[All photos by Anne C. Savage, special to Eclectablog] As lawmakers and other political movers and shakers in Michigan gathered together in the cozy warmth of Michigan’s State Capitol Building for Governor Snyder’s 2016 State of the State Address, over 500 protesters from around the state gathered in the frigid cold outside to demand substantive action by the state government […]

We’re inside now thawing out from standing in the frigid air during the protest but I thought folks would like to see a brief video of the protest. After the press conference at Lansing City Hall, at least 500 protestors moved to the steps of the State Capitol Building to cause a fuss.

Baxter Jones was a Detroit middle school teacher and track coach in 2005 when his car was struck from behind by another vehicle. The horrendous accident left him with traumatic brain injury and he is now unable to walk or speak clearly. Five years later, while on family medical leave, he was let go from the Detroit Public School system […]

This past weekend, protesters from around the state gathered at the Mackinac Bridge to call for the shutdown of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline. The pipeline (actually TWO pipelines) are 62 years old and were built in a time when regulations were far more lax than they are now. Had the Great Lakes Submerged Lands Act been in place when the […]

A group of 13 Greenpeace protesters are suspended from the St. Johns Bridge over the Willamette River leading to the Portland, Oregon harbor. The icebreaker MSV Fennica has been in the harbor for repairs and planned to return to Shell Oil’s artic drilling area. Oil drilling there cannot take place without the equipment being delivered by the Fennica. They are […]

What I thought was going to be a review of the premier of the documentary that made its Michigan debut on Sunday, March 8, 2015 at the Maple Theater in Bloomfield, MI, titled, She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry is turning more into a testimonial in many ways. Many deeply personal ways. Director/Producer/Writer Mary Dore was in attendance for the premier […]

Even top educators are walking away The “school district for wayward schools”, Michigan’s Education Achievement Authority, has been under increasing scrutiny over the past year. Questions have been raised about the veracity of their testing and test scores. State legislators on the Education Committee have raised red flags only to be told they have to file Freedom of Information Act […]

He was depressed don’tchya know [Photo credit: RTAmerica | Wikimedia Commons] John Pike, the UC-Davis university police officer who painted a line of seated, subdued students participating in an Occupy protest received a workman’s compensation payment last week to the tune of $38,059. Apparently, he was depressed and suffering from anxiety after receiving death threats for his inhumane treatment of […]

Knee-deep in irony

A new health care facility being built in Battle Creek is being fiercely criticized for hiring mostly out-of-town, non-union workers. Borgess Health Park, a 65,000 square foot facility which broke ground late last year, has hired 21 contractors for the nearly $27 million construction project. However, of those, only two of the 21 contractors are local and only one of the two is unionized.

In a true bit of bitter irony, very few of the construction workers who will build the facility have health insurance coverage themselves meaning that they probably would never be able to afford the services Borgess will provide when construction is completed in 2014.

Click through for details.

Be there or … hell with that, just BE THERE!

There will be a HUGE rally at the State Capitol Building in Lansing on Tuesday, November 11. Labor groups, progressive allies and Planned Parenthood are teaming up to demonstrate a show of solidarity unlike any we’ve seen yet.

Details and more after the jump.

This is going to be big

Next Saturday, May 5, 2012 is the kickoff of the second attempt to recall Rick Snyder. It will start with a huge rally at the state Capitol building and you won’t want to miss it. The event starts at 2:00 and thousands of people are expected to attend.

In fact, it’s essential that thousands of people DO attend. The huge rallies in Wisconsin galvanized the activists and volunteers there and we need to do the same here as we fight back against a conservative/corporate takeover of Michigan.

Please plan to attend and help spread the word throughout all of your networks.

Speakers include…