At 4:23 p.m. on April 25th of this year, Eastern Michigan University’s Director of Purchasing issued a request for proposals (RFP) for food campus food services. The RFP included a requirement to RSVP to a “mandatory” meeting by 5 p.m. the same day as the RFP came out. That mandatory meeting was scheduled for the following day. 37 minutes. Applicants […]

The following guest post was written by Jen Eyer, Vice President of Vanguard Public Affairs. Jen has spent many years in the world of journalism and most recently managed the newsroom for The Ann Arbor News, part of the MLive Media Group. You can read her full bio HERE. Enjoy. As Michiganders, we should all be concerned about the way […]

Back in the early 90s, Michigan Gov. John Engler – the first of Michigan’s corporatist governors – oversaw the creation of the for-profit charter school industry in our state. Pitching it as “forcing schools to compete”, he signed legislation that opened the floodgates for charter schools to siphon away tax dollars intended to educate children into the coffers of private […]

“This package [of legislation] is a handout to criminals.” – Rep. Adam Zemke Gary Naeyaert is a “member of Team Jesus” and the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). GLEP is Betsy DeVos’s project to destroy public schools in Michigan to make way for the proliferation of for-profit charter schools that siphon tax dollars into the bank […]

Back in 2013, I penned a piece titled “Multibillion dollar Meijer, Inc. finds another way to screw Michigan cities and kids” that went somewhat viral, getting over 60,000 hits. The gist of the piece is that Meijer, along with other so-called “big box” stores in Michigan, have used something called “dark store” valuation when determining the value of their store. […]

Cluck, cluck… When Michigan Republicans took control of our legislature in 2010, they, along with our new Republican CEO Governor Rick Snyder, proceeded to enact a sweeping tax cut for corporations. It was all to bring new employers into the state which, in time, would lead to a more robust economy and a rising tide that would lift all boats. […]

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is clearly not a man who ever concedes he has made a mistake. After his privatizing of state prison food services went horribly awry with Aramark employees having sex with prisoners, bringing in drugs, and the many and repeated cases of vermin in food, he finally fired them. You would think he’d admit it was a […]

If Michigan actually WAS a corporation with Rick Snyder as its CEO, it would have gone bankrupt years ago… Rick Snyder sold voters on the idea that (a) government should be run like a business and (b) that he’s the perfect CEO to do that. We now have ample evidence that government should NOT be run like a business. And, […]

It’s no secret that many Republicans in the Michigan legislature want to destroy public education in our state and funnel tax dollars into the coffers of for-profit charter schools. For anyone paying attention, that’s a given. What is surprising, to me at least, is how brazen they have become. Detroit Public Schools is on the brink of bankruptcy. According to […]

Earlier this week, former Michigan state legislator Jason Allen told UP Matters reporter Brittany Denny that he is “troubled” by the recent reports of disabled veterans in the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans suffering under the atrociously inadequate care provided by J2S Group. J2S Group is the for-profit healthcare corporation that was the beneficiary of Gov. Snyder’s privatization scheme that […]

NOTE: Big tip o’ the Eclectahat to Eclectablog reader D. Harvey D. who provided much of the background research and perspective for this post. I’ve already written about the scandal involving the mistreatment of elderly disabled veterans at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans. A report released by the State Office of the Auditor General detailed a scathing laundry list […]