Lansing

When the state began to reopen at the beginning of June, cases of COVID-19 began to creep back up with outbreaks linked to businesses and large gatherings.

One of those outbreaks is tied to popular East Lansing bar, Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub. As of Tuesday, the Ingham County Health Department has found over 170 total cases connected to the bar. 32 of them are secondary, meaning people who didn’t go to Harper’s themselves but got sick from someone who did.

After a white police officer killed George Floyd in May, there have been nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic injustice. Now, calls to defund the police have grown louder across the country.

In Lansing, one city council member is proposing cutting the city’s police budget in half over a 5-year period and redirecting that money to other public safety initiatives.

It’s been a month since a White Minneapolis police officer killed George Floyd.

In the weeks since, there have been nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic injustice. Calls for change are widely varied - from increasing implicit bias training, to fully defunding and dissolving police forces in favor of expanded social services.

It’s only been a few weeks since restaurants have been able to ditch curbside and fully re-open in-person dining in Michigan including at local staple, Lansing Brewing Company. But, reopening at LBC came to a screeching halt last weekend when someone who came in tested positive for COVID-19. 

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19 every year, commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. 

The first formal celebration of Juneteeth in Lansing was in 1993. This year, in-person celebrations have been cancelled due to the pandemic, but Lansing’s Juneteenth Committee is sharing a public service announcement to spread awareness about the holiday and what it represents.

Today, barber shops and salons in Michigan can start welcoming in customers again.

But in Georgia, where WKAR's Sophia Saliby is currently living, it’s been more than a month since they began to re-open.

To give Michiganders an idea of what their next cut and color or shave might look like, Sophia headed to her local salon in Atlanta.

51 years ago this month, police raided a gay bar in New York City called the Stonewall Inn. During the raid, patrons fought back when police got violent, and several days of riots followed.

The next year, the LGBTQ+ community commemorated those riots with a parade. Since then, Pride has been celebrated in June in honor of the first riot at Stonewall.

This year’s Pride in the Capital Region is different.

If you look at Michigan's official data on COVID-19 cases right now, you’ll see information on both diagnostic tests and serologic, or antibody tests.

Those antibody tests can show if someone has had a past infection of the coronavirus, though they can’t be used to diagnose COVID-19.

But prior to this week, data on both COVID-19 and antibody tests was reported together in the state’s database.

Thousands of Michiganders have been displaced after massive flooding in the Midland area mostly caused by the failure of the Edenville dam.

The dam had been the target of lengthy investigations by federal regulators up until the government revoked its license over safety violations two years ago.

Lansing Mayor Andy Schor has released a statement about how the city will respond to protests like this week’s “Operation Gridlock” if they reoccur.