News

COVID-19 forces restaurants to rethink business model

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Michigan restaurants don’t look as they used to before COVID-19. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s stay-at-home order leaves restaurants with only one option to continue the business, and that is through carry-out orders. 

Without customers at their tables, hundreds of restaurants across the state have placed their employees on furlough. For the remaining few, hours have been shortened. Some have temporarily closed until the order is lifted. Some will never open again. 

Portage, Michigan

At Red Lobster in Portage, Michigan, 17-year-old Sarah Sweers is a hostess who worked part time after school and on the weekends.

Article

‘Local government is where the rubber hits the road:’ how local governments are responding to COVID-19

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In Michigan, all eyes are on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to see how she responds to the COVID-19 outbreak. But when it comes to searching for an end to the pandemic, it’s local governments that are on the front lines, said Mason Mayor Russell Whipple.

“This problem will not be solved by the federal government, or the state government, or even the county government,” he said. “It’s going to be solved by local governments, because local governments are going to be the ones that have to actually deal with the day-to-day. We take directions from the state and county health departments. But we’re the ones that make it happen.”

News

Sports never stops. At least it never did.

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COVID-19 has sidelined many professions including those in sports. Senior athletes in college and high school are feeling the effects as spring seasons are canceled in response to this crisis.

Community News

Senior living homes implement measures to protect residents

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Signs like this are posted all around Rose Senior Living in Novi. Photo: Sophia Lada

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials and senior center care workers in the Midwest are implementing new policies and activities to best protect older adults considered at-risk of becoming severely ill from COVID-19. 

Approximately two and a half million older adults live in assisted living or nursing homes in the U.S., according to The National Center for Biotechnology Information. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 776,093 cases in the U.S., resulting in 41,758 deaths, among those cases up to 11% of senior citizens have lost their life to the virus. Hospitals are taking specific precautions on older adult patients, making sure they are as safe as possible. Sydney Phipps, a scribe at Sparrow Hospital, wrote in a text about the experiences of at-risk patients.

Article

COVID-19 disrupts hands-on training of nursing students in Michigan but veteran nurses question safety of training during crisis

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Shannon Sexton is finishing up her fourth semester in Saginaw Valley State University’s five-semester nursing program. She plans to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing in December, which means her clinical rotation and hands-on experience have shifted to virtual environments that are a less desirable learning experience. Sexton said students at SVSU aren’t allowed to assist in hospitals. “The lack of hands-on education is frustrating, especially since I’m so close to graduation,” she said via email. Her internship over the summer working on-on-one with a nurse in a hospital is now an online simulation.

Article

Lansing prom shop is determined to have something for the seniors

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High school proms all over the state have been canceled because of COVID-19, meaning seniors are missing out on one of the last special nights they had left with all of their childhood friends. But a Lansing business is making it their priority to give them that night back — eventually. Pierre’s Bridal, Prom and Tuxedo is used to seeing its upstairs prom section full of high school girls looking for that special dress from March to June. But now the store is empty and temporarily shut down. Co-owner Sarah Samson got the idea to still hold a prom somewhere, just a little later than most high schools had originally scheduled, for seniors in the Mid-Michigan area.