The unbearable costs of Republican politicians pandering to their base Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette is wasting taxpayer agenda to join another partisan lawsuit designed to stifle the agenda of a president his state overwhelmingly supported twice. The Detroit News reports: Led by West Virginia, the states are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit […]

Yesterday I wrote about a report from the Center for Media and Democracy that showed how 25 proposed charter schools in Michigan received $1.7 million in tax dollars but never actually opened. It turns out that one of those schools was the Detroit College Preparatory Academy, the brainchild or “dream” of a woman named Natasha Baker. Here’s what Baker’s dream […]

The worst irony of our political system is that the party that wants to gut Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid — the three programs that have combined have cut the senior poverty rate from about 35 percent to about 10 — is in only power because of the votes of senior citizens. It’s time to change that — or at […]

On September 29th, conservative Republicans in Congress spent over five hours interrogating and badgering Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards over selectively edited video that distorts the truth about what Planned Parenthood does. Despite being treated shabbily by the men on the committee she testified before, often interrupted and prevented from answering questions, she handled it with finesse and aplomb. Yesterday, […]

This week, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a scathing report on charter schools in 12 states which have received federal funding. The report, titled Charter School Black Hole shows that Michigan charter schools received $34,997,658 between 2010-2015 under the federal Charter School Program (CSP). 139 of the 297 charters (as of 2014, the number is up to […]

“Only the Michigan GOP could look at crumbling roads, underfunded schools and struggling communities and think, ‘You know what? We need LESS revenue’.” That quote from Progress Michigan executive director Lonnie Scott sums up what happened last night in the state legislature perfectly. After more than two and a half years of wrangling to find $1.2 billion annually that experts […]

This afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden announced that he will not be running for the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election. His speech made me a bit weepy when I read it. Then I watched the video and got teary-eyed again. While I think he ultimately made the right decision, I have nothing but admiration and affection for Joe […]

Bipartisan legislation would require hospitals to staff enough nurses to care for patients. This is something you’d think everyone could agree on: There should be enough nurses on a hospital’s staff to give patients the quality care they need. But if you’ve ever been in the hospital, you know that’s not always the case. And it’s downright dangerous. Numerous studies […]

In April of 2014, under the direction of Flint Emergency Manager Darnell Earley, the City changed the source of its drinking water from the Detroit water system (drawing from Lake Huron) to the Flint River. The move was touted as a cost-saving measure which would save $7 million annually. However, there were problems from the start. High levels of bacteria […]

When it comes to healthcare, decisions should be left to women and their doctors — not legislators. Every story has at least two sides, but in the case of the October 13 meeting of the Michigan House Criminal Justice Committee, one side stuck to facts while the other focused on ideology. And when the topic is the health and safety […]

It’s a been a while since we checked in on Michigan’s two most “special” political candidates (and by political candidates, I mean disgraced former state legislators trying like hell to get their jobs back at a place where almost nobody wants them) so I thought we would check in. First up, we have Cindy Gamrat holding a fundraiser last night. […]