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These bins once held newspapers. Now they hold Narcan — and hope.
The path leading to the front porch of The Fledge, a community organization that works to empower disenfranchised residents in Lansing, is one flanked by apple and peach trees that anyone is welcome to pick from, meandering chickens and a mural emblazoned with the words, “You can’t put a band-aid on climate change.” Walking up […]
Michigan lawmakers pass ‘historic’ voting rights legislation: Here’s what it would do
After 60% of state voters in November approved a constitutional amendment making sweeping changes to Michigan elections, lawmakers this week passed legislation to enact those reforms and included $46 million in their Fiscal Year 2024 budget to implement the amendment known as Proposal 2. “This is a huge change,” state Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing), […]
Michigan Senate gives final OK to ‘suicide prevention’ legislation banning conversion therapy
Michigan is poised to become the country’s 22nd state to bar mental health professionals from performing conversion therapy on minors after the Senate on Tuesday gave final approval to legislation that advocates and Democratic lawmakers said will save the lives of LGBTQ+ youth. The legislation – House Bills 4616 and 4617 – that would ban […]
Michigan to receive $1.5B in federal funding to expand high-speed internet access
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. Calling it a “game-changing investment to expand access to reliable, affordable high-speed internet,” Whitmer said the funding from the federal Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program will […]
Nurses reach tentative agreement with McLaren Lapeer Region Hospital
Following 16 hours of negotiations on Friday and Saturday, the Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) and McLaren Lapeer Region Hospital reached a tentative contract agreement for nearly 250 unionized nurses. The nurses at the hospital in Lapeer, a town about 20 miles east of Flint, will hold a ratification vote on the proposed three-year contract this […]
A proposed Gotion plant has ‘turned neighbors and friends into enemies’
Updated 10:51 a.m., 6/26/23 The hundreds of acres where Gotion Inc. is planning to build a $2.36 billion electric vehicle battery component plant in Mecosta County is, in these early summer days, an expanse of green fields, blue sky and two-lane roads that lead to a divided community. In this rural county dotted by lakes, […]
‘A beacon of hope’: One year after Dobbs, advocates say Michigan leads on abortion rights
Hours after the right-wing U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended the country’s nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion on June 24, 2022, a heavy-hearted state Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D-Royal Oak) was talking to a group of organizers. “Even though we knew it was coming, it was just devastating,” McMorrow said. “I think […]
Doctors, parents urge lawmakers to pass legislation requiring lead testing for Michigan children
When Jackie Hernandez’s oldest son was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder and struggled in school after being exposed to lead, it was “the worst feeling in the world,” the Grand Rapids resident told a Michigan House panel on Thursday. “I remember feeling as if I was the worst parent in the world,” Hernandez said during […]
‘Nearly broke me’: Migrant workers accuse Michigan farm of trafficking, forced labor in suit
When Feliciano Velasco Rojas and Luis Guzman Rojas left their homes in Mexico and traveled to North Carolina for work in 2017, they did so to support their families and earn enough money to pay for sick relatives’ medication. Instead, they faced a nightmare situation in which they were trafficked from North Carolina to First […]
Trauma, healing and hope as stolen Native remains return home
“Nothing is sacred if it is old and non-white. Especially if it is buried in the ground,” reads a 1972 Nishnawbe News article featured alongside a photo of an uncovered mass gravesite. Written for the Native-run Northern Michigan University newspaper 50 years ago, the student author’s piece describes a public display in St. Ignace in […]
Sen. Moss introduces bills allowing clerks to fully process absentee ballots before Election Day
Michigan clerks may soon be able to process and count absentee ballots before Election Day should lawmakers pass newly introduced bills that sponsor state Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) said aim to deter the kind of election disinformation that exploded across Michigan in the wake of the 2020 election. “One of the biggest challenges for election […]
‘Everything is changed forever’: For Oxford, a never-ending nightmare follows a mass shooting
Updated, 10:51 a.m. 5/15/23 with additional information from Oxford Community Schools Oxford is not OK. Parents, community members and students have said that repeatedly. They said it in interviews for this story; they’ve described their pain during school board meetings; they’ve told school administrators and mental health counselors and the media. It’s a phrase, or […]