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Provider relief fund needs change

How is it possible for Congress to approve as much as $3.3 trillion in epidemic-related aid to Americans ­— the amount already provided ­— without ensuring at least that the health care network was made whole? It is, apparently. Nearly 240 members of Congress have signed a letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar regarding a change made in one aspect of the relief funding program. It is the Provider Relief Fund. The idea behind the PRF was just what the name implies — aiding the health care network to keep providers safe and to ensure they ...

Census is more important than we realize

By March or April, it was clear the 2020 Census would be much more of a guessing game than in decennial population counts. COVID-19 has seen to that. Our whole society has been disrupted in multiple ways. Responding to Census questionnaires has been the last thing on the minds of millions of Americans. Doing all that is possible to obtain an accurate count of the people living in our country clearly has not been uppermost on the minds of many federal officials, either. The decision to stop information collecting a month early makes that plain. Evidence is mounting that this ...

Sometimes change is a good thing

Sometimes, change is necessary. Four years ago, we as a country chose change over the status quo. We made a decision to move away from a career politician in Hillary Clinton to a businessman, whom many of us had seen on television. The country felt like he was a better choice in nurturing the recovery of our great nation from the economic crisis of 2008. Today, voters have a chance to do so again. You can vote for the current U.S. Senator, Gary Peters, or his Republican opponent, John James. James, as he states on his web site, is a “soldier, job-creator and patriot.” The ...

It’s time to make your vote count

There’s nothing more frustrating than a last-minute rules change. But that’s exactly what voters face after a three-judge panel at the Michigan Court of Appeals decided to overturn a lower court’s decision about how and when absentee votes should be counted. The Friday afternoon ruling effectively prohibits elections clerks from counting any mailed ballots that are postmarked before Election Day but arrive after polls close. The judges reversed a lower court ruling that would’ve allowed clerks to count any ballots postmarked prior to the election, but because of mail ...

Enforcement effort is part of School Bus Safety Week

Law enforcement officers throughout Michigan will be ramping up patrols of motorists illegally passing school buses. Operation Safe Stop is part of national School Bus Safety Week, which runs October 19-23. In 2019, nearly 2,100 citations were issued to drivers for failing to stop for a school bus, the most in the last 10 years. “We learn it as kindergarteners; red means stop. It’s as simple as that,” said Michael L. Prince, director of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning. “Even with remote learning happening throughout the state, buses are still on the road. When ...

We need to be ready for recovery

We Americans, collectively, were not ready for the coronavirus epidemic. We ought to be ready for the recovery. It will begin when a vaccine against COVID-19 becomes available. Though a timeline for that is uncertain, it appears safe, effective vaccines will be available early next year. Understandably, it will take longer than that for the protection to be accessible by most people. At first, vaccines will have to go to those most in need of them. The list includes health care workers, first responders — and nursing home residents. Federal health officials have begun developing ...