President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” tour took form in Grand Rapids on Wednesday morning as lawmakers and community leaders peered into a pit in front of the home of Paige Biek and her family.
Michigan lawmakers passed a $82 billion Fiscal Year 2024 budget Wednesday, with $24.3 billion of those funds dedicated to the state’s school budget.
Since The Fledge began offering free Narcan about eight months ago, Jerry Norris, The Fledge founder, has witnessed an increased demand for the spray that’s helping to address an opioid epidemic that in 2022 killed close to 83,000 people in the United States and at least 2,532 people in Michigan.
“This is a suicide prevention bill, period,” Equality Michigan Executive Director Erin Knott said in a prepared statement. “With 15% of Michigan’s LGBTQ+ youth reporting being threatened with or subjected to conversion therapy, this historic effort to end conversion therapy is literally life-saving for LGBTQ+ young people in our state."
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.
The committee heard from election officials and experts on the eight bills that would, among other things, create a minimum of nine days of early voting, provide prepaid postage for certain election documents and require absent voter drop boxes.
More than 500,000 people across 11 states have lost their Medicaid coverage since the unwinding of a policy that allowed people to stay in the program throughout the pandemic.
HB 4596, sponsored by state Rep. Betsy Coffia (D-Traverse City), seeks to improve youth voter turnout by pre-registering at a younger age.
Currently only Maryland and New York have statewide bans on declawing cats, with various cities around the U.S. banning the practice on a local level. More than a dozen states currently have bans introduced in their legislatures.
As the U.S. Supreme Court approaches a ruling on President Joe Biden’s proposal to forgive a portion of student loan debt, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has instructed various state agencies to explore cost-cutting mechanisms for borrowers in Michigan.
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