Excuse me, but I beg to differ Last week, AnnArbor.com Business news director Nathan Bomey penned an op-ed titled “Why bankruptcy is worse for Michigan cities than emergency managers”. As you might imagine, I have an entirely different take on this which you can read at AnnArbor.com in a counterpoint op-ed today titled “The case against emergency managers: How bankruptcy […]

Take that! And THAT! Ingham County Circuit Judge William Collette is on a roll. Yesterday he delivered two rulings that set Michigan Republicans back on their heels. First, he ruled that an obscene and blatant power grab by Oakland County Republicans is unconstitutional. An Ingham County judge on Wednesday struck down a controversial state law that changed the way Oakland […]

Michigan’s Emergency Managers in the national spotlight In the current issue The Nation magazine, I have a piece titled “The Scandal of Michigan’s Emergency Managers” which is a general overview of Public Act 4, Michigan’s Emergency Manager law. For regular Eclectablog readers, there isn’t much new there but for those who haven’t been following, it’s likely to be a bit […]

All the news that’s fit to make you cringe Lots of news to get to today. Lots more after the jump, too, so make sure you click through. UPDATE: My article for The Nation magazine on Michigan’s Emergency Manager law will be in the issue that goes to print today and will hit the stands later this week. It may […]

Hear ye, hear ye I want to commend your attention to the Public Service Announcement banner at the top of the site today. It will run through Saturday evening. It’s an announcement for a public forum on Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager law, happening this Saturday, February 18, 2012, in East Lansing. A public forum on P.A. 4, the […]

But I’m severely Michiganderish As Mitt Romney was pretending that Bain Capital created jobs earlier this year, he said, “I’m a numbers guy.” Well, here’s a number that any numbers guy will hate: 26 percent. That’s the percentage of Michigan voters who believe Mitt is a Michigander. 62 percent do not. This helps explain why Mitt is currently losing by […]

Seriously? TWO HOURS??? Professor Lisa Disch, the woman who organized the Emergency Manager forum in Ann Arbor on February 6, 2012 left me a very kind comment on the cross-posting of my report over at Blogging for Michigan. In her comment, Professor Disch informs us that Representative Mark Ouimet cancelled his appearance only two hours before the event was scheduled […]

We’re sorry, the number you have dialed… All photos by Anne C. Savage – used with permission On Monday, February 6, 2012, the Political Science department at the University of Michigan held a public forum/debate on Public Act 4 – the Emergency Manager law. The panelists were Representative Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor); Howard Ryan, Director of Legislative Affairs, MI Department […]

Score one for transparency In a stinging rebuke of the Snyder administration, Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette ruled today that review teams that are part of the lead-up to imposing an Emergency Manager on a city or school district must comply with the Open Meetings Act. Ingham County Circuit Court Judge William Collette ruled this afternoon that state-appointed […]

Emergency Manager law under the microscope Tonight, a community forum will be held in Ann Arbor on the subject of Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager law. On Monday, February 6, from 6 to 8pm in the Eldersveld Room in the Department of Political Science (Haven Hall 5th Floor), the Undergraduate Political Science Association will host: “A Debate on the […]

Look out, Indiana! It’s comin’ right for ya! A couple of weeks ago, I told you about Indiana’s slide toward an Emergency Manager law of their own. I have been wondering how long it would take for a state other than Michigan to pursue an Emergency Manager law. The wait is over. This week, a Republican-sponsored bill allowing the imposition […]