Nana nah nah, nana nah nah, hey hey hey, good-bye… The Washington Post‘s The Fix blog is keeping track of the governor races across the country and maintains a list of the top 15 most likely to change parties. The last time they ranked the states, Michigan was at number six. Today, we’ve cracked the top five. All of which […]

I do believe the Democrats were told to go Cheney themselves In the dead of night last night, Michigan House Republicans passed a bill that would allow the state government to dissolve small school districts facing financial crises. The bills, House Bills 4813 (and a companion bill 4815), was originally introduced in a bipartisan fashion by Democrat David Rutledge of […]

Michigan’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ deserves better than this

In May of this year, Gary Abud, a science teacher at Grosse Pointe North High School, was chosen as Michigan’s 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year by State Superintendent Mike Flanagan. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a teacher who has only been at it for six years. Well-respected by both his students and his coworkers, Mr. Abud was a worthy choice.

To reward him for his outstanding achievement, the anti-union corporatist Mackinac Center — an ALEC and State Policy Network affiliate that is funded, in part, by the Koch brothers — did a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out how much money Mr. Abud makes. Once they found out, they proceeded to use him to promote passage of House Bill 4625, a bill I call the “‘Teach to the Test’ Teacher Pay Act”.

Click through for my interview with this amazing educator.

This is truly an outrage The Tampa Bay Times teamed with The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN to create an exhaustively-researched list of the fifty worst charities in the country. What you’ll read in the Times‘ reporting and CNN’s reporting will blow your mind. From the Times: Carol Smith still gets angry when she remembers the box that arrived […]

The Dick Cheney of Michigan? Immediately after he was elected in 2010, Michigan governor Rick Snyder brought Richard Baird on board to be his “Transformation Manager”. It’s a new title and position for the state of Michigan and is paid for from the governor’s secret-donor slush fund called the New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify Fund (NERD). Baird, who had […]

Wow, they are getting seriously desperate As I have written about before, Governor Rick Snyder has a pal of his working in the office next to his. Rich Baird is not paid by the taxpayers of Michigan. He’s paid out of Governor Snyder’s New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify Fund (NERD). This slush fund is financed by undisclosed corporate donors, […]

Draped in a flag, carrying a cross The funny thing about so-called “small government” Republicans is their hypocritical desire to pass more and more laws, many of them with no purpose (like the Senate resolution that was passed last week “to express support for the state of Michigan officially recognizing September 19, 2013, as International Talk Like a Pirate Day”.) […]

Save Michigan’s Public Schools

As I wrote about yesterday, two friends of mine, Rochelle Noel and Betsy Coffia, have organized a huge rally in support of Michigan’s public schools. It happens next Wednesday, June 19th, 2013.

Last night, Rochell and Betsy appeared on the Night Shift with Tony Trupiano radio show to talk about the rally. Tony will be the Master of Ceremonies at the rally. Listen to it after the jump.

Working America is the largest coalition of non-union workers in the country. In fact, although it is a project of the AFL-CIO union membership precludes you from being a Working America member yet their ranks are swelling. This week, my pals at Working America unveiled a new website called FixMyJob.com. The site is simple to use; a series of screens […]

ForProfitSchoolsFirst Last month, I wrote about yet another Republican attack on teachers in the form of House Bill 4625. This bill, as I said then, would make teachers’ pay primarily based on student progress. Current law says that teacher pay should be using job performance and job accomplishments as a significant factor. House Bill 4625, introduced by Republican Pete Lund, […]

Who knew we had six wind energy scientists in the state legislature? Six Michigan Republicans have decided that Michigan shall not have wind energy installations on the Great Lakes. Why? Not, supposedly, because they are against renewable, clean wind energy. No, it’s because they have decided that (a) it’s not feasible and (b) we should never conduct studies to determine […]