.
House Bills 4945 and 4946, both sponsored by state Rep. Amos O’Neal (D-Saginaw), would make it illegal for anyone convicted of felony or misdemeanor domestic violence to purchase or possess a firearm for eight years following their sentence.
Michigan has made strong progress in protecting voters’ rights and access to the ballot box in recent years, especially compared to other states, advocates say. However, state lawmakers and national voting rights advocates aren’t becoming complacent, as they’re continuing to push for solutions to fill gaps in voter protections.
An updated vaccine formulated to protect against new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 will be available starting next week, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said Thursday.
About 200 attendees came to Lansing to hear stories of climbing rents, unsafe living conditions and organized efforts to tackle the growing cost of living in Michigan. Nationally, experts say wages are remaining stagnant as rents skyrocket.
The climbing cost to rent a home in Michigan, advocates say, is destabilizing communities and leaving everyone from seniors to families with children and students living with roommates struggling to make ends meet. Michigan legislators are expected to introduce a “renters’ bills of rights” package in the fall to address this ongoing issue.
Michigan has the highest percentage in any state in the U.S. of transgender adults without a form of ID that has the correct gender listed at 77.7% of transgender adults. Nationally, it is estimated that more than half of transgender adults, or 476,000 people, lack an accurate ID.
Michigan could become the fifth state to enable residents to add a digital state ID to their phone under a package of bills recently introduced in the Michigan Legislature.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday signed the bipartisan $57.4 billion state general government budget for Fiscal Year 2024. Read further to see what’s in it
Since The Fledge began offering free Narcan about eight months ago, Jerry Norris, The Fledge founder, has witnessed an increased demand for the spray that’s helping to address an opioid epidemic that in 2022 killed close to 83,000 people in the United States and at least 2,532 people in Michigan.
“This is a suicide prevention bill, period,” Equality Michigan Executive Director Erin Knott said in a prepared statement. “With 15% of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ youth reporting being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy, this historic effort to end conversion therapy is literally life-saving for LGBTQ+ young people in our state.”
Michigan will receive about $1.5 billion in federal grants to expand high-speed internet to approximately 210,000 homes in unserved and underserved areas, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Monday.
The committee heard from election officials and experts on the eight bills that would, among other things, create a minimum of nine days of early voting, provide prepaid postage for certain election documents and require absent voter drop boxes.
More than 500,000 people across 11 states have lost their Medicaid coverage since the unwinding of a policy that allowed people to stay in the program throughout the pandemic.
HB 4596, sponsored by state Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City), seeks to improve youth voter turnout by pre-registering at a younger age.
Currently only Maryland and New York have statewide bans on declawing cats, with various cities around the U.S. banning the practice on a local level. More than a dozen states currently have bans introduced in their legislatures.