Enrollment is open to help Flint residents access vital healthcare services. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Flint water crisis is a public health emergency. Every single one of the nearly 100,000 residents of Flint have been exposed to dangerous levels of lead, with no resolution in sight to ensure them access to safe water. Meanwhile, the long-term […]

Back in the early 90s, Michigan Gov. John Engler – the first of Michigan’s corporatist governors – oversaw the creation of the for-profit charter school industry in our state. Pitching it as “forcing schools to compete”, he signed legislation that opened the floodgates for charter schools to siphon away tax dollars intended to educate children into the coffers of private […]

The following guest post was written by my friend Jen Eyer, Vice President of Vanguard Public Affairs. Jen has spent many years in the world of journalism and most recently managed the newsroom for The Ann Arbor News, part of the MLive Media Group. You can read her full bio HERE. This piece was first published at the Vanguard Public […]

House Bill 5674 is grounded in medical science and puts patient safety above religious ideology. A medical emergency is a dire situation, no matter who you are or what you believe. But when a patient shows up in the emergency room of a Catholic-affiliated hospital, she doesn’t know whether she’ll be treated based on established medical standards of care or […]

In an interview with the Associated Press last week, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder pointed to Michigan’s economy as heading in the right direction. Gov. Rick Snyder on Wednesday said people should be mindful of Michigan’s continued economic resurgence even as the state grapples with lead in Flint’s drinking water and enormous debt in Detroit’s public school district. The Republican governor, […]

An open letter to my friends on the religious right Dear pro-lifers: I know you’re busy tricking women into thinking they’re getting reproductive health care, trying to deny women access to birth control and making sure teenagers only learn about sex by reading the comments on Breitbart dot com. But we could really use your help right now. It’s called […]

Last year, Tali Wendrow penned two guest posts for Eclectablog. In the first, she described the outrageous treatment her family received at the hands of former Oakland County Prosecuter David Gorcyca and his staff. Here’s what Tali wrote in that piece: In late 2007, our family suffered a nightmare of enormous proportion as my husband was charged with the worst […]

“This package [of legislation] is a handout to criminals.” – Rep. Adam Zemke Gary Naeyaert is a “member of Team Jesus” and the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP). GLEP is Betsy DeVos’s project to destroy public schools in Michigan to make way for the proliferation of for-profit charter schools that siphon tax dollars into the bank […]

He’s much more afraid of being known as a fraud than a racist You know the 2016 election is getting to you when Donald Trump’s bigotry starts to make sense. Continuously confronted with most outwardly bigoted major candidate since George Wallace, you could easily to forget that Trump’s use of racism is strategic, as it seems as haphazard and spewed […]

“Sit, dog. Sit. Good legislator! Have a check.” NOTE: This post has been updated to clarify the changes that have been made with regard to collective bargaining contracts. In the dog training world, dogs are often trained using delicious treats. When a dog does what it’s told to do, it gets a treat as a reward. Then, over time, the […]

How one agender person is learning to present their personal truth. This is part of a story series about the lives of transgender people. Read the introduction here. Like most 20-year-olds, Kel is on a journey of self-exploration. But there is one thing Kel is certain of: They do not want to be defined by gender. That’s why Kel uses […]