Steve Ingersoll has become the face of charter school operators scamming Michigan taxpayers by siphoning tax dollars intended for education into their own personal bank accounts. Ingersoll founded and operated the Bay City Academy in Bay City and the Grand Traverse Academy in Grand Traverse County. Last spring he was convicted on three counts of criminal tax fraud connected to […]

The anti-labor group Protecting Michigan Taxpayers (PMT) was formed in 2012 as a front group for anti-union forces who wanted to defeat Proposal 2 which would have enshrined collective bargaining rights for workers into Michigan’s state constitution. The group had been dormant since their victory in November of 2012 but was resurrected last spring to push a ballot initiative of […]

Remember when the Democratic Party was the party of the “big tent?” As of today it seems to have become a two-candidate party. But it certainly didn’t happen in an organic way, that is by voters hearing what each candidate envisions for the U.S. and why, and then winnowing out the candidates that lack vision, leadership skills, or more importantly […]

The unbearable costs of Republican politicians pandering to their base Michigan’s Attorney General Bill Schuette is wasting taxpayer agenda to join another partisan lawsuit designed to stifle the agenda of a president his state overwhelmingly supported twice. The Detroit News reports: Led by West Virginia, the states are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit […]

Yesterday I wrote about a report from the Center for Media and Democracy that showed how 25 proposed charter schools in Michigan received $1.7 million in tax dollars but never actually opened. It turns out that one of those schools was the Detroit College Preparatory Academy, the brainchild or “dream” of a woman named Natasha Baker. Here’s what Baker’s dream […]

The worst irony of our political system is that the party that wants to gut Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid — the three programs that have combined have cut the senior poverty rate from about 35 percent to about 10 — is in only power because of the votes of senior citizens. It’s time to change that — or at […]

On September 29th, conservative Republicans in Congress spent over five hours interrogating and badgering Planned Parenthood CEO Cecile Richards over selectively edited video that distorts the truth about what Planned Parenthood does. Despite being treated shabbily by the men on the committee she testified before, often interrupted and prevented from answering questions, she handled it with finesse and aplomb. Yesterday, […]

This week, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) released a scathing report on charter schools in 12 states which have received federal funding. The report, titled Charter School Black Hole shows that Michigan charter schools received $34,997,658 between 2010-2015 under the federal Charter School Program (CSP). 139 of the 297 charters (as of 2014, the number is up to […]

“Only the Michigan GOP could look at crumbling roads, underfunded schools and struggling communities and think, ‘You know what? We need LESS revenue’.” That quote from Progress Michigan executive director Lonnie Scott sums up what happened last night in the state legislature perfectly. After more than two and a half years of wrangling to find $1.2 billion annually that experts […]

This afternoon, Vice President Joe Biden announced that he will not be running for the Democratic nomination for the 2016 presidential election. His speech made me a bit weepy when I read it. Then I watched the video and got teary-eyed again. While I think he ultimately made the right decision, I have nothing but admiration and affection for Joe […]

Bipartisan legislation would require hospitals to staff enough nurses to care for patients. This is something you’d think everyone could agree on: There should be enough nurses on a hospital’s staff to give patients the quality care they need. But if you’ve ever been in the hospital, you know that’s not always the case. And it’s downright dangerous. Numerous studies […]