Eighty-six percent of school districts in Michigan will offer some or all in-person instruction at the beginning of the school year, according to a study conducted by Michigan State University (MSU).
The study, released Friday, showed that 59 percent of Michigan school districts will be offering in-person schooling five days a week and 27 percent will be offering it at least two to three days a week.
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President Donald Trump is leading former Vice President Joe Biden ahead of the November election in the battleground state of Michigan, according to a Republican-leaning poll published Friday.
The president carries a narrow 46-45 lead Biden in the state, a poll published by the Trafalgar Group shows. The poll, conducted between Aug. 14 and Aug. 23, comes a day after Trump wrapped up the Republican National Convention, and less than a week after the Democratic National Convention.
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A union representing Michigan prison officers has called for the removal of Corrections Department Director Heidi Washington due to the state’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic inside prisons.
According to a letter obtained by the Detroit Free Press, the Michigan Corrections Organization says it has lost confidence in Michigan leadership.
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The Civil Right Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested information about COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes from the state of Michigan.
The request, made on Wednesday, will help the department determine if it will open up an investigation under the federal Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act, which will identify if the state orders requiring coronavirus-positive patients to be admitted to nursing homes were responsible for the deaths of residents.
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Two Michigan residents have been charged in a criminal complaint for their alleged role in defrauding $1.8 million in unemployment benefits from the state.
Jermaine Rose, 41, is an employee of the State of Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency whose duties include processing and verifying the legitimacy of unemployment insurance claims. Beginning in May, Rose allegedly used his employee access to authorize payment on hundreds of fraudulent claims, specifically overriding “fraud stops” on claims that had been flagged by the state computer system as potentially fraudulent.
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A coalition filed two lawsuits in Michigan on Monday, a federal case against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for allegedly silencing political speech, and a state suit against Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson for reportedly circumventing state law protecting the right of Michiganders to have their vote properly counted.
The lawsuits were announced on a new website launched by the coalition: Got Freedom? The website is available here.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer could be a “major roadblock” to the start of the Big 10 football season, according to Ohio State insider Jeff Snook.
The Spun reported that Snook is saying that Whitmer against University of Michigan playing football.
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Election integrity advocates believe something fishy is going on in Wayne County with absentee ballots, and they say Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is undermining the security of the process there and across Michigan.
Glen Sitek of the Election Integrity Fund provided an exclusive statement to The Michigan Star.
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Six Michigan businesses were fined more than $33,000 after they failed to follow safety protocol designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the state announced on Friday.
The businesses were fined under “general duty” citations through the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration (MIOSHA), rather than through any of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders. The “general duty” clause requires employers to provide a workplace free from recognized harms and carries a fine of up to $7,000.
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The state of Michigan has agreed to pay $600 million to Flint, Michigan residents in a settlement stemming from the 2014 water crisis.
The settlement established a court-monitored compensation fund, which will send payments Flint residents, CNN reported Thursday. The majority of the money, about 80%, will be paid to residents who were younger than 18 at the time of the crisis.
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Michigan has announced the 13 citizens who will be in charge of redrawing Michigan’s congressional and legislative boundaries for the next decade, drawing their names in a random selection process on Monday.
The Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission is made of four Democrats, four Republicans and four people not associated with either party.
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Michigan has joined a coalition of states that will be filing a lawsuit Tuesday against the federal government over recent changes to the U.S. Postal Service’s (USPS) operations.
The lawsuit argues that the changes proposed and already implemented by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are illegal and threaten the timely mail delivery.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer called for unity and for Americans to “rally together” to fight the coronavirus during a speech at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night.
Before her speech even began, however, Whitmer was caught mouthing an expletive on a live feed.
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Michigan jails and prisons will now have to adopt testing protocols for inmates, according to an executive order signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Saturday.
The order says that Michigan Department of Corrections must conduct testing at entry, transfer and release of any prisoner, as well as suspend transfers from jails that do not have similar protocols.
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The state of Michigan, Ford Motor Company and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be partnering to provide four million free masks to Michigan residents who are vulnerable to COVID-19, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Friday.
Masks will be given to low-income residents, seniors, schools and homeless shelters through the MI Mask Aid program, which is part of the Mask Up Michigan campaign. The program aims to get masks to vulnerable populations, including minority residents who have been adversely impacted by the pandemic as a result of racism, the governor’s office said.
