Focus West Michigan
Focus West Michigan for 6-27-24
(upbeat music) Today on Focus West Michigan, the state expanded its hotline for seasonal workers impacted by bird flu. West Nile virus has been detected in Kent County. Shelley Erwin takes a visit to Circle Theater on Living West Michigan, and more state and West Michigan news. For WGVU, I'm Joe Bilecki. Today is Thursday, June 27, 2024. (upbeat music) Focus West Michigan is brought to you by listeners like you to support this show and everything we do, visit WGVUnews.org and click the donate button. (upbeat music) State officials are expanding a hotline to help seasonal farm workers impacted by the recent outbreak of Influenza A. WGVU's Demorison reports. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is expanding its toll-free hotline for seasonal farm workers to include information on Influenza A. This is in response to two reported human cases involving farm workers interacting with sick cows, noting that two-thirds of Michigan's seasonal farm worker population speak only Spanish. The hotline provides information in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole with translation services available in other languages as well. The hotline is 833 C. Iuda, which translates to yes, help in Spanish and was launched in February, 2023. The department has a team of migrant program specialists who provide farm workers with information about available programs and services, offer medical transportation, and conduct home and camp visits. I'm Demorison. West Nile virus has been detected in mosquitoes in Kent County. WGVU's David Limba has more on how the discovery was made. The Kent County Health Department's mosquito surveillance team discovered West Nile virus as part of ongoing tracking efforts that take place throughout the county every summer. This latest round of testing discovered the virus in mosquitoes that were captured within the 49525 zip code. West Nile virus can spread to humans through mosquito bites and cause flu-like symptoms in about 20% of those infected. Most people with West Nile completely recover, but about one in 150 people develop severe illness that can affect their central nervous system, which can become permanent. In rare instances, the disease can be lethal. There is no vaccine or cure for West Nile virus. According to Brendan Earl supervising sanitarian at KCHD, the virus was discovered earlier than in previous years, indicating a need for heightened vigilance and preventative measures. He says it's crucial for the public to take precautions to reduce the risk of infection. To reduce your chances of being bitten, KCHD recommends wearing mosquito repellent, wearing bright colored clothing, and staying indoors at dusk, as well as removing anything from your yard that could collect water, a breeding ground for mosquitoes, and ensuring window screens and your home are in good repair. I'm David Limbaugh. Governor Gretchen Whitmer is ordering flags across the state to be lowered in honor of a sheriff's deputy who died in the line of duty. WGVU's Jennifer Moss has more. In honor of the life and service of Oakland County Sheriff's deputy, Bradley Wreckling, Governor Gretchen Whitmer has ordered U.S. and Michigan flags within the state capital complex and upon all public buildings and grounds across the state to be lowered to have staff on Friday. The Oakland County Sheriff's office says Wreckling was fatally shot last weekend while pursuing a suspected stolen vehicle in Detroit. In a news release, Governor Whitmer says, quote, "Deputy Wreckling was a dedicated officer, husband and dad who worked hard to keep his community safe." End quote. Deputy Wreckling had been with the Oakland County Sheriff's office for nine years and was assigned to the Auto Theft Unit. The governor's office says flags should be returned to full staff on Saturday, June 29. I'm Jennifer Moss. Plans to improve cell phone service with a new tower at Forest Hills Eastern Middle and High School have stalled. WGVU's Phil Dawson reports that the company picked to erect the tower is now no longer interested. Still a problem that needs solving. Forest Hills Public School Treasurer C.J. Michaud says the company Tower Ventures has informed the district they are withdrawing from the plan to erect a new cell phone tower on the campus of Forest Hills Eastern Middle and High Schools in Aida Township. Tower Ventures who was representing Verizon in this has retracted sort of their offer for partnership. Consultants consider lack of cell phone reception on the Forest Hills Eastern campus a security concern. But some residents have told the Board of Education they worry radio frequency electromagnetic fields around a new tower could be a health hazard. Doesn't mean that cell service is not the ultimate answer out there or something. It is still a priority. A lot of work has happened over the last couple of months to learn more. I'm Phil Dawson. Michigan's US Senator Debbie Stabenow announced new funding to help school-age children receive meals while they're on summer break. WGVU's David Limbaugh has more on how the funding will help. While visiting kids at Grand Rapids Boys and Girls Club Wednesday afternoon, US Senator Debbie Stabenow announced how she helped secure funding for summer meal programs for children throughout Michigan and across the country. The challenge actually for our country is that we have more than 44 million people who struggle with hunger every day. A million and a half are Michaudanders and one out of six kids in Michigan struggle with where they're going to have their next meal. This funding intends to bridge the summer hunger gap by providing meals for an estimated 900,000 students in Michigan and 21 million nationwide. Michigan is one of only eight states so far that has made it a priority to extend what we did during the pandemic for universal free meals for every child in school. Under this new initiative, funding has been expanded permanently every summer for all children through three types of summer meal programs, traditional summer meals where free meals are eaten on site at schools or daycare facilities, rural meals to go where a meal or multiple meals can be picked up or delivered to families living in rural areas, and summer EBT, a benefit for families participating in assistance programs like SNAP that provides $120 per child every summer to buy food when school is out. You can find out more about these new programs by calling 211 or texting food to 304304. I'm David Limba. State officials are lifting restrictions on youth showing animals at County Fairs, saying efforts are working to slow the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Michigan's poultry and dairy herds. WGVU's Dean Morrison reports. Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Director Tim Boring says Michigan is seeing a reduction in the spread of the virus and in new cases, but urges continued vigilance of biosecurity measures as youth fair season begins. Because the state went 30 days with no new cases detected in poultry, Boring is amending the current emergency order to allow animal exhibitions at County Fairs. Effective July 1st, cattle can be exhibited if they're not lactating or in the last two months of pregnancy and can be shown to have a negative virus test in the last seven days. Event organizers must keep a list of exhibitors with contact information for tracing purposes, if necessary. Fairs must have signs educating the public about biosecurity at the entrance and exit of every livestock barn and maintain proper hand washing stations. Event organizers are asked to limit the time livestock barns are open to the public and to encourage visitors to stay six feet from animals. All animals should be isolated for 30 days after exhibition. The amended emergency order is available online at michigan.gov/birdflu. I'm Dee Morris. - A bill to expand access to medical parole in Michigan is going to the governor, Colin Jackson has more. - Under the legislation, people in prison who are seriously disabled or terminally ill with a short life expectancy and are no longer considered a threat could potentially receive parole. Democratic Senator Erica Geis says it builds upon a 2019 law allowing for medical parole. - It wasn't robust enough to actually be able to be utilized only one person in that time has been able to meet all of the requirements for a medically frail parole. - Unlike the current law, the new proposal would allow medically frail people in prison the chance to be released to home care rather than a facility. Some Republicans have shared concerns about whether the bill has enough accountability measures. I'm Colin Jackson at the Capitol. - Landlords could not discriminate against tenants or prospective tenants who use housing vouchers or some other type of public assistance to pay rent under bills adopted early today by the legislature, Rick Plutta, reports. - The House gave final approval to the bills on party line votes. Democrats say how people pay the rent should not matter and that's especially true right now when housing is hard to find and expensive. But Republican Representative Andrew Fink says targeting landlords this way is the wrong approach. He says the problem is local zoning rules and other regulations that make building more expensive. - If we can address the causes of homes being expensive, then we can address the shortage because the only way to make housing really affordable is to make it abundant. - The bills now go to Governor Gretchen Whitmer for her signature. I'm Rick Plutta at the state Capitol. - Michigan's redistricting commission shows a new plan for the state's Senate districts yesterday. The map redraws six Metro Detroit State Senate districts that had been declared unconstitutional. It also redraws many others in the region to accommodate those changes. Commissioner Juanita Curry says the plan called Crane A-1 best serves the needs of Detroiters who had sued to invalidate the old plan as a racial gerrymander. - I talk to people all the time. I ran a church where people spoke in what they wanted and I know what they want in that area. And so the crane seems to represent what we need to be doing. - Critics of the adopted plan say it wasn't as popular and doesn't perform as well on rankings of partisan fairness as other proposed maps. The plan now heads to federal court for review. The legislature held an all night session to wrap up work early this morning on the new state budget. The legislature is now on its summer recess. Senator Sarah Anthony chairs the Senate Appropriations Committee. She says the budget reflects priorities set by the legislature's democratic majorities. - Things like water affordability, things like making sure we have an increase for direct care workers and obviously the school budget, making sure that we're putting more money into classrooms. These are things that we want to continue to do just to make sure that this is a people-centered budget. - Almost all Republicans voted against both of the main budget bills. There was a fight over the K through 12 schools budget. That is because there was no increase in the state's per pupil allowance. But districts are allowed to keep the savings from reduced payments to the school employee retirement system. - A new season of mutually inclusive is right around the corner. Join WGBU PBS hosts Kylie Ambu and Jennifer Moss this fall as they partner with West Michiganders to highlight our diverse communities and tackle some of the biggest issues facing West Michigan today from the housing crisis to race relations, dive into diverse cultures, experience new narratives and gain fresh perspectives only on mutually inclusive stories that connect us. (upbeat music) - On last night's episode of "Living West Michigan" on WGBU Public Television, Shelley Erwin took a trip to Circle Theater to look at how a performance comes together with