Dr. Stephen Wellinski has been on the forefront of the battle to end the interlocal agreement between Eastern Michigan University and the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). EMU’s connection to Gov. Snyder’s failed experiment with Detroit students is a stain on an otherwise well-earned reputation as a university that teaches teachers and Dr. Wellinski’s leadership on this issue is an important […]

If you want to know how bad next year’s budget battles will be, check out EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy telling Politico‘s Mike Grunwald how she’s “pleased” that this year’s budget, which cuts her agency’s staffing to 1989 levels, only mildly guts her agency. Then, if you want to be eat-a-whole-gallon-of-cookie-dough-ice-cream depressed, read The Fiscal Times‘ David Dayen detailing how the […]

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Let’s get the word out: Obamacare is working. And getting covered is only the beginning. Regular readers of Eclectablog know that I’ve made it a personal mission to share as many Obamacare success stories as I can get my hands on, to educate Americans on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). I’ve been urging others to do the […]

This past week I have been mired in the aftermath of the Board of Regents meeting at Eastern Michigan University, where a politically appointed and partisan Board of Regents ignored the will of those in attendance, the thousands who signed a petition, mountains of evidence that prove that Educational Achievement Authority (EAA) is failing students in Detroit as well as […]

When Rick Perry says, “Running for the presidency is not an IQ test,” we laugh because he sounds like a big dummy. The Texas governor’s buffoonish stab at the 2012 GOP nomination was the rough draft of Dumb and Dumber To. In 2014, he’s wearing smart guy glasses and will probably have braces and a pocket protector by the time […]

The Tea Party of West Michigan (motto: “Influence policy, effect [sic] elections, protect the Constitution”) is a constant source of entertainment and amazement to me. They amaze me because of their impressive ability to turn out their supporters to contact their legislators to get things done according to their distorted worldview in Lansing. They are VERY good at doing this, […]

Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger wants you to believe that he’s found a magical way to fund road repairs without raising your taxes! While it’s true that your gas taxes and sales taxes won’t increase, the entire scheme is based on taking nearly a billion dollars more from schools each year. Local municipalities will take a huge hit, too. How […]

After years of going without or paying steep premiums, he finally has insurance that covers the care he needs. Tom admits he’s made some bad decisions in his life. But signing up for insurance under the Affordable Care Act is not one of them. He contracted hepatitis C after using intravenous drugs for the first time at age 15 — […]

In a 2011 paper published in the journal Nature, Elsa Cleland studied the impact of biodiversity on ecosystems. Her study concluded with this summary: Evidence from multiple ecosystems at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, suggests that biological diversity acts to stabilize ecosystem functioning in the face of environmental fluctuation. Variation among species in their response to such fluctuation […]

Some on the right seemed ecstatic when Rolling Stone disavowed its story about a sexual assault on the campus of the University of Virginia because of discrepancies in the account of a gang rape from a woman named “Jackie.” The article clearly lacked the ethical rigor necessary for exposing a rape accusation to the world. Katie Klabusich called it a […]