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Three Michigan women have filed a lawsuit against the Michigan Treasury Department on Tuesday in order to stop taxation of feminine hygiene products like tampons, citing gender discrimination and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.
Emily Beggs, Claire Pfeiffer and Wei Ho filed the lawsuit on August 11 in the Court of Claims, according to MLive. The lawsuit says that collecting taxes on feminine hygiene products is discriminatory based on the 14th Amendment, which protects against “intentional inequalities.”
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer lashed out at President Trump in a statement on Sunday after the president cut the enhanced federal unemployment benefit from $600 a week to $400 a week after Democrats in the House failed to make a deal with the Republican-controlled Senate on the matter.
Trump signed four executive orders on Saturday, one of which lowers the enhanced unemployment benefit by a third through the end of the year, with states being required to contribute $100, according to MLive. Unemployed Americans originally received $600 per week through the CARES Act, which expired July 31.
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Election officials in three battleground states wouldn’t say when the U.S. can expect the results from November’s presidential race, and an official in a fourth state said the timing is uncertain.
Numerous news reports have indicated that election results could take a week to return due to the coronavirus pandemic and an increased reliance on mail-in ballots. Accuracy and timing will be especially crucial in the battleground states that will likely determine whether President Donald Trump will serve another term or be ousted by former Vice President Joe Biden.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended the emergency and disaster declaration on Friday, pushing the orders back until September 4.
Whitmer’s previous emergency declaration was set to expire on August 11.
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Both children and staff are required to wear face coverings while at child-care centers and day camps, according to a new executive order signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday.
The order requires all staff and children ages 2 and up to wear a face covering on a school bus or other transportation. It also requires staff and children ages 4 and up to wear a face covering in all indoor common spaces. Staff and children ages 12 and up are required to wear a face covering in classrooms, homes, cabins, or other indoor small-group settings.
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Governor Whitmer has ordered that her recent and controversial mask mandate be enforced like any other law.
The new executive directive, ED 2020-8 states the “Department of State Police must enforce violations of COVID-19 executive orders and epidemic orders in the same manner as it would enforce any other violation of law, using enforcement discretion as appropriate.”
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created the Black Leadership Advisory Council on Wednesday, declaring racism a “public health issue.”
The council — the first of its kind in Michigan — will give advice to the governor and help recommend policies to combat systemic racism. This includes identifying state laws that create or perpetuate inequities, promoting legislation that seeks to correct racial inequality within Michigan, helping community groups serve Black communities and promoting the cultural arts within Black communities, according to the governor’s office.
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University of Michigan is requiring its students to participate in “enhanced social distancing” for two weeks before arriving on campus, according to a letter published for students earlier this week.
The school is offering both in-person and online classes and said that it estimates roughly 70 percent of undergraduate credits can be taken online during the upcoming semester.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday suspended indoor bar services statewide and limited indoor gatherings to 10 people, citing “super-spreading” events in Lansing, Saline and the Torch Lake area.
“After seeing a resurgence in cases connected to social gatherings across the state, we must further limit gatherings for the health of our community and economy,” Whitmer said in a statement. “By taking these strong actions, we will be better positioned to get our children back into classrooms and avoid a potentially devastating second wave.”
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Forty-one million dollars in taxpayer-funded relief have been approved to bolster Michigan’s flagging economy. A Detroit-based automotive supplies company will receive a two million dollar grant to aid in it’s expansion. This money comes as businesses across the state struggle to deal with the new stresses of the COVID economy and various programs try to fight the downturn.
The Michigan Strategic Fund (MSF) has approved two community upkeep and revitalization initiatives and made changes to the Michigan Community Development Block Grant program. These changes reportedly allow “the use of $41.9 million in federal CDBG CARES Act funding.”
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Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) sent a letter to the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Monday asking the agency to help fund schools in Michigan as they prepare to open during the coronavirus.
In the letter, Peters pushed FEMA to allow schools in Michigan and nationwide to access to funding from the Disaster Relief Fund to help pay for public safety trainings, adapting classrooms and acquiring personal protective equipment for students and staff.
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The City of Detroit is seeking photos of those who lost their lives to the coronavirus to display as part of a city memorial event.
