Today’s guest post is by Laura Packard, a partner at PowerThru Consulting, a growing national progressive digital consulting shop. Enjoy. Now that Snyder has effectively ruined our state brand, we should be thinking about what it is we DO want to be known for. We’ll have the chance to replace him in 2018 (or maybe even sooner, if he steps […]

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 […]

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 […]

NOTE: This post has been updated HERE. As I wrote about earlier this week, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette are asking the taxpayer of our state to foot the bills for their legal bills related to defending Snyder from the lawsuits filed against him for his response to the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with the […]

“Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Political Suicide” by DonkeyHotey Gov. Snyder knew about Flint’s water issues nine full months before going public Time after time after time, Gov. Rick Snyder’s response to questions about his administration’s lackadaisical response to the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with the powerful, odorless, invisible neurotoxin lead has been “I never knew about it”. He has […]

Today’s guest post is by Laura Packard, a partner at PowerThru Consulting, a growing national progressive digital consulting shop. Enjoy. With both the GOP and Democratic presidential candidates coming to Michigan this week for their respective debates, I hope some of the larger issues that Michigan (and the country) faces will finally be addressed. Michigan state government has been broken […]

Following an investigation by the office of Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, philandering Republicans Cindy Gamrat and Todd Courser have had multiple felony charges filed against them today.

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 […]