Okay THIS is kind of creepy. Michigan residents have enjoyed or endured a roller-coaster year in terms of weather, and they’re not alone. Roughly 3,000 monthly weather records — covering rainfall, snowfall, extreme temperatures, fires or drought — have been broken in areas across the country this year, according to data released Thursday by the Natural Resources Defense Council. That […]

I sat down for an interview with Lansing Community College Professor Bonnie Bucqueroux a couple of weeks ago to talk about citizen journalism and blogging in Michigan (and in general). Professor Bucqueroux has posted the interview in two parts at her blog Occupy Journalism as well as at her site Michigan Online News. I’m very pleased with the videos she […]

Last night, on his MSNBC show, Ed Schulz finished the evening with a piece about the Emergency Manager issue in Michigan. One particularly interesting point made by Rev. Alexander Bullock from the Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church of Highland Park, MI and also of Rainbow Push Detroit was that Emergency Managers can take control of the Clerk’s office when they […]

[Bumped due to update.] MIRS News has this tantalizing snippet on their front page this morning: The Gov. Rick Snyder administration is working with legislative leaders on a bill that would create an interim Emergency Manager (EM) law in case the state’s new EM statute, P.A. 4, is suspended through a potentially successful referendum process.” UPDATE: The Detroit Free Press […]

Back August I wrote about how the Snyder Administration had hired John Covington to run a new group called the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). The EAA was set up to help out failing schools in Michigan. This past week, John Covington was hired by the state of Michigan to oversee a collection of underperforming schools in the state. The new […]

As part of the Obama administration’s ongoing “We Can’t Wait” program, they announced today an aggressive new initiative to spur the creation of job-creating startup companies. It’s a two-pronged approach. First, they are launching a $1 billion Early State Innovation Fund which provides matching capital to small business investment companies. This is part of an existing program called Startup America. […]

I have a piece published at Think Progress this morning that covers one of the next phases of the Occupy movement: Occupy Our Homes. I have a close friend who is one of the founders and organizers of the newly-formed group that is getting a LOT of attention. On Tuesday this week, Occupy Our Homes held an event in Michigan. […]

Detroit Free Press Deputy Editorial Page Editor Brian Dickerson has an op-ed this morning titled What’s really driving state takeovers: It ain’t race. In his piece, he argues that the disparate impact of Michigan’s Emergency Manager Law on minority populations isn’t related to race but rather to the shrinking populations of the cities involved. As the prospect of some sort […]

By now, you’ve probably seen or at least heard about Rick Perry’s latest ad called “Strong”. In the ad, Perry accuses President Obama of waging a “War on Religion”. If you haven’t seen it, here it is: I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m a Christian, but you don’t need to be in the pew every Sunday to know there’s […]

Tonight, the school board of Muskegon Heights voted to ask the Snyder administration to assign an Emergency Manager to the district. Muskegon Heights school officials will ask the state to appoint an emergency financial manager to take over operations of the district after Superintendent Dana Bryant retires at the end of this month. The school board met Wednesday in a […]

In October, 37 attorneys general from across the country sent a letter to Congress (pdf) urging them to support the nomination of Richard Cordray to head up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. This included ten Republican AGs. Not among them: Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette. The letter gives Cordray and the fledgling bureau itself glowing reviews. The undersigned state […]