As we know all too well here in Michigan, once an Emergency Manager takes over a city, none of the elected leaders holds any power. In fact, anything they have done up to that point is considered to have been done by an inept, possibly corrupt, group of elected officials. Otherwise, an Emergency Manager wouldn’t have been needed. It’s at […]

“Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Political Suicide” by DonkeyHotey This post has been updated to reflect that this is a legal complaint, not a lawsuit. The Michigan Legal Defense Fund Act requires that a legal defense fund be established for any elected official that receives contributions for “the purpose of defending an elected official in a criminal, civil, or administrative action […]

NOTE: This post has been updated HERE. As I wrote about earlier this week, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette are asking the taxpayer of our state to foot the bills for their legal bills related to defending Snyder from the lawsuits filed against him for his response to the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with the […]

It’s a uniquely Michigan story. To pinch pennies — saving $5 million, a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions in corporate tax cuts Rick Snyder and Republicans have handed out while slashing government services — a city had its drinking water switched and poisoned with lead by an autocratic “emergency manager” who was appointed by and only reported to […]

Last night’s Democratic debate in Flint showed America that there is a stark contrast between the Democrats and the Republicans who are vying to be the president of our country. And there were two clear winners in the debate: Flint and the American people. During their debate in Detroit over the weekend, the Republican candidates argued over who would be […]

State steps in to halt lead water line removal in Flint Today marks the 155th day since Gov. Rick Snyder publicly conceded that the drinking water in Flint, Michigan was poisoned with the powerful, odorless, tasteless, invisible neurotoxin lead. Since that day, exactly ZERO lead water service lines have been removed by the state. Yesterday, Flint took matters into their […]

It’s a good gig if you can get it Darnell Earley, the disgraced former Emergency Manager for the city of Flint and, more recently, Detroit Public Schools (DPS), will receive $82,862.90 through mid-July to work as a consultant for the school district. Earley resigned his position last month because, according to his jaw dropping assessment, he had rectified the school […]

The Snyder administration had long been thought to be using fees to process FOIA requests as a way to avoid transparency and to scare off inquisitive journalists and private citizens from poking around in their (public) affairs. Then, last October, the fine folks at Progress Michigan got definitive proof that FOIA fees were being wielded as a weapon against transparency. […]

“Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Political Suicide” by DonkeyHotey Gov. Snyder knew about Flint’s water issues nine full months before going public Time after time after time, Gov. Rick Snyder’s response to questions about his administration’s lackadaisical response to the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with the powerful, odorless, invisible neurotoxin lead has been “I never knew about it”. He has […]

Yesterday on the Michigan’s Big Show, MI-07 Republican Congressman Tim “I was a tea partier before there was a tea party” Walberg was asked about the Flint water crisis. His takeaway message from the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with the powerful odorless, tasteless, invisible neurotoxin lead is that “government can’t protect us against everything”: “This shows that government can’t […]

The Michigan Democratic Party released shocking documentation this morning showing that a $7 million emergency loan to the city of Flint in April of 2015 came with a very deadly sting attached. Two actually. First, they were not allowed to return to water supplied by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). Second, they were compelled to remain in the Karegnondi Water Authority, a regional water system that won’t be completed until this summer. The two conditions had the effect of forcing Flint to stay with the Flint River as its source of drinking water, a decision that has led to the poisoning of Flint residents with the powerful, odorless, tasteless, invisible neurotoxin lead.