| September 3, 2021 
 As fatal shootings surged this summer, Flint began closing city parks at sundown. In Saginaw, the police chief pleaded for people to put guns down after a rash of violence, which included separate shootings that wounded two 4-year-olds. In Grand Rapids, an early morning shootout at Sixth Street Park, downtown along the Grand River, grabbed headlines for the sheer volume of shots fired. Police recovered 118 shell casings from 20 different firearms. In the second summer of COVID-19, calls to defund police have been muted by gunfire with those in neighborhoods most affected asking for more police – even offering driveways or porches for cops to stop, authorities say. READ MORE  Michigan’s standardized test results released earlier this week gave a peek into how virtual and hybrid classes during the COVID-19 pandemic affected student learning. The M-STEP, the state’s federally mandated student assessment test, saw a decrease in test scores along with lower participation rates from previous years, according to a news release from the Michigan Department of Education. The test score percentage of students considered “proficient or above” dropped between the 2018-2019 and the 2020-2021 school year in every eligible grade for math, social studies and science, and third through seventh grades for ELA. READ MORE  As COVID cases climb, a respiratory therapist breaks down the seven stages of illness that occur when a patient is facing a severe case: "With the fourth wave of the pandemic in full swing, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, the trajectory of the patients I see, from admission to critical care, is all too familiar. When they’re vaccinated, their COVID-19 infections most likely end after Stage 1. If only that were the case for everyone. Get vaccinated. If you choose not to, here’s what to expect if you are hospitalized for a serious case of COVID-19." READ MORE ►Doctors say pregnant women are 15 times more likely to die from COVID. But the vaccine can help.
 College football is back! Tonight, Michigan State heads to Northwestern and then the Wolverines take on Western Michigan tomorrow inside the Big House. Who will start the season with a W? We have everything you need to read (and listen to) to get pumped for the football action:  Getting ready for a long weekend? Here's some helpful weather info from MLive Chief Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa: "The holiday weekend is going to feel a touch more like fall than it will like summer. It does depend on where you are going to be for the weekend. We are in the time of year when far northern Michigan could have much cooler temperatures than far southern Michigan. As far as rainfall goes, it will be wetter the farther north you are located. Even in the wettest part of Michigan this weekend, it will only be off and on light rain showers. As we move into far southern Lower Michigan, you might not have much rain at all, if any." READ MORE ►Enjoy chatting about the forecast? Join our Michigan Weather Facebook group Get your local news 24/7 Connect with MLive
To ensure receipt of our emails, please add newsletters@update.mlive to your address book or safe sender list. | ||||||||||||||||||
