While Flint contends with poisoned water, Gov. Snyder throws an opulent party in Ann Arbor Mark Maynard has an explosive post up at his site that starts with a description of a party he had gotten wind of: I got word this past weekend that there was a secret party taking place in downtown Ann Arbor, a posh event inside […]

After passing legislation to slash revenue sharing to already struggling urban areas including Flint and after passing an anti-democratic Emergency Manager Law – Public Act 4 – and after passing another anti-democratic Emergency Manager law – Public Act 436 – after voters rejected the first one (and making it democracy-proof with an unnecessary appropriation) and after these Republican-appointed overseers – […]

Four state Senators, Phil Pavlov, Joe Hune, David Robertson, and Goeff Hansen have had quite enough of uppity Detroit teachers who have staged “sick-outs” to draw attention to the deplorable – unconscionable, really – conditions in their schools. Images and stories of dead vermin, mushrooms growing out of the wall, disintegrating floors, walls, and ceilings, and clear evidence of black […]

I’m starting today’s news round-up by featuring an essay published by Ann Arbor social worker Beverly Davidson, LMSW, at her “Voices from the Infant, Toddler and Family Field” blog. The post is titled “No words” and the title is cruelly apt. Here’s a taste of what she saw during a recent day of volunteering in Flint: We knocked on one […]

Today’s guest post is by Laura Packard, a partner at PowerThru Consulting, a growing national progressive digital consulting shop. Enjoy. The Flint water crisis didn’t just happen. It’s been a story decades in the making. Cities in America have been on the downswing for many years — deliberate policy on the federal and state level has favored suburbs, and also the preferences […]

Just one day after Gov. Snyder released what he says are all of his emails from 2014 and 2015 regarding his administration’s poisoning of Flint’s drinking water along with the state government’s official timeline, evidence has already surfaced that it, at best, incomplete. Progress Michigan has discovered that his Chief of Staff met with Flint officials regarding lead contamination in […]

[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 […]

Marco Rubio, the presidential candidate who became famous for his bottled water drinking style has weighed in on the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water with lead. When asked by reporters for a comment on the situation, he said, “It’s just not an issue we’ve been quite frankly fully briefed or apprised of in terms of the role the governor has […]

Republicans across the state and even across the country are working diligently to make sure that Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder doesn’t take the fall for his administration’s role in the poisoning of Flint’s drinking water. Michelle Malkin and the Hot Air blog are both of examples of conservative, corporatist water-carriers who want the country to blame the U.S. EPA for […]

It’s difficult to get Republican candidates to provide straight talk about Social Security and Medicare during an election year because both programs are immensely popular with voters and the candidates would rather not be too specific about possible reforms. They remember the dismal failure of George W. Bush to build support for privatizing Social Security in his second term. These […]

It’s clear that the story of the poisoning of Flint, Michigan’s drinking water by the Snyder administration has finally broken through to the national news. It’s not only being reported by major national news outlets, presidential candidates are now weighing in. Today, Hillary Clinton issued this statement: The situation in Flint, Michigan, is extremely concerning. No parent should have to […]