I had planned to write about the sad closing of the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a high school for Detroit girls who are pregnant or who have young children that gave them a second chance they can get nowhere else. However, Rachel Maddow covered this last night so much better than I could have so I’ll just let her take the […]

As I’m sure you know, the Environmental Protection Agency released draft rules this week calling for a 30% reduction in carbon emissions from power plants by 2030. This, of course, is not going to happen without a fight, as polluters always claim that new or stricter pollution limits will destroy their businesses and the economy. Initial public reaction to the rule is positive, but polluters and their allies will come out swinging. Here’s how supporters of the new rules can be most effective in the fight to come:

This week Michigan legislators passed a package of bills dubbed “The Grand Bargain” that will help our state’s largest city, Detroit, get back on its feet. Missing from that package was a bill that would have prevented regional municipalities from renewing the existing voter-approved 10-year millage or the levying a new millage to fund the Detroit Institute of Arts. (Details […]

Attempting to deceive senior citizens is, simply put, sick and disgusting. Governor Snyder is summoning his inner Obi Wan Kenobi, using the Jedi Mind Trick to try to convince seniors that he’s not taxing their pensions. “I want to be proactive, ” he said, “and let people know it’s NOT a pension tax. What we did was clean up our […]

A couple of weeks ago, Amy Lynn Smith posted about an upcoming awards dinner being hosted by the amazing organization Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network (MICHUHCAN) is a state-wide network that promotes comprehensive health care for everyone. When she posted it, I said in the comments, “Hopefully Amy Lynn Smith is up for an award from this group. She’s […]

We can’t do anything about climate change but we won’t just sit back and let women get birth control Less than a day after President Obama unveiled his plan to curb carbon emissions using the EPA’s regulatory power, China indicated that it will be curbing its carbon pollution for the first time ever. This historic act of cooperation (and self-preservation) […]

In Ipswich, Massachusetts, a group of sixth graders, led by their teacher, had a novel idea: send a bill to the corporation who used them as guinea pigs to test their newest standardized test. Two sixth grade math classes lost an entire week’s worth of instruction taking a trial run of a new test and now they want payment for […]

Last week, Governor Snyder pretended that he’s suddenly concerned with adding protections for LGBT folks to our state’s civil rights law, the Elliott-Larsen Act. As I have already said, this is a sham. Governor Snyder’s own words show how squishy his “support” is: “I’m encouraging them to say there’s been a lot of dialog and discussion on this. It’s been […]

Without Obamacare, the KyNect exchange is just website that lets people know they can’t afford health insurance When Republicans lie about Obamacare, it’s hardly news. But the lies coming out Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul in Kentucky show what a bind the party is in now that the Affordable Care Act has truly began to take hold and work as […]

Yesterday at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder did an about-face on his position regarding civil rights for members of the LGBT community. His actions or, rather, lack of actions on behalf of the LGBT community are well-known so the abrupt change is cause for considerable skepticism. Snyder spelled out his new-found interest in LGBT […]

The Affordable Care Act is saving one Michigan couple big money — and may just be saving a life. Charles Barnett was as “healthy as a horse” until late 2012, says his wife, Linda. That’s when he discovered a swollen lump in a gland. As it turns out, Charles had a stage 4 tumor under the floor of his mouth […]