Michigan News

NEW:  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer just announced that the Dept. of Health and Human Services is extending the "pause" in the state for a dozen more days on certain activities to limit the spread of COVID-19. The partial shutdown impacts some businesses and schools. Whitmer says the extended order, due to end Dec. 20, will enable the state health department to assess how Thanksgiving travel affected the spread of COVID-19. In-person instruction at high schools, dine-in eating at restaurants and organized sports will continue to be prohibited. Entertainment venues such as movie theaters and bowling alleys will remain closed. The administration has identified key metrics it will use to determine whether to slowly reopen after Dec. 20, and its priority will be reopening high schools.

The Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Admin. (MIOSHA) says it inspected and issued COVID-19 citations to nine Michigan businesses, including one in Berrien County. MIOSHA says the businesses were cited for serious violations for failing to protect workers and take safety precautions. 

In Berrien County the following business was cited: 

HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) — The senior pastor of a church in western Michigan has encouraged his congregation to catch the coronavirus to “get it over with” and calling it “all good.” The Holland Sentinel reports that Bart Spencer made the statements during a Nov. 14 sermon at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Holland. The sermon was posted on the church's website and shared on Facebook. Spencer later told the newspaper that he and several members of his family contracted the virus and have recovered. As of Thursday, 380,343 virus cases have been confirmed in Michigan.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Republican lawmaker is pressing Michigan to lift an order closing all high schools to in-person instruction due to the coronavirus, saying the decision should be left at the local level. In a hearing Thursday, Sen. Kim LaSata told Robert Gordon, director of Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services, to let parents and schools decide about face-to-face classes. High schools and colleges can only provide virtual classes under the order.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer is urging Michigan Republican activists to pressure, even threaten, the GOP-controlled Legislature to award the state’s 16 electoral votes to Trump despite Democrat Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory. Rudy Giuliani made baseless claims of “massive fraud, all over the country,” before he was expected to testify before a Republican-led legislative committee Wednesday night. Attorney General William Barr has declared the U.S.

The Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) has issued emergency suspensions of the liquor license and permit held by the Silver Beach Hotel in St. Joseph for alleged multiple violations of the current Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) Emergency Order.

The violations of the order include allowing non-residential, in-person gatherings; providing in-person dining; failure to require face coverings for staff and patrons; and failure to prohibit patrons from congregating.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan’s acting unemployment director has told lawmakers that her office is trying to strike a balance between quickly paying benefits to jobless workers and preventing fraud. Liza Estlund Olson said Wednesday that  impostor claims are rampant in a backlog of approximately 90,000 cases. Olson took over the Unemployment Insurance Agency less than a month ago after the previous chief, Steve Gray, fell out of favor with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

DETROIT (AP) — A judge has refused to block Michigan’s ban on indoor dining during a surge in coronavirus cases. Federal judge Paul Maloney says a “plausible explanation” for the state order exists: People can’t eat or drink without removing their mask, a step that could spread the virus. Maloney turned down a request for an injunction with a week left in the three-week indoor dining ban. Restaurants fear that the steady loss of customers could put them out of business. They also fear a possible extension of the order by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration.

JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan couple who was married for nearly 50 years died seconds apart from the coronavirus. The couple died on Nov. 24 in Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital in Jackson. Leslie and Patricia McWaters spent a week at the hospital after getting sick with COVID-19. Their daughter said her mother visited a doctor two weeks ago after “feeling poorly," and when she went back home, her dad ended up getting it. They both got progressively sicker and on Nov. 17 took an ambulance to the hospital. Leslie and Patricia were cremated, and a future service is being planned.

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Undergraduates at Michigan State University will be required to live on campus a second year as part of efforts to help students toward graduating. The school says a 2-year living requirement waived since the 1980s will be reinstated next fall. An analysis by Michigan State’s Office of Institutional Research shows undergraduates who live on the East Lansing campus their first two years have graduation rates about 2.5 percentage points higher than those who live on campus only their first year.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer acknowledged Tuesday that it’s becoming more difficult to get people to follow mask, distance, and gathering guidelines to slow the spread of COVID-19. That’s as her top health advisor warned that a new wave of infections is likely following Thanksgiving gatherings.

PORTER TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a house fire that killed two people in southwestern Michigan over the weekend. In a Sunday statement, he Cass County Sheriff's Department identified the two who died in the Porter Township fire on Saturday as 69-year-old Patricia Cloud and 37-year-old Brandon Cloud.  The statement said the two were unable to escape from the home and died of injuries from the fire. It did not include a possible cause of the fire.  The Porter Fire Department was called to the location near the state border with Indiana at just after 5 p.m.

