While stumping in Nevada last week Rand Paul once again indicated that if he becomes President he will sell off some of the national parks and public lands that are currently owned by all Americans. He tied this notion of private ownership to the nation’s development in the 1800’s when the government sale of lands in the West raised money […]

Federal Communications Commission chairman Thomas Wheeler has proposed increasing the current Lifeline telephone subsidy to help the poor get Internet service. Such access is good for the economy, good for job and service searches, and good for connecting poor children and their families to their schools, churches, health care providers, and governmental institutions. Most of us know the Lifeline program […]

I’m adding my voice to the chorus of those who call for Governor Snyder and the legislature to protect the Great Lakes as required by law and as demanded in Liz Kirkwood’s excellent op-ed in The Detroit News this week. Kirkwood’s study group, For Love of Water (FLOW), delivered compelling arguments that Enbridge Oil’s 62 year-old oil pipeline 5 that […]

The GOP propaganda campaign to divide and conquer the electorate and control Michigan education moves ever onward in the state Senate with the passage of SB 209, a bill to amend the existing school code to include specific teaching emphasis on what the GOP designates as the “core principles” of the U. S. Constitution, the First, Second and Tenth Amendments. […]

The backbone of Michigan’s industrial economy, making cars and trucks, is solid and strong. The current numbers and brisk demand for new vehicles are highlighted in two recent articles HERE and HERE. The ripple effect of a healthy auto manufacturing sector is apparent in those parts of the state that have auto-related facilities and businesses. All shifts running full bore […]

This week the Michigan Legislature passed House Bill 4041, what they call the Parental Responsibility Act. Gov. Snyder is probably eager to sign it because it has the word “responsibility” in it and impacts only the politically powerless. The Michigan Department of Human Services will be required to eliminate cash assistance to poor families if any child in the household […]

Even before the fictional Elmer Gantry men of the cloth have tumbled from their high places beyond the altars whenever daylight exposed their secret lives. Last week Rev. Matthew Makela of St. John’s Lutheran church in Midland, Michigan, was forced to resign after Queerty.com posted screen shots of him from Grindr, a social app for homosexual men. Makela, an associate […]

Once again the Michigan Senate is moving to repeal the state’s “prevailing wage” law that has been in place for half a century, the law the Republicans once claimed would wreck the economy but which did the opposite, helping to sustain the once-growing middle class. They’re singing the same right wing anthem again, the one about saving the taxpayers money […]

On March 3rd, State Senator Bert Johnson (D, MI-02) and three other Michigan Democrats introduced Senate Bill 172 requiring the state health department to provide information about “emergency contraception,” otherwise known as the “Morning After” pill. The bill was referred to committee with no further action at this time, and probably not at any time under the current GOP-dominated legislature […]

A couple of weeks ago New York Times writer Neil Irwin wrote a piece in the Business Section about why a nation with our wealth is reluctant to ask for more from its richest citizens. Some of the reasons given included: low taxes encourage greater investment and entrepreneurship; the rich have grown accustomed to their income and have built their […]

If you’re on Governor Snyder’s email list you recently received his most recent glitter bomb of self-congratulation. In it he points out that Michigan’s unemployment rate has dropped by half from 11.2% in December, 2011, but offers no reasons for this drop. It’s reasonable to assume the drop is primarily related to the increase in auto sales along with the […]