Health Care
Governor signs bills aimed at addressing prescription drugs, protecting vulnerable adults
On Friday, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a number of bills including policies aimed at reducing prescription drug costs, protecting vulnerable adults from sexual abuse and coercion, and establishing institutional desecration as a crime. House Bill 4276, sponsored by Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) seeks to increase transparency and expand oversight of costs tied to prescription […]
Whitmer signs repeal of nation’s only immunity law that shielded drugmakers from legal liability
With the stroke of a pen, Michigan’s one-of-a-kind law that prevented state lawsuits against drug manufacturers, is no more. On Thursday morning in Flint, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a repeal of a nearly 30-year-old law that gave drug manufacturers immunity if their drugs caused harm for Michiganders. “Imagine if the prescriptions you take […]
CDC director in Detroit: ‘COVID is still causing the most number of hospitalizations’ in Michigan
During a visit to Detroit on Thursday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Mandy Cohen encouraged Michiganders to be vaccinated for COVID-19 as well as a flu shot as Americans celebrate the holiday season and the winter months approach. Cohen said over the course of the several days that there have been about […]
Settlement secures additional $110 million supporting Michiganders with disabilities
Earlier this week the National Center for Law and Economic Justice (NCLEJ) and Disability Rights Michigan announced a pending settlement that, if approved, will bring more than $110 million in state spending to Michiganders with intellectual and developmental disabilities who rely on Medicaid Community Living Support services. While subject to Legislative and other approvals, the […]
Whitmer signs specific criminal penalties for assaulting health care workers into law
Violence against health care workers has been on the rise in the U.S. for years, with many individuals in the field marking a particular uptick during the COVID-19 pandemic. But a bipartisan package of bills in Michigan signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, creates specified criminal penalties for assaulting health care […]
When foster care kids are sex trafficked, some states fail to figure it out
When she was a 10-year-old foster child, T Ortiz often rode a public bus around the San Francisco Bay area, alone. She’d frequent a bus stop by a barber shop. Little by little, the barber, who was 15 years older, befriended her, she said — buying her snacks and meals, giving her attention, gaining her […]
Resolution of the abortion issue will be a seminal test for our democracy
Shrouded in hypocrisy, entangled by complexity and ensnarled in a battle for control, the abortion issue will be a real test of the structure of our democratic form of government. Will there be a new overarching federal law along with specific state laws governing abortion? It is a central focus in the 2024 presidential election, […]
Survey finds strong support for legislation aimed at further restricting and reducing tobacco use
A package of tobacco prevention legislation has strong support among Michigan voters surveyed in a telephone poll over the summer. That’s according to Keep MI Kids Tobacco Free Alliance, a coalition of more than 120 public health organizations and associations, hospital systems and education groups, including the Michigan Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics […]
Susan J. Demas: How Michigan became the progressive powerhouse of the Midwest
For years, Michigan was a national laughingstock, as bad news stalked the state like the villain in a bad ‘80s horror film. There was the one-state recession of the early aughts, thanks to the bruised auto industry that almost collapsed during the Great Recession that followed, and two partial state government shutdowns. Then came Republicans […]
Businessman Sandy Pensler joins jammed GOP field for Michigan U.S. Senate seat
Saying he wants to take the “Senate back from the morons,” Grosse Pointe Park businessman Sandy Pensler is making another run for U.S. Senate, announcing via a video Friday morning that he has joined the race for the Republican nomination to replace Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow of Lansing, who announced earlier this year she would […]
DeSantis and Newsom clash in TV debate, charging each other with lies and bullying
Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gavin Newsom from California, two of the nation’s most well-known governors who sit on opposite sides of the ideological spectrum, engaged in a fiery 90-minute debate on Thursday night from Alpharetta, Georgia, which was broadcast live on the Fox News Channel. The stakes were undoubtedly higher for DeSantis, 45, who […]
Column: Studies, class-action suit link hair relaxers to cancer. Black women are at risk.
When I saw reports about a National Institutes of Health study that found women who used chemical hair straighteners known as relaxers were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer than those who didn’t, a sulfur-scented flashback zapped me back to my first experience getting my hair relaxed. I was 10 or 11, […]