FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

President Joe Biden is taking new steps to address racial inequality throughout the federal government.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration is asking the federal government to send more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to the state as cases continue surging.

LANSING, Mich. – In her last briefing before Thanksgiving, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her team were clear with their message, and favor, for next Thursday: do not gather with extended family and friends for the holiday. “By not gathering with people outside of your household this Thanksgiving, it is an act of kindness and love,” Whitmer said. “If we switch one in 10 of our out-of-state purchases to local stores, Michigan would gain $1.2. Local 4 checked with four testing sites this week in Oakland County and one had a next day appointment available and another had a nine-day wait.

DETROIT – Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Rep. Rashida Tlaib announced Wednesday they’re preparing to challenge the result of the 2020 Census. City and state officials argued that more time was needed to count due to the hurdles posed by COVID-19. The city of Detroit is in a lawsuit against the federal government to prove it counted Detroit properly. It is basically preemptively challenging the Census Bureau into proving Detroit was properly counted and thereby forcing congressional oversight over the Bureau. Click here to learn more about the U.S. CensusClick here to see more national and state census response data

Postal Service (USPS) initiatives that could impact the timely delivery of absent voter ballots for the November election are being paused until the election is complete. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in a statement Tuesday that in an effort to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, the USPS will continue its services as normal through the end of the election cycle. Record numbers of absent voter ballots have been requested and issued in Michigan and across the country for this years elections. The Postal Service is ready today to handle whatever volume of election mail it receives this fall, DeJoy said Tuesday. More: Q&A: Whats happening at the US Postal Service, and why?

DETROIT Community leaders and Michigans attorney general are weighing in on President Donald Trumps decision to send federal agents to Detroit. RELATED: President Trump announces plan to send federal agents to Detroit to quell recent violenceThe Local 4 Defenders have learned the plan to send agents has been in the works for months and the spike in crime was predicted. The federal agents brought in is phase two of Operation Relentless Pursuit and there have been other agents in the city working alongside police for months. Phase two is called Operation Legend.Attorney General Dana Nessel said she hopes the focus will stay on violent crime. RELATED: Surge of federal agents leaves many questions unansweredMore federal agents are expected to be in Detroit in late July.

DETROIT President Donald Trump announced he plans to send federal agents to Detroit as part of an initiative to quell recent violence in cities across the country. Trump announced the expansion of Operation Legend on Thursday by sending more than 200 federal law enforcement officers into Kansas City. Trump said Operation Legend is named after the boy. Over the next three weeks, the Justice Department plans to expand the operation into Detroit, Cleveland and Milwaukee, the White House announced. About 200 federal agents and deputy marshals will be permanently reassigned to the involved cities, Trump said.

DETROIT President Donald Trump initially announced announced he plans to send federal agents to Kansas City, Chicago and Albuquerque as part of an initiative to quell recent violence in cities across the country. Trump announced the expansion of Operation Legend on Thursday, adding Detroit, Cleveland and Milwuakee to the list. RELATED: President Trump announces plan to send federal agents to Detroit to quell recent violenceIn 2019, U.S. Attorney General William Barr came to Detroit to announce a partnership between multiple federal agencies called Operation Relentless Pursuit. The federal agents coming to Detroit will be a part of that. RELATED: Portlands mayor tear-gassed by US agents as protest ragesDuggan said federal agents assisting in getting illegal firearms off Detroit streets would be helpful. Trump has come under fire for the deployment of federal agents with elected officials questioning his motives.

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a news briefing at the White House at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday. It is believed that Trump will address the country’s coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Wednesday’s conference, but the White House has not confirmed the topic of the briefing. Wednesday’s briefing comes one day after Trump led his first White House coronavirus task force news briefing since April on Tuesday. The U.S. is currently seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases from coast to coast. COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have been increasing by about 400,000 new cases each week since June 29.

WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a White House coronavirus task force news briefing at 5 p.m. on Tuesday for the first time since April. The task force has held news briefings since then, but President Trump has not participated in them. Trumps resumption of the coronavirus task force news briefings comes as coronavirus (COVID-19) cases are spiking across the country. COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have been increasing by about 400,000 new cases each week since June 29. Texas reported an increase of 74,000 cases and California reported an increase of 64,000 additional cases in the last week.

DETROIT U.S. safety regulators are investigating problems with power steering that can stick on thousands of older General Motors SUVs. Investigators are looking into whether repairs made by GM under the extended warranty actually solved the problem with the electric power steering system. In a statement, GM said it's cooperating in the probe, but it does not consider the issue to be a safety problem. The issue is a slight feeling of friction in the steering system that can be an annoyance to customers, the statement said. The safety agency said the probe stems from an owners petition to investigate the matter that was filed in December of 2016.

Whitmer called to testify before US House subcommittee about COVID-19 responseDuring her testimony Whitmer called on the federal government to help states to provide widespread COVID-19 testing to residents. COVID-19 testing has since increased significantly in Michigan with more testing sites available and broader testing criteria required to receive a test. However the governor says federal assistance is required to ensure supplies are available more consistently and reliably as the state prioritizes COVID-19 testing. Governor Whitmer announced Monday that the entire state can begin partially reopening businesses under the phased reopening MI Safe Start Plan. The states COVID-19 case and death numbers have been increasing at the slowest rates since March.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury and IRS released figures on the current status of U.S. economic impact payments on Friday. The federal government is providing economic impact payments -- also known as stimulus payments -- to residents in response to financial hardships faced by Americans amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Officials expect to deliver more than 150 million payments in total. The Treasury released a document that shows the number of economic impact payments provided within each state and their total dollar amounts. The document says 4,081,884 payments have been distributed among Michiganders amid the pandemic, totaling $7,045,417,642 as of Saturday.