Latest Gretchen Whitmer News

Workers in protective suits administer coronavirus tests at a COVID-19 testing site for those who were potentially exposed to the coronavirus at a wholesale food market in Beijing, Wednesday, June 17, 2020. As the number of cases of COVID-19 in Beijing climbed in recent days following an outbreak linked to a wholesale food market, officials announced they had identified hundreds of thousands of people who needed to be tested for the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

The Latest: China rejects food imports after virus detected

Jul. 10, 2020 10:47 PM EDT

BEIJING — New coronavirus cases have dropped sharply in China, and authorities are turning their attention to concerns that the virus could spread through imported food. Those worries have risen since a June outbreak in Beijing that was linked to the city’s largest wholesale market. Testing has...

Des Moines Public Schools custodian Tracy Harris cleans chairs in a classroom at Brubaker Elementary School, Wednesday, July 8, 2020, in Des Moines, Iowa. Getting children back to school safely could mean keeping high-risk spots like bars and gyms closed. That's the latest thinking from some public health experts. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Schools or bars? Opening classrooms may mean hard choices

Jul. 9, 2020 10:15 PM EDT

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — President Donald Trump insists that schools reopen this fall. Many parents, educators, doctors and economists want the same thing. But getting children back to school safely could mean keeping high-risk spots like bars and gyms closed. A growing chorus of public health experts is...

FILE - In this Feb. 15, 2019, file photo, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra speaks at a news conference in Sacramento, Calif. The U.S. Department of Education is attempting to take pandemic relief funds away from K-12 public schools and divert the money to private schools, California and four other states argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, July 7, 2020, against the Trump administration. Becerra and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced the lawsuit, which was joined by Maine, New Mexico, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli, File)

States sue US department over virus relief funds for schools

Jul. 7, 2020 6:44 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education is attempting to take pandemic relief funds away from K-12 public schools and divert the money to private schools, California and four other Democratic-led states argued in a lawsuit filed Tuesday against the Trump administration. California Attorney...

FILE - In this early Friday, May 29, 2020 file photo, a protester carries a U.S. flag upside, a sign of distress, next to a burning building in Minneapolis. Protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody Monday, broke out in Minneapolis and across the country. The U.S. has been dramatically disrupted in a matter of months, brought low by a global pandemic, Depression-era economic dislocation, and then, nationwide unrest over racial injustice. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

AMERICA DISRUPTED: Troubles cleave a nation, and a city

Jul. 7, 2020 3:13 PM EDT

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — It was difficult to celebrate America in Saginaw this year. The deadly coronavirus had torn through the county. Unemployment had surged five-fold. Weeks of protest over racial inequality left many debating what should be hallowed and what must be changed. But Tom Roy had given it his...

FILE - In this May 29, 2020 file photo, two cars are flipped over after major flood damage, in Sanford, Mich. Sanford village, with a population of 859, is pulling together after the devastation of two dam failures in May. Volunteers are still clearing muck and providing supplies to those whose homes were destroyed since there's no telling when major state and federal help will come.(Kaytie Boomer/The Bay City Times via AP File)

Michigan village starts flood recovery, awaits funds

Jul. 4, 2020 9:57 AM EDT

LANSING, Mich (AP) — Jenna Hulse was at work out of town as a nurse when she got a message from her brother that a dam three blocks from her house in the Michigan village of Sanford was failing. Six feet (2 meters) of water entered the home, and though Hulse said she’s lucky that the house she's...

FILE - In this June 22, 2020, file photo, a bartender pours a beer for a customer at Shade Bar NYC in New York. Authorities are closing honky tonks, bars and other drinking establishments in some parts of the U.S. to stem the surge of COVID-19 infections — a move backed by sound science about risk factors that go beyond wearing or not wearing masks. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

Closing bars to stop coronavirus spread is backed by science

Jul. 2, 2020 12:05 AM EDT

Authorities are closing honky tonks, bars and other drinking establishments in some parts of the U.S. to stem the surge of COVID-19 infections — a move backed by sound science about risk factors that go beyond wearing or not wearing masks. In the words of one study, it comes down to the danger of...

Health officials disinfect an area around a hospital after one of the hospital's patients tested positive for the new coronavirus in Gwangju, South Korea, Wednesday, July 1, 2020. South Korea is considering including religious facilities on the same list with nightclubs, hostess bars and karaoke rooms as

The Latest: South Korea worries as virus resurgence spreads

Jul. 1, 2020 10:41 PM EDT

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea says it has confirmed 54 more COVID-19 cases as the coronavirus continues to spread beyond the capital region and reach cities like Gwangju, which has shut schools and tightened social restrictions after dozens fell sick this week. The figures reported Thursday brought the...

In this May 19, 2020, photo, Kyle Froelich, right, hands a customer a carryout six-pack of beer at Good Time Charley's in Ann Arbor, Mich. Michigan restaurants and bars could sell cocktails and liquor for pickup or delivery and would see a temporary cut in state liquor prices under fast-tracked legislation that supporters hope will help the industry survive the coronavirus pandemic. The state already lets bars and restaurants sell unopened beer and wine to go. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Michigan governor closes indoor bars, allows to-go cocktails

Jul. 1, 2020 9:51 PM EDT

LANSING, Mich (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that she was closing indoor seating in bars in parts of the state, including a college town where one brewpub has been linked to about 140 infections. Whitmer also signed a bill allowing bars and restaurants to sell to-go cocktails in an...

This June 2020 photo, shot from a television screen provided by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy shows damage to anchor support EP-17-1 on the east leg of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline within the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan. Enbridge who provided the photos to the state of Michigan, last week said an anchor support on the east leg of the pipeline, right, had shifted. A Michigan judge Wednesday, July 1, 2020, allowed Enbridge to resume pumping oil through the pipeline, nearly a week after shutting it down because of damage to the support. Enbridge's Line 5 moves crude oil and liquids used in propane from Superior, Wisconsin, to Sarnia, Ontario, passing through parts of Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas. (Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy via AP)

Michigan judge allows restart of disputed oil pipeline

Jul. 1, 2020 6:16 PM EDT

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge Wednesday allowed Enbridge to resume pumping oil through a Midwestern pipeline, nearly a week after shutting it down because of damage to a structure that anchors a section of the line running through a Great Lakes channel. Enbridge's Line 5 moves crude oil and...

FILE - In this June 25, 2020, file photo Democratic presidential candidate, former Vice President Joe Biden pauses while speaking during an event in Lancaster, Pa. Biden and his leading supporters are stepping up warnings to Democrats to avoid becoming complacent. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Democrats warn against overconfidence in fight against Trump

Jun. 27, 2020 12:37 AM EDT

President Donald Trump is entering the final four-month stretch before Election Day presiding over a country that faces a public health crisis, mass unemployment and a reckoning over racism. His Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, is raking in cash. And a series of national and battleground polls suggests growing...

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