those involved, including director choreographer, Josie Gonzalez and Caleb Cogswell. - We're taking you behind the scenes at Circle Theater where we're curious about George. (upbeat music) - Curious George and the Golden Meatball is kind of similar to the story that we know the books and the TV show. - George's friend, Chef Bischetti, has, well, you can eat meatball day, happens once a year. George is very excited about it. He's going to be a waiter, Phineas, who has invented this instant meatball machine, pops up and steals all of Bischetti's business. And he's discouraged and he doesn't want to cook meatballs anymore. - But in this particular production, George, ends up wanting to enter his friend, Chef Bischetti, into the Golden Meatball contest. - Which is all the way in Rome. So it leads everyone on a little bit of a cross-country adventure. - Executive Director Lynn Brown Tepper joins the conversation as well. - Circle Theater, here on the campus of Aquinas College. - Yes. - Give me a bit of the history of circle. You haven't always been here? - No, no. We started in 1953 and the first location was at the Old Row Hotel. Then the second one was at what was the Pantlen Hotel, which is now the Amway Grand Plaza. And then the location we were at for the longest, which is where I first became familiar with it, was at John Volzoo. And so we had moved there in 1964, and then we moved here on campus in 2003. - What makes Circle Theater special today? - We are so blessed with the level of talent that we have in this community of performers, of designers, directors, musicians. We have so many patrons that come to the theater, they can't believe it's community theater, performers that they're supporting their neighbors, and teachers, and dentists, and doctors, and all of these people who most of them have full-time jobs, and this is their second job, but a little bit probably more fun. - The Estruts, who plays Curious George, shared her experience too. - Tell us your character. - I am Curious George. When I was told I got the part, I was very excited because this is actually my first real community theater role. And I had always watched Curious George, like ever since I was like five, I was really obsessed with it. I watched the Halloween special with No Noggin, like year round. But yeah, I really wanted to audition for it because it really holds a special place in my heart. - How do you get the interest to get involved with Curious George in the Circle Theater? - So I have always loved doing theater for young audiences. Ever since I did a Charlotte's Web back in high school, and I just love it 'cause kids are the most honest audience members that you're gonna get. Like they will not lie to you about what they thought of the show and the impact that you could have on someone seeing their very first live performance. It's incredible. - I'm the director for the show. So my job is to kind of make the creative vision and all the creative decisions. I was in charge of casting and picking our awesome cast that we have. Yeah, and so it's really fun to get to create and kind of bring the story that everyone knows, but also kind of create this new story that is unique to the musical. - Director, choreographer Anne Marie Puzio talked about how she does her part to make the show come together. - Basically, she's in charge of the creative and I'm in charge of everything else. So I make sure that the creative and the technical aspects of the show just come together and become seamless. Usually a rehearsal process starts out with a read-through, sing-through, so we go through the whole show. And then it depends on the process of the director, but I like to start with music and really make sure that all of the actors are really solid on their singing and then we move into dance and kind of sprinkle the acting portions in between those so they can kind of bring everything together. And then at a certain point, we take all the different elements and kind of piece them together and put the show and it's like a puzzle, basically, putting all the pieces together and then getting to run the whole show and really making sure that everything smoothly connects with each other, so. - Check this challenge. That's a backwards change. - What is it about theater that once you've been on stage that makes you want to come back for more? - I think the experience that you have is unlike any other. First of all, in a show, you have different people coming together from all different walks of life, all different lived experiences. People that might not come together under any other circumstances other than this, and they all come in to do one thing together. And I always tell every cast, it's kind of like being the Beatles. You know, nobody else knows what it's like, except for you guys because you're the only ones creating this every single night, but it's also special for the audiences when they come because every single performance because it's live is unique and different and you won't see it the same twice. And you'll never be able to one audience isn't going to be able to get the same experience as another audience. And then for the performers on stage, the energy that they get from the audience, it's just, you cannot replicate a live experience, a live performance. - Our standing ovation's pretty cool. - They're pretty awesome. They're pretty awesome, won't lie about that. - Break a leg this season, Lynn. - Thank you so much, Shelley. - Living West Michigan airs every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on WGVU Public Television and can be found on the PBS app and WGVU's YouTube channel. (upbeat music) This has been Focus West Michigan from WGVU for Thursday, June 27, 2024. I'm Joe Bilecki. Our audio operations manager is Rick Bierling and our news and public affairs director is Patrick Center. We'll be back with more news and events in West Michigan tomorrow, wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)