Michigan Lottery players should check their tickets to see if they’re the lucky winner of a $25,000 a year for life Lucky For Life prize.  A lucky player matched the five white balls drawn – 15-18-25-31-35 – in the Jan. 1, 2018 drawing to win a $25,000 a year for life prize. The player purchased the winning ticket at the Picnic Basket, located at 49471 Ann Arbor Road in Plymouth.  The winner has two choices to collect the big prize:

• Annual payments for a minimum of 20 years or life, whichever is greater, or
• A one-time lump sum cash payment of $390,000

The winner should contact the Michigan Lottery Public Relations Division at (517) 373-1237 to schedule an appointment to collect the big prize. The prize must be claimed at the Lottery’s headquarters in Lansing.   Lucky For Life tickets are valid for one year from the drawing date. Since Jan. 1 is a state holiday, the prize must be claimed by 4:45 p.m. on Wednesday. If the prize isn’t claimed before the ticket expires, the money will go to the state School Aid Fund.  For just $2 per play, Lucky For Life gives Lottery players a chance to win prizes ranging from $3 to a lifetime of cash. To win the game’s top prize of $1,000 a day for life, players must match all five winning numbers ranging from 1 to 48, plus one Lucky Ball ranging from 1 to 18. Players who match all five winning numbers, but not the Lucky Ball, will win $25,000 a year for life.   Lucky For Life drawings take place every Monday and Thursday at 10:35 p.m. Tickets may be purchased at Lottery retailers across the state.

About 97 cents of every dollar spent on Lottery tickets is returned to the state in the form of contributions to the state School Aid Fund, prizes to players and commissions to vendors and retailers. In the 2018 fiscal year, the Lottery provided more than $941.2 million for Michigan’s public schools, its fourth record contribution in row. Since it began in 1972, the Lottery has contributed more than $22 billion to support public education in Michigan. For additional information, follow the Michigan Lottery on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and online at www.michiganlottery.com.

This past Sunday, December 23, Chesterfield Police officers responded to Rosie O’Grady’s on 23 Mile Road east of Interstate 94 after gunshots were reported from the parking lot, where they found a twenty-year old Shelby Township man with a gunshot wound to his face.  Jason Lemar Jennings, 38 of Clinton Township has been charged by Macomb County prosecutors with assault with intent to murder, a felony punishable by up to life, and felony firearm, a two-year felony.  A handgun believed to have been used in the assault has been recovered.  Jennings was arraigned Wednesday with a scheduled court date of January 2^nd.  He is currently being held in the Macomb County Jail.  Officers say the two were involved in a pushing and shoving altercation that moved outside and into the parking lot.  The alleged victim entered his vehicle and began to drive, when the rear window was shattered and he was stuck in the face by a bullet or glass fragments.  Investigators found the suspects through witness interviews, credit card receipts and video surveillance.

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA) announced recently they are seeking feedback on guidelines designed to standardize the process of evaluating emergency department patients in psychiatric crisis and reduce barriers to accessing inpatient psychiatric services.  The guidelines for the Medical Appropriateness for Psychiatric Admission Guide were developed as part of a larger statewide effort known as Michigan Inpatient Psychiatric Admissions Discussion (MIPAD). The document provides a framework for the medical assessment of individuals who are in psychiatric crisis and present at the emergency department.  “Securing inpatient psychiatric services for individuals presenting in emergency departments has become increasingly complex and time consuming over the last decade,” said Dr. George Mellos, MDHHS’s director of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities Administration. “As part of a growing trend in Michigan and across the nation, psychiatric patients most in need of inpatient services often face the longest wait to transition to an appropriate care setting.”   The trend, commonly referred to as emergency department boarding, occurs for a host of reasons. In Michigan, the MIPAD workgroup identified medical clearance – the clinical process of performing a medical, surgical and/or psychiatric evaluation on an individual presenting in an emergency department – as one of the barriers to timely access to inpatient psychiatric services. Upon further evaluation, the MIPAD workgroup reached the following conclusions:

• The requirements for the medical clearance process vary significantly from hospital to hospital.
• Disagreements between emergency department clinicians and admitting providers over whether an inpatient psychiatric unit can provide appropriate and safe care to individuals with co-occurring conditions frequently leads to breakdowns in the admissions process.

To address the medical clearance barrier, MDHHS and MHA convened a multidisciplinary clinical workgroup comprised of nurses, doctors and specialists in emergency medicine, psychiatry, psychology and pediatrics, along with administrative experts in hospital management and state policy officials. The workgroup studied literature and research on medical clearance and its impact on psychiatric care and gathered input from other state experts to develop the draft framework which has been issued.    Feedback is currently being sought on the guide. Once finalized, MDHHS, MHA and the workgroup will work to support the adoption of standardized practices related to medical assessment across emergency departments and hospitals with psychiatric units.  Going forward, MDHHS will work to coordinate these efforts with other statewide activities for addressing behavioral health services and care under the Michigan Psychiatric Care Improvement Project (MPCIP).  Additional information about the Medical Clearance Workgroup and the MPCIP can be found on theMDHHS website.

Blue Water New Year’s Eve 2019 will be held Monday, December 31, 2018 at the Blue Water Convention Center in Port Huron.  The event has been billed the BIGGEST and BEST annual New Year’s Eve Party in Port Huron. The Blue Water Convention center offers a 20,000 sq. ft. ballroom for eastern Michigan’s only Chicago-Style Mega New Year’s Eve Bash.  Entertainment will include DJs Lee Illee Hoffman – Robbie Khabbaz – Matt Gossman from Ultimate Sounds Entertainment Group There are a variety of packages you can choose from which include the VIP all inclusive dinner package that takes you through the entire evening with food and drink along with reserved seats for the evening with those beautiful views of the St. Clair River and Blue Water Bridges.  There is a Blue Water Party Pass which does not include dinner, and a late night pass that allows entry at 9 p.m. for the evening with cash bar and midnight snacks and the Midnight Blowout!  Tickets may be purchased at
BlueWaterNewYearsEve.com

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) recently confirmed the first influenza-associated pediatric death of the 2018-2019 flu season. Influenza claims the lives of children every year across the United States, which is why MDHHS is urging residents to get vaccinated for protection this season.  The reported death involves a child from Osceola County who was infected with influenza A/H1N1.Nationally, there have been six influenza-associated pediatric deaths reported during the 2018-2019 flu season.  Flu is a contagious respiratory disease caused by different strains of the influenza virus and can result in mild to severe illness. Although Michigan has only experienced localized flu activity over the past few weeks, MDHHS strongly recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older get a seasonal flu vaccine. Flu vaccine is the best way to prevent against getting the flu and can also reduce the severity of flu illness.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), last year’s flu season was estimated to be the deadliest since the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. More than 79,000 deaths were attributed to the flu, 185 of which were children. In Michigan, two children died last year due to flu-related complications.  A majority of the positive influenza specimens confirmed by MDHHS Bureau of Laboratories this flu season have been an H1N1 virus.  During the 2017-2018 flu season, only 39.5 percent of Michigan residents were vaccinated against flu, below the national rate of 41.7 percent.  Vaccine is especially important for persons at increased risk for complications from flu, including children, adults aged 65 years and older, persons of any age with underlying medical conditions, and pregnant women. Children less than 6 months of age are too young to be vaccinated and need to be protected by vaccination of their close contacts, including parents, siblings, grandparents, child care workers and healthcare personnel.  There is still plenty of flu vaccine available. To find flu vaccine near you, call your healthcare provider, local health department, or check the Health Map Vaccine Finder atFlushot.healthmap.org. For more information about the flu, visit Michigan.gov/flu.