Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of Education, the anti-public schools billionaire Betsy DeVos, has gotten the attention of an important coalition of Democratic U.S. Senators. They are asking that DeVos pay the $5.3 million in fines and fees that she owes to the state of Ohio going back to 2008 when her All Children Matter Political Action Committee (PAC) was […]

The Snyder administration was recently ordered to resume bottled water delivery in Flint by a federal judge. In his order, U.S. District Judge David Lawson said that Gov. Snyder’s contention that “the current method of ‘delivery,’ whereby Flint residents must find a way to retrieve their own drinking water, and can use water filters that may or may not be installed […]

The following essay was written by Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum, a Democrat who was reelected to a second term. Prior to serving as County Clerk, Byrum represented the 67th District in the Michigan House of Representatives for three terms. She is renowned for being banned from speaking on the House floor for saying “vasectomy;” for performing what has been […]

What started out as a typical lame duck session where legislative Republicans ram through scads of laws aimed at harming workers, restricting voting access, and benefitting corporations has started to calm down in the waning three days of the current session in Michigan. After backing down from diminishing the retirement benefits of first responders and teachers, it appears that other […]

I saw a tweet by my pal Roscoe Woods, the president of the largest American Postal Workers Union local in the state of Michigan that made my head spin. Here’s the tweet: MI AG says no evidence of voter fraud in 2016 election, Applauds decision to stop recount. MI House attacks our democracy anyway. #resist — Roscoe (@bluelapeer) December 8, […]

The worst of the worst during Michigan’s lame duck – or as I like to call it: inflamed duck – sessions and this year is no exception. Last night, House Republicans rammed through two particularly heinous packages bills. The first is one I have talked about before HERE and HERE. This three-bill package – House Bills 6066, 6067, and 6068 […]

U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith finally weighed in on Michigan’s presidential vote recount, something the country has been waiting on since around 1 p.m. This evening he ruled that the recount should now end. This is the result of a Court of Appeals ruling saying that the Board of State Canvassers ruling that Green Party presidential candidate’s petition to start […]

We talked about this during this week’s podcast but I think it deserves a post all of it’s own. Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards recently completed a new round of testing of the water entering the homes of Flint residents and found that 43% of them are still contaminated with lead: Water in Flint continues to improve, researchers reported Friday […]

As I mentioned in my update last night, a Michigan Court of Appeals panel ruled that the Board of State Canvassers needed to reconsider Jill Stein’s petition to force a recount and reject it. At nearly the exact same time, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal order allowing the recount, rejecting the appeal by Michigan Attorney […]

As I wrote about earlier this week, one of the more outrageous things being pushed through during the Michigan legislature’s lame duck session is a 13-bill package that would “end post-retirement health care for new local government workers and generally force existing workers and retirees to pay 20% of their post-retirement health care costs”. This was the first time that […]

When Green Party candidate Jill Stein announced her intention to demand recounts in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, I was skeptical. In fact, it looked to me like she was simply using it as a way to raise money and, more importantly, her profile along with getting Democrats to sign up for her email list. I’m still not so sure that […]