My daughter turned 26 this past fall and is no longer covered by my health insurance. She had the misfortune of graduating from college with a Masters in bassoon performance right in the middle of the Great Recession. Though she has an advance degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, finding a full-time position with an orchestra or symphony has […]

Three years ago, I I wrote about being sexually assaulted by a doctor when I was ten years old. It was a story that I had kept to myself for decades and the decision to share it came after I came to the realization that our national conversation about rape and sexual assault was a complete train wreck. Two years […]

Today is December 15, 2014 and that, in itself might mean many things to you. However, for political observers, pundits, analyzers, etc., today marks the final days of the Michigan Legislative agenda for 2014 and will also usher in, in a few very short weeks, a new House and Senate. This is the last week of what is known as […]

Dr. Stephen Wellinski has been on the forefront of the battle to end the interlocal agreement between Eastern Michigan University and the Education Achievement Authority (EAA). EMU’s connection to Gov. Snyder’s failed experiment with Detroit students is a stain on an otherwise well-earned reputation as a university that teaches teachers and Dr. Wellinski’s leadership on this issue is an important […]

If you want to know how bad next year’s budget battles will be, check out EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy telling Politico‘s Mike Grunwald how she’s “pleased” that this year’s budget, which cuts her agency’s staffing to 1989 levels, only mildly guts her agency. Then, if you want to be eat-a-whole-gallon-of-cookie-dough-ice-cream depressed, read The Fiscal Times‘ David Dayen detailing how the […]

This past week I have been mired in the aftermath of the Board of Regents meeting at Eastern Michigan University, where a politically appointed and partisan Board of Regents ignored the will of those in attendance, the thousands who signed a petition, mountains of evidence that prove that Educational Achievement Authority (EAA) is failing students in Detroit as well as […]

When Rick Perry says, “Running for the presidency is not an IQ test,” we laugh because he sounds like a big dummy. The Texas governor’s buffoonish stab at the 2012 GOP nomination was the rough draft of Dumb and Dumber To. In 2014, he’s wearing smart guy glasses and will probably have braces and a pocket protector by the time […]

The Tea Party of West Michigan (motto: “Influence policy, effect [sic] elections, protect the Constitution”) is a constant source of entertainment and amazement to me. They amaze me because of their impressive ability to turn out their supporters to contact their legislators to get things done according to their distorted worldview in Lansing. They are VERY good at doing this, […]

Republican House Speaker Jase Bolger wants you to believe that he’s found a magical way to fund road repairs without raising your taxes! While it’s true that your gas taxes and sales taxes won’t increase, the entire scheme is based on taking nearly a billion dollars more from schools each year. Local municipalities will take a huge hit, too. How […]

In a 2011 paper published in the journal Nature, Elsa Cleland studied the impact of biodiversity on ecosystems. Her study concluded with this summary: Evidence from multiple ecosystems at a variety of temporal and spatial scales, suggests that biological diversity acts to stabilize ecosystem functioning in the face of environmental fluctuation. Variation among species in their response to such fluctuation […]

This past summer, President Obama issued Executive Order 13672 which will add prohibitions against discrimination based sexual orientation and gender identity in federal contracts. EO 13672 modifies previous Executive Order 11478 by substituting “sexual orientation, gender identity” for “sexual orientation” and Executive Order 11246 by substituting “sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin” for “sex, or national origin”. Last […]