On Friday, July 18th, Michigan’s next governor Mark Schauer is holding a Happy Hour Fundraiser during Netroots Nation in Detroit. It takes place at the Anchor Bar at 450 West Fort Street and begins at 6 p.m. Buy a ticket and get a free drink (while supplies last ; ) This is a terrific chance to meet Mark in person. […]

Earlier this month, John Covington, the former head of Governor Rick Snyder’s failed education experiment on Detroit students – the Education Achievement Authority (EAA) – resigned to become a consultant (and, according to Covington, to take care of his mother.) As Jack Lessenberry explained it in his Metro Times titled “Detroit’s EAA ‘fatally flawed’” (a terrific piece worth reading in […]

NOTE: This post has been updated HERE. The Detroit Free Press is running a spectacular, week-long series on charter schools in Michigan and the woeful lack of oversight and accountability our state exercises when it comes to charters. While some states have outright bans on for-profit schools, 61% of Michigan charter schools are run by for-profit corporations and over a […]

I was tempted to use all six facepalm images we have in our portfolio for this piece because it’s one of those “one facepalm isn’t adequate to convey my utter disgust” sort of moments. One of the big insurers that stands to lose money if its clients are forced to take a financial “haircut” in Detroit’s bankruptcy is Syncora. This […]

This morning, I lit into MLive reporter Khalil AlHajal for his atrocious “journalism” regarding Governor Rick Snyder’s failed experiment on Detroit kids, the Education Achievement Authority. As I was publishing that post, another article about the EAA was published by Bridge Magazine which was also posted at MLive. In stark contrast to AlHajal’s piece, this one by Chastity Pratt Dawsey, […]

I don’t normally hammer on the mainstream media journalists in Michigan. The job they do is very difficult and they are doing it with fewer and fewer resources all the time. I also try to cultivate a reasonably positive relationship with them because I know the relationship between full-time journalists and bloggers is often contentious. That said, when a journalist […]

The UAW is vilified on a regular basis by anti-union corporatists, including their Republican shills in our state legislatures and the federal government. Our domestic vehicle manufacturers are being hobbled and strangled by the “union bosses” and “union thugs” who have the audacity to collectively bargain for good wages and benefits. Now that the Great Recession is largely in our […]

On April 1st, I ran an April Fool’s Day joke post that I titled, “BREAKING: EAA Chief unexpectedly quits to take new job – ‘Screw you, guys. I’m going home.’” This morning the Detroit News is reporting that my parody post was not far off the mark and that this is actually happening – John Covington, Chancellor of Gov. Snyder’s […]

Back in 2012, Pontiac Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel signed an agreement with Oakland County to manage monies from a substantial HUD grant. That turned out to be a nearly disasterous decision that would have resulted in a loss of upwards of $800,000 per year for Pontiac. Thankfully, Congressman Gary Peters stepped in a saved the day (and the money.) At […]

I had planned to write about the sad closing of the Catherine Ferguson Academy, a high school for Detroit girls who are pregnant or who have young children that gave them a second chance they can get nowhere else. However, Rachel Maddow covered this last night so much better than I could have so I’ll just let her take the […]

This week Michigan legislators passed a package of bills dubbed “The Grand Bargain” that will help our state’s largest city, Detroit, get back on its feet. Missing from that package was a bill that would have prevented regional municipalities from renewing the existing voter-approved 10-year millage or the levying a new millage to fund the Detroit Institute of Arts. (Details […]