News

The Detroit Historical Museum is set host to an exhibit called “Exiled to Motown” that showcases the Japanese-American Experience in Detroit from World War II to the present day. 

Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley has declared a state of emergency in the city due to gun violence. According to the mayor, there have been 158 non-lethal shootings in the city in 2021—a nearly 80% increase from 88 in 2020.

The declaration means the city can use federal funds from the American Rescue Plan to fight gun violence. The city of Flint is set to receive $94 million of the federal $1.9 trillion stimulus package.

Neely says the steps the city is taking to address gun violence are based on feedback taken from Flint residents. 

Republican state representative Bryan Posthumus has been sentenced to a 15-day jail stay for drunk driving.

Posthumus represents West Michigan’s 73rd District. In April, he flipped his car and was arrested for operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

General Motors is planning a one week halt in production at its truck plants in Michigan, Indiana, and Mexico. That's because of a global computer chip shortage that recently worsened.

The computer chip shortage began during the pandemic last year.   

Full disclosure: I am a member of the Association of Canadian Cartoonists. I am not Canadian, nor do I have any Canadian clients. But a few years ago at a joint convention with the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists — the professional organization for U.S. cartoonists — the Canadians invited me to join their organization, too. Being based in Michigan, I draw an occasional Canada-related cartoon, and that was good enough for them. (There is a reason for the stereotype — they really are incredibly nice.)

Elected officials in a Michigan county gave themselves bonuses with federal relief money related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The money, described as "hazard pay," included $25,000 for Jeremy Root, chairman of the Shiawassee County Board of Commissioners.

The Justice Department will not open a civil rights investigation related to COVID-19 deaths in Michigan's nursing homes.

The notification to Governor Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday came nearly 11 months after the department's Civil Rights Division requested data from the Democratic governors of four states, including Michigan, and said it was considering whether to investigate under a federal law that protects the rights of people in public nursing homes.

It’s just before 6 p.m. on a breezy Wednesday evening in Little Village, a neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. Department of Water Management staffers lift two tables out of the trunk of a minivan on the 3100 block of Ridgeway Ave. They drape them with blue tablecloths bearing DWM’s logo. 

A small crowd gathers as the staffers, alternating between English and Spanish, explain that Chicago has embarked on a novel public health program. The city is offering to replace toxic lead water pipes leading to their homes — at no cost to the residents. 

There’s been a significant increase in the number of Legionnaires' disease cases in Michigan.

In the first two weeks of July, the state saw more than 100 cases – over 60% of them happening in Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties.

Over the same period last summer, only 16 cases were reported.

The U.S. House has approved a comprehensive bill to regulate and control a class of chemicals known as PFAS.

The bill would require the U.S. EPA to designate two of the most common PFAS as hazardous substances.

It would also require the EPA to set a national drinking water standard for those two chemicals -- and study whether other PFAS should be added later.

Rebecca Meuninck is with the Ecology Center.

She said the bill will go far to help Michiganders and people all over the country protect themselves from the health risks of PFAS. 

State attorneys general have settled a number of lawsuits against opioid makers and distributors—and Michigan could get up to $800 million as a result, state Attorney General Dana Nessel said on Wednesday.

The $26 billion proposed nationwide settlement is with drug-maker Johnson & Johnson, and three prescription drug distributors: Cardinal Health, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen. This agreement should settle most of those lawsuits. Numerous state and local governments had sued the companies, accusing them of fueling the opioid addiction crisis.

A law Governor Gretchen Whitmer used to issue emergency orders during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic was repealed Wednesday by a vote by the state House of Representatives.

Republicans were frustrated by Whitmer’s continued use of unilateral COVID orders.

Representative Andrew Fink (R-Hillsdale) said Whitmer used those powers in defiance of the wishes of the Legislature.

The Moth Mainstage
Saturday, October 23, 2021

Live story telling returns to Detroit! Michigan Radio and Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts will present a live performance of The Moth Mainstage in Detroit, on Saturday, October 23, 2021 at 7:30 p.m. The show was originally scheduled for June 5, 2020. 

Last Election Day, Nada El-Hanooti was at a polling site in Dearborn Heights when she noticed a Lebanese woman sitting on a ledge who reminded her of her grandmother. 

"’I never leave my house,’” she recalled the woman telling her. “‘I am vulnerable to COVID. I just left [home] just to vote.’” 

The woman had been preparing to leave, El-Hanooti said, when she sat down next to her and helped her fill out the form, which was only available in English. She said the woman wouldn’t have been able to cast a ballot without her.

Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig says he's launching an exploratory committee to run for governor in 2022. That committee allows a candidate to begin fundraising and spending money.

Trinity Health Michigan, which owns seven hospitals across the state, says people catastrophically injured in auto accidents are being dropped off at its emergency departments.

That's because Michigan's new auto insurance law is forcing the survivors' long term care providers out of business. The law cuts insurance company payments to the providers by 45%.

In a statement, the health system said:

It’s looking increasingly likely that more than 500 nurses at McLaren Macomb hospital could go on strike next week. The OPEIU Local 40 has issued a 10-day strike notice to management, and the current contract ends July 27, says union Vice President Dina Carlisle. 

The state has officially released the Muskegon Heights school district from receivership, marking the end of oversight for all school districts and communities in the state.

A Detroit-area man whose decades in prison for drug dealing and work as an informant inspired the movie "White Boy Rick" has filed a lawsuit seeking $100 million, claiming he was coerced into assisting police as a teenager.

Central Michigan University students could win a full-year scholarship for being fully vaccinated.

The university announced Monday that it will name winners Aug. 2 and 23, Sept. 13, and Oct. 4. Each drawing will have 100 students who will get a $75 gift card and one student who will win a full-year scholarship for the 2021-2022 school year.

According to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, 31% of Michigan children are not up to date on CDC-recommended childhood vaccinations.

Those vaccinations include MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and DTaP (diptheria, tetanus, and whooping cough or pertussis).

Physicians and school administrators across the state want kids up to date on all their shots when they come back to school in-person this fall. 

Dr. Mark Hamed is the president of the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians, and the director of emergency medical services for McKenzie Health.

The state Senate will begin hearings soon on a proposed overhaul of how Michigan offers publicly funded mental health services. There are lots of different ideas on how to fix the system, but there is one area of wide agreement: The current approach is not working.

A mental health system overhaul is a key area of interest for Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake), who says the quality of care right now depends largely on where a patient lives. The system is managed by county mental health boards.

A Black teenage girl said she was turned away from a Livonia skating rink after being pinged on its facial recognition software. 

But the girl, 14-year-old Lamya Robinson, said she has never been to the arena before.

Robinson and her parents told a local television station she was mistaken for another girl, who was banned from the rink for allegedly fighting.

Sixteen months after border restrictions first went into effect, people from Michigan will be able to visit Canada (by air or land) once again this summer.

The Canadian government announced Monday it plans to re-open the border to vaccinated U.S. citizens and residents starting August 9.