Detroit will host Detroit Memorial Day on August 31 to honor city residents who died because of COVID-19, Mayor Mike Duggan announced earlier this month. The city plans to install large photo boards with the submitted pictures along a route on Belle Isle.
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Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer argued for a national face mask mandate in an opinion piece published in the New York Times on Wednesday.
Citing various mask mandates from across the country, Whitmer said that wearing masks can “save lives and put ourselves in a better position to send our children back to school in the fall.”
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A Michigan high school is receiving backlash after it fired a teacher shortly after he tweeted “Trump is our president.”
Varsity baseball coach and social studies teacher Justin Kucera said that Walled Lake school district gave him the option of being fired or resigning after he had tweeted his support of President Trump and for reopening schools, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
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The State of Michigan is investigating whether new employees of the Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) are stealing funds from jobless residents, multiple media outlets report.
The workers are accused of stealing and charging clients to receive their benefits more quickly, WDIV reported. This is happening even as Michigan is among several states experiencing fraudulent claims being submitted, and they temporarily stopped payments.
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Applications are now open for $15 million in grants for Michigan farms and agricultural processors to offset damage done by the coronavirus pandemic, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development announced on Wednesday.
The Michigan Agricultural Safety Grant Program will allocate $15 million from funding from the federal CARES Act to farms and agricultural processors, with $10 million being provided to processors and $5 million provided to farms.
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Ali Alexander is something of veteran in the Republican digital game and he sees warning signs for the reelection of President Donald Trump–and he cannot keep quiet about. When Alexander was growing up he learned politics when his lawyer mother took him with her to phone-bank for local judges, but he said he did not start helping Republicans with websites and digital communications after the party lost the House and Senate in 2006, so 2008 was his first cycle. “I penned a piece criticizing the John McCain campaign during the primaries and they invited me onto the campaign,” he said. Back then, he said there were about 25 people working GOP digital communications and he was at the right place at the right time. Now, he is the old-timer, looking at a Trump campaign led by a first-time campaign manager, Brad Pascale, with a first-time leader of the Republican National Committee, Ronna McDaniel, he said. https://twitter.com/ali/status/1280586946352422914?s=20 Trump’s campaign advantages are not leveraged In the 2016 campaign, Pascale ran the Trump campaign’s digital communications and outreach from his offices in San Antonio, Texas, as the rest of the campaign was run out of Trump Tower. Before the Trump presidential campaign,…
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended Michigan’s coronavirus emergency and disaster declaration until August 11, per a new executive order signed on Tuesday.
The extension comes after every region in the state saw an uptick in confirmed cases of COVID-19, Whitmer’s office said. The order was issued under the Emergency Powers of the Governor Act of 1945.
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As of Monday, Michigan residents are required to wear a face covering while they are in an indoor public space or while in a crowded outdoor space, per an executive order signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday.
“The heroes on the front lines of this crisis have gone hours without taking their masks off every day – doctors, nurses, child care workers, grocery store workers. We owe it to them to wear our masks when we’re on a trip to the grocery store or pharmacy,” Whitmer said in a statement announcing the mandate. “Masks can reduce the chance of spreading COVID-19 by about 70 percent.
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Michigan State University administrator Stephen Hsu has resigned as vice president of research and innovation after a petition called for his removal over Hsu touting Michigan State research that found police are not more likely to shoot African-Americans.
Hsu had given a small amount of funding to the author of a 2019 study title “Officer characteristics and racial disparities in fatal officer-involved shootings.” The study had gained national recognition after it was cited by Heather MacDonald in the Wall Street Journal as evidence that systemic racism in policing is nonexistent, according to The Blaze.
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A federal judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit backed by the Michigan Republican Party that claimed restrictions on members of the redistricting commission in the state were unconstitutional.
The Michigan Republican Party and Tony Daunt, the executive director for the Michigan Freedom Fund, had originally submitted two separate lawsuits that later joined together claiming that the voter-backed redistricting commission violated their constitutional rights, including right to association.
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Michigan saw 460 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus announced on Friday, the second-highest number of new cases since June 1, according to analysis from BridgeMI.
The number follows Thursday’s 543 new cases, the highest number since June 1. The two-day total breaks the 1,000 confirmed cases mark.
