This story has legs

After my piece on the exploitation of Michigan 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year Gary Abud by anti-union groups like the Mackinac Center and StudentsFirst to promote their anti-union agenda, I was interviewed by Tony Trupiano on his Night Shift radio show about it. The segment ran Friday evening and you can listen to it after the jump.

We’re so close to making it happen. Keep up the pressure on your Republican legislators. Medicaid expansion passed the Michigan House last week by a wide margin (76-31), which is incredibly encouraging. Now it goes to the Senate for a vote, which is very likely to happen this week before summer recess begins. But pretty much everyone agrees that convincing […]

Here we go again… Since Democratic House Rep Jim Ananich was elected to the state senate in a special election, his House seat in the 49th district has been a hot commodity. There are several Democratic candidates who will face off in the August 6th primary but one of them sticks out like a bit of a sore thumb. Karyn […]

Solidarity

Over a year ago, Panera Bread bakers along the I-94 corridor Michigan voted to form a union. The parent company refused to recognize the union, forcing the workers to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) demanding that the company recognize and bargain with their union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM). The NLRB ruled for the workers. However, due to a decision in Noel Canning v. NLRB overturning President Obama’s recess appointments to the NLRB, Panera Bread has refused to comply.

Click through for more details and information about June 21st rally to support the Panera Bread bakers.

Those who would give up essential liberty to give corporations more ‘freedom’ deserve aren’t that interested in freedom Three months after Senator Rand Paul’s super-important, epoch-changing 13-hour drone filibuster, more than 90% of House Republicans voted to continue the policy of indefinite detention and to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison open. But a small group of Republicans actually joined the […]

Nana nah nah, nana nah nah, hey hey hey, good-bye… The Washington Post‘s The Fix blog is keeping track of the governor races across the country and maintains a list of the top 15 most likely to change parties. The last time they ranked the states, Michigan was at number six. Today, we’ve cracked the top five. All of which […]

I do believe the Democrats were told to go Cheney themselves In the dead of night last night, Michigan House Republicans passed a bill that would allow the state government to dissolve small school districts facing financial crises. The bills, House Bills 4813 (and a companion bill 4815), was originally introduced in a bipartisan fashion by Democrat David Rutledge of […]

Michigan’s ‘Teacher of the Year’ deserves better than this

In May of this year, Gary Abud, a science teacher at Grosse Pointe North High School, was chosen as Michigan’s 2013-2014 Teacher of the Year by State Superintendent Mike Flanagan. It’s an amazing accomplishment for a teacher who has only been at it for six years. Well-respected by both his students and his coworkers, Mr. Abud was a worthy choice.

To reward him for his outstanding achievement, the anti-union corporatist Mackinac Center — an ALEC and State Policy Network affiliate that is funded, in part, by the Koch brothers — did a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out how much money Mr. Abud makes. Once they found out, they proceeded to use him to promote passage of House Bill 4625, a bill I call the “‘Teach to the Test’ Teacher Pay Act”.

Click through for my interview with this amazing educator.

I’ve never been more optimistic. Keep up the activism. UPDATED with links to a new action tool and a petition to be delivered directly to the Senate. See below. I was hopeful, then I was nervous and now I’m genuinely surprised — in the best possible way. I’m thrilled by the number of Michigan Representatives who voted in favor of […]

This is truly an outrage The Tampa Bay Times teamed with The Center for Investigative Reporting and CNN to create an exhaustively-researched list of the fifty worst charities in the country. What you’ll read in the Times‘ reporting and CNN’s reporting will blow your mind. From the Times: Carol Smith still gets angry when she remembers the box that arrived […]

The Dick Cheney of Michigan? Immediately after he was elected in 2010, Michigan governor Rick Snyder brought Richard Baird on board to be his “Transformation Manager”. It’s a new title and position for the state of Michigan and is paid for from the governor’s secret-donor slush fund called the New Energy to Reinvent and Diversify Fund (NERD). Baird, who had […]