Republican Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof and Republican Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter have formed a committee called the Joint Committee on the Flint Water Public Health Emergency that has something to do with the public health catastrophe in Flint. They plan to hold hearings, looking into all levels of government from local all the way up to federal. […]

John Lindstrom, the publisher of Gongwer News Service, one of the top news outlets covering state government and state politics, published an essay this week that shows, despite the shiny, happy face that Gov. Snyder is putting on and despite his continuing calls for more privatization and the success of Emergency Management, they know full well it has been an […]

Back in 2011, reports began to emerge that conditions in the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans had deteriorated after part of the staff had been privatized. According to reporting by The Detroit News, “contract workers [were] responsible for incidents in which a veteran suffered a broken neck as a result of improper lifting procedures and another veteran had a gastric […]

The history of Medicaid expansion in Michigan as part of the Affordable Care Act is a long and troubled one. The Republican-led legislature hemmed and hawed and finally passed it in a way that wasted hundreds of millions of dollars and unnecessarily delayed working poor Michiganders from obtaining coverage. When they finally got around to passing it, they did it […]

Bryan Mielke is running for a second time for the House seat in Michigan’s 99th House District, a race he lost to House Speaker Kevin Cotter two years ago. He announced last fall and it wasn’t until recently that the Republicans finally fielded a candidate. At that point, hilarity ensued: Republicans have turned to Roger Hauck as their candidate to […]

Michigan State Senator Marty Knollenberg made the headlines last December when, during a Senate Education Committee hearing, he explained that we can’t fix Detroit schools because “We can’t make an African American white.” “You mentioned why these schools fail,” he said at the hearing. “You mention the economically disadvantaged and non-white population are contributors to that. And, you know, we […]

Three Michigan Congressional races have been added to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) “Red-to-Blue” program, a highly competitive program that targets races where the DCCC believes the Democratic candidate can oust the incumbent Republican. The DCCC describes the Red-to-Blue program as a program that “highlights top Democratic campaigns across the country, and offers them financial, communications, grassroots, and strategic […]

There are countless articles floating around the internet and being shared on Facebook with shouty headlines like “This Michigan legislator is attempting to ban sodomy while the Flint water crisis rages on” and “Instead of Helping Flint, Michigan Republicans Just Passed a Bill That Makes Anal Sex Illegal“. They all appear to refer back to an article by The New […]

A group of Michigan Republicans is sick and tired of having to go through training on how to handle a weapon and all that damned paperwork that it takes to get a concealed pistol license. One of the sponsors, Triston Cole, calls the permitting process “government overreach”. That’s why he signed on to co-sponsor House Bill 5303. It changes the […]

On Monday, Michigan Democrat David Knezek introduced Senate Bill 734. The bill contains a single sentence: The local financial stability and choice act, 2012 PA 436, MCL 141.1541 to 141.1575, is repealed. Wouldn’t it be beautiful if the entire anti-democratic failed experiment known as Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, a law and policy that has done so much harm to our […]

President Obama now has less than a year left in his final term in office. But that hasn’t stopped the drumbeat of calls for his impeachment among the most fervent haters of the country’s first African American POTUS. This past week, the Michigan 7th Congressional District Republicans passed a resolution asking Congressman Tim Walberg to introduce articles of impeachment. In […]