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Requests for absentee ballots are up by nearly one million compared to 2016, an increase of 350 percent, according to the Michigan Secretary of State.
Compared to this time in 2016 — 35 days before the primary election —the number of applications for absentee ballots is up by 945,605. Michigan has issued nearly 1,006,000 ballots compared to just 283,731 in 2016. More than 35,000 have already been returned, compared to the a little more than 23,800 four years ago.
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Michigan restaurants and bars will now be allowed to sell to-go alcoholic beverages, thanks to a new package of bills signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday.
Bars and restaurants will now be able to sell drinks to-go, as well as deliver them, until December 31, 2025. Whitmer’s office said the bills are aimed at providing relief for restaurants and bars impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, according WXYZ.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a set of health and safety guidelines on Tuesday for schools returning to in-person classrooms among the pandemic.
The “MI Safe Schools Return to School Roadmap” outlines safety protocols for schools in each stage or reopening and includes information on the proper use of personal protection equipment, disinfecting, spacing in classrooms and identifying symptoms, among other things. Guidance is distinguished by phases and includes both required and recommended protocols.
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President Trump is standing up for Michigan workers and business owners at a time when our own lawmakers and elected officials have refused to do the same.
The riots that swept through America had a devastating impact on local communities throughout the country, including Michigan. In Grand Rapids alone, the radical Antifa thugs caused nearly $1 million in private property damage, as well as costing taxpayers over $1.3 million in police overtime and damaged municipal property.
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Ypsilanti Mayor Beth Bashert resigned on Tuesday after receiving criticism for controversial remarks about a Black city official during a virtual council meeting.
During a Zoom meeting on June 16, Bashert said that she would be “crucified” for not voting to reappoint city human relations commissioner Ka’Ron Gaines.
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A federal judge refused on Monday to pause an order to reopen indoor gyms in Michigan, despite Gov. Gretchen Whiter filing an appeal in a higher court.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Maloney ruled on Friday that indoor gyms could reopen on June 25. Gyms are not explicitly permitted in the MI Safe Start plan, which denotes when certain industries can reopen in Michigan. Maloney said in his opinion that gyms would be held to the same standard as other workplaces.
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Enbridge Inc. rebuffed a request from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to shut down Line 5 after one of the supports for the pipeline sustained damage, according to a statement released by the company on Saturday.
Enbridge owns Line 5, a set of two 20-inch pipelines running under the Straits of Mackinac that pump crude oil. The company notified the state on Thursday that an anchor support on one of the pipelines had “incurred significant damage,” according to a statement from Whitmer’s office. The damage was reportedly discovered on or around May 26.
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Indoor gyms in Michigan will be able to reopen this month after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders that continue to keep indoor gyms closed.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Maloney said in an opinion published Friday that the state had given a “blanket ‘trust us’ statement that is insufficient to uphold a no-longer-blanket rule.”
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The Michigan House of Representatives approved a concurrent resolution on Thursday demanding transparency from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer about information related to the coronavirus in Michigan and officially opposing her coronavirus nursing home policies.
Michigan only recently began publishing data about coronavirus cases and deaths in the state’s long-term care facilities like nursing homes.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday requested a major disaster declaration from President Trump in response to the flooding in mid-Michigan.
The failure of the Edenville and Sanford dams last month caused catastrophic flooding in Arenac, Gladwin, Iosco, Midland and Saginaw counties. Whitmer previously declared a State of Emergency for the area, as well as requested that the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy launch an investigation into the cause of the failures.
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Michigan schools will be allowed to reopen and hold in-person classes in the fall, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced on Wednesday.
Schools will be required to follow strict safety measures. Whitmer said she plans to release an executive order and a “Michigan’s Return to School Roadmap” on June 30 that will contain the requirements and recommendations for schools. It is currently unclear what those requirements may be.
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A bust of Christopher Columbus in downtown Detroit was removed by order of the Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan on Monday.
The 110-year-old statue is currently in storage, according to the Detroit Free Press.
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Overnight summer camps will now be allowed to meet beginning June 15, according to an executive order signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday.
Day camps were allowed to open on June 8 per an order from Whitmer handed down on June 1. The most recent order comes as the state continues to open various services and businesses, including restaurants, gyms, and salons.
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