Looking back at 2020 on the Ann Arbor city beat and what’s ahead in 2021
Updated Dec 31, 2020;
Posted Dec 31, 2020 This is so cool! one of these two cyclists exclaimed after passing through Ann Arbor s new riverfront tunnel pathway completed in 2020.Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News
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ANN ARBOR, MI It was a year filled with bright spots and not-so-bright spots, both progress and turmoil, and it was a year most will never forget.
Set against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter demonstrations and the political drama of the U.S. presidential election, here’s a look back at some of what happened on the city beat in Ann Arbor in 2020, with a look ahead to 2021.
Through pandemic, floods and protests, these Michiganders helped all of us weather 2020
Updated on Dec 30, 2020;
Published on Dec 28, 2020
20 Michiganders who stepped up in 2020 are pictured in this composite image.
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A pandemic. A 500-year flood. A summer of clashes between activists and police. In a year that turned much of what we know about the world on its head, everyday Michiganders stepped up and navigated crisis after crisis.
Some were motivated by keeping people safe. Some were nudged into new roles, or saw their current roles take on more meaning. Some challenged conventional wisdom, pushed our buttons or taught us things. But every Michigander on this list had an impact on how our state made it through its worst year on record.
5 ways the state Legislature helped Michiganders in 2020
Updated Dec 23, 2020;
Posted Dec 23, 2020
The Senate Chambers pictured at the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing on Thursday, April 25, 2019.Neil Blake | MLive.com
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LANSING, MI - Michigan Capitol politics in 2020 perhaps will perhaps be best defined by conflict over state power and COVID-19.
Legislative Republicans led by Speaker of the House Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, battled Gov. Gretchen Whitmer all year on her legal authority to create COVID-19 legislation. They sued her administration, successfully invalidating her executive orders in the Michigan Supreme Court.
She countered with public health orders from the Department of Health and Human Services. Republicans passed bills to limit the timeline of those orders and want to create committees that can unilaterally suspend any rule or regulation from the Whitmer administration.