The group behind the petition drive intends to work with the GOP Legislature to evade a veto by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Critics say it’s another GOP effort to use public money for private schools that runs afoul of the Michigan Constitution.
The Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association is flush with a $5 billion surplus. State law would call for refunds beginning in 2022, but Whitmer wants them now.
Amanda Hedges-Harrison is among 22,000 people who accepted Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s offer of tuition-free community college. Cost is only one reason that busy adults, many with children and jobs, don’t complete degrees.
The FDA authorized the Pfizer pediatric vaccine Friday, following recommendations from its advisory committee. Next up: CDC consideration Tuesday, which means the vaccine could be authorized for young children by the end of next week.
The fight has just begun as Republicans circulate a petition for identical legislation to tighten Michigan’s voter identification law, limit absentee ballot application mailings and bar private grants for election administration.
The pandemic has produced an outdoors renaissance with huge traffic at state and local parks. It now appears the Democratic governor and GOP legislature largely agree on spending hundreds of millions of dollars to address long-deferred maintenance.
The Pfizer pediatric vaccine, shown as 91 percent effective for children 5 to 11, cleared an FDA advisory panel Tuesday. Gov. Whitmer is seeking to expedite shipment of the vaccine, which could be approved by next week.
The GOP measures blocking mask and vaccine orders are likely DOA if they reach Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Republicans say the bills give parents control over health decisions. Democrats say they ignore science.
The Michigan governor has a $12 million war chest, in part because she’s used a controversial loophole that allows candidates facing recalls to exceed donor limits. The top Republican candidate has $1 million.
Amid continued criticism over the state’s jobless claims processing, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Monday appointed a new director for the embattled Unemployment Insurance Agency.
Republican lawmakers decried the Whitmer administration’s response to Benton Harbor’s lead-in-water crisis as a failure while state officials defended their actions Thursday. National Republicans are also entering the fray.
Senate Oversight Committee Chair Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, is looking into state environmental regulators’ response to elevated lead levels first detected in the city’s drinking water in 2018
Some $3.4 million from excess donations would have to be returned or donated if recall petitions against the governor fail, according to a court filing from fellow Democrats.
Gretchen Whitmer has her veto pen ready as Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature gives final approval to bills that would tighten voting and election laws. But the GOP is ready too: They’re already circulating petitions to go around her.
The state’s stepped-up timeline follows pressure from local water activists who argue state and local government officials have been too slow to respond to lead-tainted water that has plagued the city for years.
The Democratic governor says she’ll require contractors to pay workers union wages on state projects. Lawsuits likely as Republicans repealed a similar mandate in 2018.
Critics of the bill — part of a 39-bill election package pushed by Republicans — say it amounts to voter suppression by disproportionately impacting Black and low-income voters who tend to vote for Democrats.
Canada argues a 1977 treaty between the nations leaves Gov. Gretchen Whitmer powerless to order Line 5 shutdown. A lawyer for Canada asked a federal judge to halt the lawsuit until diplomats can talk.
The Democratic governor says the bills were ‘designed to undermine confidence in our election system.’ One sponsor calls her vetoes a ‘slap in the face.’
