On Equal Pay Day, marking the day when white women will have earned the same amount on average as men have at the end of 2020, the Michigan Progressive Women’s Caucus announced a package of bills Wednesday to address the state’s gender wage gap and form a commission on pay equity within the Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
A proliferation of low-wage and hourly jobs with few or no benefits, depleted savings and rising household costs in Michigan paved the way for a state where nearly four in 10 workers were struggling to make ends meet going into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Michigan Association of United Ways reported Tuesday.
In his first week in office, President Joe Biden paused new oil and gas leasing on federal lands as his administration reviewed fossil fuel development policy. Now that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has taken office, the administration is gearing up to begin that process. A forum comprising the energy industry, conservation groups, labor organizations and others will meet virtually March 25 in the first public event of the review.
The U.S. Department of Education announced Wednesday the $122 billion in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding that will go to states “to support their efforts to reopen K-12 schools safely this month and equitably expand opportunity for students who need it most.”
The new child tax credit expansion is temporarily bringing more money — through both monthly cash payments and tax returns — to families across large chunks of the income spectrum, including those who have been financially hurting the most, both during and before the pandemic.
According to a Wednesday COVID-19 data update from Sarah Lyon-Callo, director of the DHHS Bureau of Epidemiology and Population Health, Michigan has the ninth-highest number of cases and the 10-highest case rate in the U.S. in the last seven days.
In honor of Sunshine Week, Julie Stafford, president of the Michigan Press Association (MPA) Board of Directors and publisher of the Greenville Daily News, writes about why the idiom "No news is good news" is rarely true, and why good journalism is critical to democracy and a functioning society.
Multiple companies and nonprofit groups are working to create “vaccine passports” — smartphone-based apps that would allow someone to certify that they’ve been vaccinated. The apps so far are aimed at travelers, who may be required to show proof of their vaccination status before boarding a plane or entering another country
Mark Brewer, longtime Michigan elections lawyer and former Michigan Democratic Party chair, told the Advance Tuesday that a new ballot initiative expanding the state’s 1976 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) represents the best opportunity yet to achieve significant transparency.
State lawmakers have introduced bills in March on topics ranging from expanding unemployment benefits to protecting members of the LGBTQ community from discrimination to barring employers from requiring workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
A NOTE FROM OUR EDITOR
Become a monthly donor today
A monthly donation of $5 or more can make a difference.
