The Mike Shirkey I knew when I served in the Michigan House of Representatives was just as bad as the one we see today. I called him vile in 2012 and that description continues to hold true.  Being term-limited has only emboldened him to say terrible and misogynistic things out loud because he knows that he will never be held […]

Republican Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas spent some time today questioning President Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Education, Dr. Miguel Cardonas, and decided to focus on the issue of transgender students playing sports in school. Here’s what Sen. Marshall had to say… New Republican Sen. Roger Marshall (Kansas) also used his questioning time to push transphobia. Cardona quickly shut him […]

The following post was written by an elementary school teacher. This person could be your neighbor…a friend…a family member…or just someone you know on social media. This teacher hasn’t shared how they feel with anyone outside of their family, because there is so much pushback from persons in their community, and angry demands that teachers “get back to work!”   […]

The following essay was written by David Williams. David is a McDonald’s worker from Detroit who makes only $10/hour. He is a leader in the Fight for $15 and a Union. Suffice it say, David speaks for me and for many of us. In July 2019, working people across the country cheered when the U.S. House of Representatives passed the […]

A friend of mine made a post on social media last night saying that she “wasn’t angry about people thinking schools should reopen,” and while I admire the measured tone and spirit of cooperation she displayed in her commentary, that sentiment left me feeling uneasy. Because I AM angry about people demanding schools reopen ASAP. I get the frustration, and the […]

In February of last year, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer convened a task force to study the causes of increasing prescription drug costs and to make recommendations to solve this intractable problem. Today, the task force released its report and it has a number of steps the state government can take help get control over drug prices which are rising much […]

Republicans would like you to believe they are the party of “national security”–except when it’s the security of the nation’s Capitol… “House Charges Donald Trump With Impeachment for ‘Inciting an Insurrection’” Republicans would like you to believe they are the party of “fiscal responsibility”–just don’t look at the national debt too closely… “Trump Will Create More Debt Than Obama”   […]

In the aftermath of Wednesday’s attempted coup attempt by the sitting president of the United States, one thing is abundantly clear: There needs to be a major reckoning, and those responsible must be held accountable. We can’t function as a society if we have people among us who are so easily misled and hoodwinked.   People who believe that our […]

I wish I could find more satisfaction in something I’ve hoped would happen for 4 years. But as usual, Ms. DeVos did the absolute least she could do (resign), well past the time when it could have made a difference (with 13 days left in her lamest of all duck terms), and is probably only doing it to avoid doing […]

“Two North” is a story about one Christmas when my mom was spending time on the psychiatric ward of our town’s hospital after trying to commit suicide to escape a physically-abusive husband. I was thirteen. It was a cataclysmic event in our lives but it brought us together into a two-person tribe like no other event ever has in my […]

The inestimable Ron French is out this week with a terrific article in Bridge on the exploding Covid crisis in Michigan’s schools, and the situation is indeed dire. Readers across the state must be wondering how we got here. “Kids don’t catch the virus!”, they said. “And if they do catch it, they don’t get sick!”, they said. Even if […]