Last October I penned a piece titled “Michigan’s Emergency Managers were supposed to fix corruption and ineptitude. They haven’t.” That could just as easily be the title of this post as U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade today unveiled federal charges against twelve current and former principals, an administrator and a vendor with Detroit Public Schools: Twelve current and former principals, an […]

The election of Donald Trump would be a threat to the global economy on par with “the rising threat of jihadi terrorism,” according to The Economist‘s Global Forecasting Service. It’s easy to see why policy experts who value sober reasoning, conventionality and actually knowing things are terrified of Donald Trump, who doesn’t seem to even grasp the basics of, say, […]

House vote on ‘abortion coercion’ bills held to appease Right to Life. Supporters of choice have been wondering when the other shoe was going to drop on the deceptive anti-choice “abortion coercion” bills that passed out of the House Judiciary Committee in September 2015. That shoe hit the House floor on March 24, with a vote almost entirely along party […]

We may be at a tipping point It’s Easter Sunday and that can mean only one thing: it’s time for the annual repost of our Peeps® post. Enjoy. Spring came early to southern Michigan this year so on Good Friday, my wife Anne and I put our kayaks in the Huron River and set out to document the effects of […]

Prior to 2013, the Voting Rights Act required federal oversight of changes to election laws in areas where voter disenfranchisement had historically been a significant problem. One of those places was Maricopa County in Arizona. However, after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act three years ago, Maricopa County officials were free to make whatever changes they wanted. […]

The following guest post was written by Nate Breznau of Mannheim Centre for European Social Research. He is the co-author of a new study that looked at the disparate racial impact of Michigan’s Emergency Manager law, Public Act 436. The academic study proves that the elements involved in the imposition of an Emergency Manager in a city go beyond simple […]

The headlines tell the tale: The Detroit News: Task force: EM decisions led to Flint crisis Detroit Free Press: Task force slams Flint crisis, demands review of emergency manager law The Wall Street Journal: Michigan Officials Responsible for Flint Water Crisis, Panel Finds The Guardian: Flint water crisis was ‘environmental injustice’, governor’s taskforce finds The Washington Post: Scathing independent report […]

The term “Emergency Manager” was not invented by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and his corporatist Republican colleagues. In fact, Emergency Managers existed before that crew got around to passing what is perhaps the most anti-democratic legislation ever seen in the United States. According to the U.S. Council of the International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM), Emergency Managers are professionals whose […]

Republicans are very upset that President Obama continued on with his trip in Cuba after the disgusting terror attacks in Brussels today. They are also upset that he’s in Cuba, that he is president and that he exists. Of course, the majority of Republicans will prefer Donald Trump and Ted Cruz’s immediate gut reaction, which is to abandon the Constitution […]

The Affordable Care Act has transformed the healthcare landscape, and the work continues. Six years ago, on March 23, 2010, President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) into law. Even as he celebrated the historic achievement in healthcare reform, he admitted there was still work to do — and he was right. Since that day, President Obama and healthcare […]

Coinciding with World Water Day, the Obama administration released details of massive investments in water resource conservation, water system infrastructure upgrades, and heightened awareness of water resources in general. You can read the full report HERE. Of particular interest to Michigan in light of the Flint water crisis, the report outlines a number of corporate responses to the White House […]