Back in 2011, a man named Pasquale “Pat” Battaglia posted a blog entry on the website of the Lapeer County Tea Party Patriots titled “The God and Country Education Project”. In it, he introduces something he calls “American Christian Academies” and denounces the “progressive” movement who he says have taken “less than 3 generations to completely obliterate our schools”. Fast […]

In one day, it passed out of committee and is up for a House vote. Despite what the bill’s proponents claim, the RFRA would enshrine discrimination on religious grounds into state law. UPDATED following House vote. There’s still time to take action. See below. It’s happening even faster than we’d feared. Following a hearing, the Michigan House of Representatives House […]

Michigan’s Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger has been paying lip service to the LGBT community by saying that he supports expanding civil rights protects to them as long as it (a) doesn’t include transgender Michiganders and (b) is accompanied by a “license to discriminate” bill that allows anyone who wants to deny basic services to gays, lesbians, or bisexuals the […]

Yesterday, I wrote about how nobody from the LGBT community was given time to speak about their personal stories at the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act expansion legislation hearing. In that piece, I published the prepared testimony of trans activist and personal friend Amy Hunter from Kalamazoo. Amy wasn’t the only one who had prepared to speak but was unable to […]

Reliable sources in Lansing have informed me that expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act is dead in the water in 2014 and will not be voted on during the lame duck session. According to the source, Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger says neither version of the expansion bill – one that includes transgender Michiganders and one that doesn’t – […]

This post has been updated as indicated This morning, a hearing was held in Lansing to debate the expansion of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. After hearing from members of the business community testifying in favor of the legislation, faith-based groups both in favor of and opposing adding civil rights protections for the LGBT community, the House Commerce Committee adjourned […]

There is no question that newly-elected Todd Courser is going to provide endless fodder for this website for at least a couple of years. He hasn’t even taken office yet but Courser is already acting as if he owns the place and has a lock on what it means to be conservative and Republican. Courser seems fixated on ensuring that […]

Before Obamacare, they couldn’t afford health insurance — which meant a chronic illness went undiagnosed for years. Dolly and Chip Harris had a dream: They wanted to start their own restaurant. In 1996, they left their jobs, which meant losing the health insurance Chip got through work. They worked hard to make their new business a success, but luck wasn’t […]

Last month I shared Prof. Stephen Wellinski’s letter encouraging public school advocates to contact the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents to demand that they end EMU’s partnership with Michigan’s failed experiment on Detroit children known as the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). You can sign Prof. Wellinski’s petition HERE. The Board of Regents meets this Friday, December 5th to consider/reconsider […]

BloombergBusinessweek is reporting that Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr will soon be resigning. The Detroit City Council voted unanimously in late September to remove Orr as the Emergency Manager and his tenure was to end when the plan of adjustment was approved in bankruptcy court and implemented. The first of those two steps has happened. Orr’s resignation will likely come […]

Public Education is a partnership and has been for many decades now. That partnership includes our local communities, the school board, our cities, the state, and the federal government, to simplify this part of my message. For many years Public Education was working well. It educated us all, kept to constitutional promises, improved over time. It was a natural or […]