Here are nine officials charged in Flint water crisis
A total of nine people many of whom are connected to the state s 2014-15 response to a Legionnaires disease outbreak were charged Thursday by Attorney General Dana Nessel s office in relation to the Flint water crisis.
For three former state of Michigan officials, the charges are new. For the six others, charges have been resurrected after Nessel s office in 2019 dismissed all pending cases authorized by her predecessor, Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette, and started the investigation anew.
Those charged range from a former two-term governor to a Flint public works director, from emergency managers to top state officials. Even a maternal infant health specialist was arraigned.
Governor Whitmer has announced that she wants schools to begin reopening by March 1st. Battle Creek schools plan to return grades K-5 to full in-person classes starting next week.
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
The end of November marked the 45th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act going into effect. The federal law enshrined the idea that every child with a disability is entitled to a meaningful education that is as inclusive as possible. Even though time has changed many perceptions of what students with disabilities can achieve, many people have been dissatisfied with the progress we’ve made in fulfilling the vision.
This year’s experiences with pandemic learning have only mounted the frustrations.
The sudden onset of COVID-19, with its many unknowns, challenged schools’ ability to help students with special learning challenges. Many people, including the Onyx family in Oakland County, have pleaded for face-to-face educational opportunities, calling them indispensable. Both of their children need consistent access to aides and therapies that were suddenly denied to them when school buildings closed in the spring.
The Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission has appointed Michigan Court of Appeals Judge Karen Fort Hood as chair, making her the first Black woman to head the panel, the JTC announced Tuesday.
The Judicial Tenure Commission is an independent state agency responsible for investigating Michigan judges and addressing ethics, judicial misconduct and incapacity against them.
The late Michigan Appeals Court Judge Harold Hood, who was chair of the commission from 1988-1990, was the first and only other African-American to chair the lead the panel in its 52-year history. Karen Fort Hood and Harold Hood are not related to one another.
This is the second time Karen Fort Hood has broken racial barriers as a judge. In November 2002, she became the first Black woman be elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals. A former Detroit Public Schools teacher and probation officer, Hood was elected to the former Detroit Recorder’s Court bench in 1992.
All Michigan school districts should offer in-person learning by March 1, Whitmer says
By Jack Nissen
LANSING, Mich. - Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state health department is strongly encouraging school districts to offer in-person learning to pre-k12 students on March 1.
The state said its goal is to have all districts in the state offering learning in the classroom by no later than the beginning of March.
Whitmer pushes for schools to return to in-person learning on March 1
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer wants Michigan schools to be available to be in-person by March 1 or sooner but stopped short of ordering them to do so.