The St. Joseph Co. Prosecutor's Office has released information regarding skeletal remains found over the weekend in a creek bed in the North Liberty area.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — State leaders are asking Michigan residents to beat lines and avoid crowds by shopping at local small businesses on Black Friday. The Michigan Economic Development Corp. is encouraging shopping, eating and traveling locally through a new “Support Local” campaign in order to make sure small businesses make it through the winter. One in five jobs in Michigan are in the retail industry, according to the Michigan Retailers Association. It says that in 2017, Michigan residents spent $18.5 billion on out-of-state retailers.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says her office is investigating threats against election officials in Wayne County, where two Republicans voted against certifying the results last week before reversing course.

The Michigan Board of State Canvassers has voted to certify the results of the November 3rd election. The vote was 3 in favor and one abstention. One Republican joined both Democrats for a bipartisan majority, Certification formally awards Michigan's 16 electoral votes to President-elect Joe Biden. Allies of Pres. Trump and losing GOP Senate candidate John James had urged the panel to delay voting for two weeks to audit votes in heavily Democratic Wayne County, home to Detroit.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield says President Donald Trump didn't ask the state's Republican lawmakers to “break the law” or “interfere” with the election during a meeting at the White House. Chatfield was among several GOP legislators who met with Trump on Friday, amid Trump's longshot efforts to block Biden’s win. Chatfield's comments to Fox News about the highly unusual meeting came a day before canvassers plan to meet on whether to certify Joe Biden’s 154,000-vote victory. Michigan’s election agency has recommended that the Nov.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is trying to leverage the power of the Oval Office in an extraordinary attempt to block President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. But his pleas Friday to Michigan lawmakers to overturn the will of their constituents appear to have left them unswayed. Trump summoned a delegation of the battleground state’s Republican leadership in an apparent extension of his efforts to persuade judges and election officials in the state to set aside Biden’s 154,000-vote margin of victory and grant Trump the state’s electors.

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) — A judge has declined to stop a three-week ban on indoor dining in Michigan, the latest coronavirus restriction imposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration. Federal Judge Paul Maloney says a restraining order isn't appropriate, especially when the state hasn't had a chance to respond to the lawsuit. The Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association sued to try to stop the indoor dining ban that began Wednesday. The group said restaurants can take further steps to minimize the coronavirus without cutting off customers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Michigan state legislators are headed to the White House as President Donald Trump makes an extraordinary and sure-to-be futile attempt to block Joe Biden's victory in the battleground state and subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election. The state has yet to certify its results for Biden, who won Michigan by 154,000 votes. Trump and his allies have been trying to convince judges and lawmakers in the state to set aside the popular vote and swap in Republican-chosen electors.

DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump has summoned Michigan’s Republican legislative leaders to the White House for a meeting Friday. The meeting comes amid a longshot GOP push to overturn the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the battleground state. Two people familiar with the matter tell The Associated Press that Trump invited Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield. They agreed to go, according to a state official aware of the leaders’ plans. The two officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan high school football championship games would be played after Christmas if the state allows fall sports to resume. Sports are on a three-week break in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus. Football playoffs would resume Dec. 15, with championship games set for Dec. 28-29 at Ford Field in Detroit. Eight-player football championship games would be played Dec. 21-22 at Midland Community Stadium. Volleyball quarterfinals would be held Dec. 15, followed by the finals on Dec. 19 in Battle Creek.

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Wildlife officials in many states are issuing lots more hunting and fishing licenses this year — apparently because of the coronavirus. Americans who are weary of being cooped up at home and wearing masks elsewhere are taking refuge in outdoors sports that offer safety and solitude. In Michigan, the number of people getting hunting licenses for the first time in at least five years has jumped 80 percent. The trend has reversed a steady decline in hunting’s popularity that once appeared permanent.

NEW (Nov. 18):

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan’s largest county has unanimously certified election results showing Democrat Joe Biden defeating President Donald Trump, hours after Republicans first blocked formal approval of voters’ intentions. The initial move was quickly condemned by Democrats, election experts and spectators at the Wayne County Board of Canvassers online meeting as a dangerous attempt to block the results of a free and fair election. The ultimate resolution in Wayne County propels Biden toward formal victory in Michigan, but Tuesday’s chaotic developments are likely to sow more doubt among Trump’s supporters in the election results.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan Education Association survey finds a majority of educators in Michigan have safety concerns and don’t believe their schools will be able to return to in-person learning in January. It found 74% of educators prefer some level of virtual learning for now. Almost half of the 47,040 educators who responded to the survey said they felt their concerns were not addressed in their school district’s plans for reopening or virtual learning. The state teachers' union wants to see this change and get teachers more involved in the decision making.

Today Michigan health officials announced that as the coronavirus has surged, so has the spread of gonorrhea. 

The Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association has filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services order banning indoor dining service. The order was issued following a surge in COVID-19 cases in Michigan. 

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says she has the authority to issue a second stay-at-home order to curb the spiking coronavirus if necessary and called a comment by an adviser to President Donald Trump urging people to “rise up” against the state's latest restrictions “incredibly reckless.” The Democratic governor spoke with reporters Monday, a day after announcing restrictions amid a surge of COVID-19 cases that has led to increased hospitalizations and deaths.