How to Tea Party like it’s 2009 If you’re not a member of the electoral college, you’re probably wondering what you can do to resist the coming of the least qualified, most unpopular president of our — or likely any American’s — lifetime. Since most of us aren’t professional pundits but play them on the internet, we spend much of […]

A new state computer program used between October 2013 and October 2015 determined that tens of thousands of unemployed Michiganders were attempting to defraud the state with bogus unemployment insurance claims. The penalties that were assessed created a huge surplus in the unemployment insurance fund so Republicans yesterday tapped that money to fill the budget hole created by years of […]

Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education, the anti-public schools billionaire Betsy DeVos, has gotten the attention of an important coalition of Democratic U.S. Senators. They are asking that DeVos pay the $5.3 million in fines and fees that she owes to the state of Ohio going back to 2008 when her All Children Matter Political Action Committee (PAC) was […]

The Snyder administration was recently ordered to resume bottled water delivery in Flint by a federal judge. In his order, U.S. District Judge David Lawson said that Gov. Snyder’s contention that “the current method of ‘delivery,’ whereby Flint residents must find a way to retrieve their own drinking water, and can use water filters that may or may not be installed […]

Without insurance, Mark would have put off the care he needed to save his tooth. Sometimes, it’s the little things. Mark admits he’s not one of the people whose lives have been saved by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare. But having insurance did save his tooth. The 26-year-old, who lives in Portland, Oregon, is a bike commuter because […]

The following essay was written by Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat who was reelected to a second term. Prior to serving as County Clerk, Byrum represented the 67th District in the Michigan House of Representatives for three terms. She is renowned for being banned from speaking on the House floor for saying “vasectomy;” for performing what has been […]

What started out as a typical lame duck session where legislative Republicans ram through scads of laws aimed at harming workers, restricting voting access, and benefitting corporations has started to calm down in the waning three days of the current session in Michigan. After backing down from diminishing the retirement benefits of first responders and teachers, it appears that other […]

We all do better when we all do better In a few short weeks, Michigan has fallen from being part of the “blue wall” to a state that some suggest Democrats should give up on in favor of sunbelt states like North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia. Nothing would be more depressing if life weren’t a Golden Corral filled with things […]

If insurance companies are allowed to deny coverage for people with pre-existing conditions as they did in the past, her story could be very different. Sarah was born with a pre-existing condition: a club foot. One of her feet was facing the wrong direction, a birth defect that required two surgeries by the time she was two years old. Surgeons […]

We all know President-Elect Donald Trump is not a big fan of the First Amendment. During the campaign, the Republican complained it has “too much protection” for free speech. He’s routinely targeted journalists at rallies and on Twitter as an intimidation tactic. After winning the election, Trump’s first tweet took aim at people protesting against him, which he whined was “unfair.” A […]

A column written last year by Stephen Mucher, Director of the Master of Arts in Teaching Program at Bard College, has attracted a lot of attention from those concerned about the health and vitality of public education. And for good reason. Mr. Mucher mentions the recent history of campus protests across the country, which he says he has noticed on his […]