This court decision “could restore small-d democracy across Michigan” Last night, Rachel Maddow reported on something that regular readers of this blog already know: a recent federal appeals court decision has major implications for the potential striking down of Michigan’s anti-democratic Emergency Manager law. While this news is, in my mind, HUGE, it barely got noticed anywhere including in Michigan […]

“I tried to do stuff” isn’t really a platform, is it? [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] I find it a bit puzzling that Rick Snyder hasn’t yet confirmed that he is running for governor in 2014. Most people didn’t know about his 2010 candidacy until he ran the now-famous “one tough nerd” ad during […]

Constituents send a message to the Tea Party loyalist: You’re in Washington to represent all of us. While U.S. Congressman Kerry Bentivolio and Speaker John Boehner hobnobbed with supporters at an undoubtedly pricey fundraiser at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham on Friday, constituents from across Rep. Bentivolio’s district banded together outside. And they had plenty to say to their Congressman, […]

Four TONS of toxic coal ash are dumped into Lake Michigan every time it sails The S.S. Badger is a ferry that runs across Lake Michigan from Ludington, Michigan to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. It is an old and outdated vessel that burns coal for fuel. Every day that the S.S. Badger makes its trip across Lake Michigan and back, it dumps […]

Seriously, DEQ? Why do we even have these laws if you don’t enforce them? Last month I wrote about Kalkaska-based Team Services being busted for spraying salt water contaminated with toxic industrial solvents at hundreds, even thousands of times the legal limit. The brine sample contained 28,000 parts per billion of benzene, a known human carcinogen; 1,000,000 parts per billion […]

Michigan represent!

Michigan’s next Secretary of State, Professor Jocelyn Benson was on Up with Steve Kornacki this morning, talking about what’s happening in Michigan right now, how Detroit got to where it is today, and our path forward. It was a refreshingly smart and thoughtful conversation.

Watch it after the jump.

Too poor to bail Graphic by Anne Savage Not that we were expecting the federal government to do for a failing urban giant like Detroit what they did for big corporations like GM and Chrysler or monstrous banks like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase. But this right here? This is dickish: Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) is pushing an amendment that […]

This should frighten EVERY Michigander [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] As we watch the drama related to the bankruptcy of Detroit play out on the national stage, it’s worth recalling something I have mentioned in the past: Governor Rick Snyder is guided by the “101 Recommendations to Revitalize Michigan” (pdf) of the corporatist front […]

“Like the phoenix, Detroit WILL rise again” – Former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm I had a meeting yesterday with a client looking for current photographs to reflect their growing business, with its many new employees and in its new location only 10 miles north on Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit. This client was a good 50-minute drive away from where […]

Pure Iowa Graphic by Anne C. Savage After it was revealed last week that the state of Michigan had awarded a $1.5 million contract to produce and distribute a Michigan tourism magazine to an Iowa-based company, Crain’s Detroit Business filed a Freedom of Information Act request and learned that at least two Michigan-based companies had come in with lower bids. […]

Michigan’s “stand your ground” law resembles Florida’s more than any other state Graphic by Chris Lozos The tragic death of unarmed Trayvon Martin in Florida was a direct result of that state’s odious “Stand Your Ground” law. The fact that George Zimmerman was acquitted of his death is a direct result, not of the six female jurors ignoring the law, […]