Last October I penned a piece titled “Michigan’s Emergency Managers were supposed to fix corruption and ineptitude. They haven’t.” That could just as easily be the title of this post as U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade today unveiled federal charges against twelve current and former principals, an administrator and a vendor with Detroit Public Schools: Twelve current and former principals, an […]

We may be at a tipping point It’s Easter Sunday and that can mean only one thing: it’s time for the annual repost of our Peeps® post. Enjoy. Spring came early to southern Michigan this year so on Good Friday, my wife Anne and I put our kayaks in the Huron River and set out to document the effects of […]

Prior to 2013, the Voting Rights Act required federal oversight of changes to election laws in areas where voter disenfranchisement had historically been a significant problem. One of those places was Maricopa County in Arizona. However, after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act three years ago, Maricopa County officials were free to make whatever changes they wanted. […]

The following guest post was written by Nate Breznau of Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. He is the co-author of a new study that looked at the disparate racial impact of Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, Public Act 436. The academic study proves that the elements involved in the imposition of an Emergency Manager in a city go beyond simple […]

The headlines tell the tale: The Detroit News: Task force: EM decisions led to Flint crisis Detroit Free Press: Task force slams Flint crisis, demands review of emergency manager law The Wall Street Journal: Michigan Officials Responsible for Flint Water Crisis, Panel Finds The Guardian: Flint water crisis was ‘environmental injustice’, governor’s taskforce finds The Washington Post: Scathing independent report […]

The term “Emergency Manager” was not invented by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and his corporatist Republican colleagues. In fact, Emergency Managers existed before that crew got around to passing what is perhaps the most anti-democratic legislation ever seen in the United States. According to the U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), Emergency Managers are professionals whose […]

Coinciding with World Water Day, the Obama administration released details of massive investments in water resource conservation, water system infrastructure upgrades, and heightened awareness of water resources in general. You can read the full report HERE. Of particular interest to Michigan in light of the Flint water crisis, the report outlines a number of corporate responses to the White House […]

This past Tuesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held the second of three hearings on the Flint water crisis. At the hearing, Republicans on the Committee tore into former EPA Region 5 administrator Susan Hedman for her role in what many see as the EPA’s delayed response in dealing with the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with the […]

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder began his opening statement before the House Government Oversight Committee hearing on the Flint water crisis by saying, “I am not going to point fingers.” In the same statement and in comments made during questioning, he then blamed the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the failure to […]

President Obama’s nomination of the moderate federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court is, perhaps, his most blatant trolling of Republicans during his entire presidency. Make no mistake, Garland is eminently qualified. Not only that, he’s liked by Democrats and Republicans alike. NPR’s SCOTUS-watcher Nina Totenberg described Garland as a “gentle individual” and pointed out that Republican […]

Yesterday’s Flint water crisis hearing held by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was an astonishing thing to watch. As the beleaguered city is still reeling from the poisoning of its drinking water and the death of at least nine people from Legionnaires’ Disease, one of the men chiefly responsible for the catastrophe declared said that he’s been “unjustly […]