We’ve known this day was coming for a long time but now it is upon us. Republicans in the Michigan state senate are poised to take up three voter suppression bills tomorrow, June 16th, and urgent action is needed. As one state senator I spoke with put it, “We need to flood the Republican phone lines.” The bills are Senate […]

As America emerges from the Dark Year of the COVID-19 pandemic, one thing is crystal clear: we have a childcare crisis in this country. While jobs are opening up nearly everywhere, employers struggle to find employees to fill their vacant positions. One reason is that the jobs people are being offered pay less than the ones they left due to […]

Margaret Atwood has been quite clear that there is nothing in her book A Handmaid’s Tale that hasn’t actually happened somewhere in the world at some point. Watching the astonishing recent television series The Underground Railroad, you quickly come to realize that some of these things happened right here in America not all that long ago. We know these things […]

The following essay was written by Krystle DuPree, a working mother and member of the Ann Arbor School Board. The views expressed here are hers and not those of the Ann Arbor School Board, her employer, or any other group. Enjoy. In March of 2020, the world as we knew it came to a grinding halt. Restaurants lowered their numbers […]

In March of 2017 at a public townhall meeting in Hillsdale, Michigan, Republican Congressman Tim Walberg (MI-07) told the audience, “If the public can’t comment, we have problems.” In the years since (and even before, frankly), he has made a Herculean effort to ensure that the only “public” who can comment at his public events are those he hand picks […]

The following essay was written by my good friend Caitlin Muciek-Balkus, a young mother from the mid-Michigan area. In it, she describes the difficult position parents are in right now as things open up after a year-long shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While I appreciate the strong desire of so many to get people back to work, I think […]

I recently became aware of two programs being offered by Michigan Women Forward (MWF), a community development nonprofit group that is dedicated to empowering women and girls of all ages. The programs are being offered specifically to middle school and high school girls in Michigan. Both programs are being presented virtually (though they hope to go back to in-person in […]

In 2018, worker advocacy groups gathered enough signatures to put several citizen-initiated ballot proposals on the November ballot. However, according to law, before that happens, the legislature has the ability to make them law immediately by passing them as legislation. If this is done, it bypasses the governor and they become law without the governor’s signature. There were several ballot […]

The following essay was written by Trina Tocco. She is a resident of Royal Oak and has two amazing children who attend Ferndale Public Schools. When the pandemic hit, I had to make a choice – either one of my children wouldn’t be able to participate in virtual school because of mental illness or I would have to put my […]

Late last month, the Biden administration to an important and necessary step of offering a tax credit to employers who offer paid time off related to COVID-19 or the vaccination. To qualify, the must be a business with under 500 employees that offered paid sick or family leave to their employees through September 30th of this year and have employees […]

Whether it’s Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey constantly referring to Governor Whitmer’s looks and calling her a “gal” or Michigan Republican Party Chair Ron Weiser calling our Governor, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Attorney General Dana Nessel “witches” to be “burned at the stake”, Republicans’ public language has become increasingly abusive. It’s easy to blame Donald Trump for […]