Gotta love this headline in the Detroit News this morning: Michigan Legislature praised for reform bills Sounds good, right? Here’s the thing: the only people “praising” the Michigan Republicans in the article are Michigan Republicans. But Michigan Republicans, I must say, think Michigan Republicans are totally freaking awesome. The closest you get to praise are these to bits: The Senate […]

Republicans got very, very busy in the short time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. One of the things House Republicans did was to vote to turn down federal funds for creating a statewide health exchange to help make health care insurance available to all Michiganders. In an action with major implications for health reform in Michigan, the state House has voted […]

Since his election last year, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has played the good cop/bad cop game to perfection. While he stays above the fray and issues calming and non-threatening platitudes, his Republican colleagues in the legislature enact a conservative agenda with a rapidity that Democrats can only marvel at. Time and time again, Snyder has talked about how a particular […]

You know that gigantic, $1.5 billion dollar tax cut Republicans gave Michigan businesses this year? I’ve been ranting and raving all year about how it was paid for in part by cutting a cool billion out of education. But there’s still half a billion that came from other places. One of the big cuts was to eliminate the tax exemption […]

On Tuesday of this week, Michigan Republicans held a public hearing on a controversial piece of legislation, HB 5002. As I have written about in the past, this bill makes law certain practices used by insurance companies to reduce or eliminate benefits for injured workers by using “imaginary wages” and “imaginary pensions”. While the legislation is highly controversial, Senate Reforms, […]

Republican sponsored legislation, Senate Bill 619 recently passed the Senate. This bill represents what could be the first steps toward eliminating large numbers of teachers from Michigan classrooms. A proposal in Lansing would remove most restrictions on the ability of students to attend school over the Internet, in their pajamas, without setting foot inside a classroom. The proposal would remove […]

For those of you reaching this post via Susan Demas’ silly article wherein she calls out some random liberal blogger on the internet, assigns his opinion as that of “the left”, and then files the story as “news”, I commend your attention to THIS POST. Last week, I wrote about proposed changes to Michigan’s Workers Compensation laws being put through […]

Turns out the Republicans’ retaliatory efforts to recall Democrats in Michigan was just an effort to collect contact information. Yesterday, Michigan Republican Party ended its recall drives against Democrats. Michigan Republicans have halted their efforts to recall state Democratic lawmakers, a spokesman said today. Stu Sandler, a consultant to the Michigan GOP who was organizing more than a dozen recall […]

Last week, I wrote about Carson Borbely & Katy Butler, two inspiring Ann Arbor teens who have done something tangible and important to combat bullying in Michigan. Fighting back against a Senate-passed “License to Bully” bill that claims to be “anti-bullying”, the created a petition at Change.org. When I wrote my piece last Thursday, the petition had a bit over […]

You have to hand it to the Republicans in the Michigan legislature. Just when you think it’s not possible for them to kick the 99% in the face any more ruthlessly, they go and prove you wrong. Their current targets are workers who are injured on the job and the creative ways they are coming up with the reduce workers’ […]

Last week, I wrote about the so-called “anti”-bullying bill passed by the Michigan Senate a couple of weeks ago that is not only not anti-bullying but, in fact, is generally known as “The License to Bully Bill”. In my article, I mentioned two Ann Arbor teenagers who stepped up to respond in a powerful way. Two Ann Arbor-area students, Katy […]