The plume of 1,4 dioxane in Washtenaw County's groundwater is one step closer to getting federal help with its cleanup. The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy requested today that the Environmental Protection Agency initiate the assessment of the site for the National Priorities List of Superfund sites.

The state Senate elections committee is prepared to take up some voting reform bills Tuesday.

Republicans introduced 39 bills they claim are in response to concerns raised in last year’s defeat of President Donald Trump. The senate Elections and Ethics committee has three of the bills on their agenda this week. 

But critics say the legislation is about “voter suppression”.

The federal government won't be sending additional vaccines to Michigan. That's despite Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s efforts to secure more shots as cases and hospitalizations continue to increase.

Michigan even surpassed its winter peak of COVID-19 hospitalizations on Monday.  

“I think if we tried to vaccinate our way out of what is happening in Michigan, we would be disappointed that it took so long for the vaccine to work to actually have the impact,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a briefing on the pandemic on Monday. 

Governor Gretchen Whitmer said Monday a ban on most in-person office work will be extended, although largely as a measure to preserve the state’s options amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The order from the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration will be extended by six months, she said, to give the state time to develop a more-comprehensive back-to-work plan.

People living in some Detroit and Hamtramck neighborhoods will get a chance to get a COVID-19 vaccine close to home this week and next. Mobile vaccination clinics at more than a dozen sites are set to start on Wednesday April 14, and run through the following Wednesday.

State and city health officials are targeting areas at higher risk for COVID based on factors like race, housing, and transportation. Detroit's vaccination rate has consistently lagged the state average.

A new law makes it easier for people to have criminal convictions erased from their records. The law allows the expungement to take place automatically in many cases, rather than requiring someone to formally request it from a court. The new law also allows more people to apply to courts to have their records cleared.

“These are offenses that we characterize as indiscretions, as opposed to things like violent offenses and things that develop a pattern,” said State Court Administrator Thomas Boyd. The former judge says this means a second chance for thousands of people who committed non-violent offenses, including teens and young adults.

It appears the United States Air Force is in no hurry to abide by Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s request to use Michigan’s standards for cleaning up PFAS contamination at a former Air Force base.

With an eye on his father’s bloodied face, Barry Jensen began punching numbers into his cell phone from the hospital emergency room.

Four Muskegon County deputies and one former Wellspath nurse have been charged with involuntary manslaughter Thursday over the death of a man in jail. 

In March 2019, 39-year-old Paul Bulthouse was held at Muskegon County Jail on a probation detainer. He was classified as suicidal, which required him to be monitored every fifteen minutes. This also meant his cell was close to the booking center and was always visible on video monitors. 

Bulthouse died 13 days later after suffering 22 seizures in five and a half hours, according to a release from Michigan’s Attorney General Dana Nessel.