This isn’t GETTING ridiculous, this IS ridiculous Seems not a week goes by that an employee for the for-profit prison food vendor Aramark isn’t busted for some illicit activity or another. In all, nearly 100 Aramark employees are now banned from Michigan prisons for having sex with inmates, delivering cigarettes and drugs like cocaine and heroin to inmates, and for […]

We’ve covered the Attorney General race in Michigan fairly extensively here at Eclectablog. In addition to reporting on the candidacy of Democrat Mark Totten, a former prosecutor for the Department of Justice and law professor at Michigan State University, I have written extensively about the extremism of our current AG, Republican Bill Schuette. As I have demonstrated quite vividly before, […]

In another blow to the corporate front group American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), another internet powerhouse is leaving the pro-Big Business “bill mill”. From Common Cause: Yahoo issued the following statement to Common Cause Wednesday night: “We’ve decided to discontinue our membership in ALEC. We periodically review our membership in organizations and, at this time, we will no longer participate […]

This guest post was written by Donald Cohen, the Executive Director of In The Public Interest, a “comprehensive resource center on privatization and responsible contracting”. They are committed to equipping citizens, public officials, advocacy groups, and researchers with the information, ideas, and other resources they need to ensure that public contracts with private entities are transparent, fair, well-managed, and effectively […]

Technology giants Microsoft, Google, and Facebook have all made recent announcements that they have or are leaving the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the corporatist group that puts out pro-business model legislation to shape state policy and laws to benefit Big Business. Now the online giant Yelp is joining them. Via Common Cause: Internet powerhouse Yelp, which specializes in helping […]

On the heels of Microsoft, and then Google, leaving the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Facebook spokesperson now says that they will leave the corporatist front group in 2015, as well: Google’s departure, “really puts Facebook and Yahoo in an uncomfortable position,” said Jay Riestenberg, a research analyst with Common Cause who follows ALEC. Facebook may be next out the […]

Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing released an internal poll today showing him within striking distance of Republican Mike Bishop. Schertzing is down just 5 points, 42-37, in a poll with a 4.9 point margin of error. In the same poll, when respondents were read “a balanced series of positive messages about both candidates”, the two are tied at 43-43. This […]

On July 16th, candidates in Michigan’s 11th Congressional District primary race met for a candidates forum, hosted by the League of Women Voters. During that forum, candidates were asked how they would solve our nation’s infrastructure problems. When Republican David Trott, Michigan’s notorious “Foreclosure King”, answered, he made a shocking statement. At a time when education is one of America’s […]

The conservative group Independent Women’s Voice announced yesterday that Terri Lynn Land has signed their “Pledge to Repeal Obamacare”. The pledge reads: The Repeal Pledge (Candidate Version) I pledge, if elected, to vote for all bills which seek to REPEAL the health care bill, HR 3590, signed into law on March 23, 2010.* To that end, I would now and […]

On December 12, 2012, just a few weeks after the General Election, Michigan legislators passed the bill that would become Public Act 436, the latest iteration of Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law. Voters had overturned the previous version of the law in November and Republicans wasted no time in resurrecting it, overturning the will of a majority of voters and […]

Today on The Diane Rehm Show, Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed that the internet giant was leaving the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). ALEC, a front group for corporate interests, puts out business-friendly model legislation for its legislative members to use to create laws in their own states. There has been massive pressure on Google to leave, especially after Microsoft […]