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Monday, April 6 marks the 500th anniversary of the death of master artist of the High Renaissance Raphael, celebrated in his own day as a genius, for his countless, beautiful Madonnas, for the Disputa and School of Athens, and for his final painting, The Transfiguration, which towered over the bed in which he died in Rome in 1520. It was Good Friday, and, coincidentally, his 37th birthday. 

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer suspended in-person learning for the remainder of the school year under an executive order, on Thursday, April 2.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan public school buildings will be closed but districts will recieve most, if not all, of their alloted funding from the state. 

  Last week, hospitals in the Detroit area reported being at full capacity.

The state asked hospitals to make room for any COVID-19 patients that might need to be transferred. It suggested hospitals to increase the number of Intensive Care Unit beds to 10 to 20 percent and prepare an emergency plan.

Now, some northern Michigan hospitals are making room for possible transfers.

Non-profit organizations in northern Michigan are among those hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Dave Mengebier is the president and CEO of the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation. He says more people depend on nonprofits for essentials during this crisis, but it’s a really tough time for those organizations to raise money. 

A $500,000 grant from the state will support businesses in the 10 counties of northwest lower Michigan affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

About that same amount is also available through a new loan program from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

As coronavirus continues to spread in Michigan, the pandemic puts the state's blood supply at risk.

Bars and restaurants across Michigan are closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That means many chefs and cooks are out of work and have time to spare.

One cook in Traverse City is using that time to feed those in need.

Grand Traverse County reports there are two residents with COVID-19 who likely became exposed in the community.

One woman in her 70s had not travelled or had contact with any known person with the disease, a county health department investigation found. She is currently in the hospital.

The county anticipated it would see community transmission eventually, Grand Traverse County Health Department Medical Director Michael Collins said in a release.

If you’re traveling to Grand Traverse County, please quarantine yourself. That’s the message from the Grand Traverse County Health Department. It's requesting a 14-day self-quarantine for anyone coming to the county from areas with high numbers of COVID-19 cases.

In January there was an unusual line-up of planets at one place in the zodiac that included the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Saturn, and Pluto. Since then, they have all moved on, but due to the varying speeds of the planets in their orbits, it will appear to us that they all make a retrograde or backward motion, which will result in another meeting of planets in the same degree of the zodiac as in January, only the players will be slightly different. This time, it will only be Jupiter and Pluto.

School officials in Michigan will have to make some tough decisions very soon about the rest of the school year. One of them is whether to send layoff notices to teachers and other school staff who aren’t working.

That would save money for later in case the school year is extend to make up for days lost due to the COVID-19 outbreak.