This week Michigan legislators passed a package of bills dubbed “The Grand Bargain” that will help our state’s largest city, Detroit, get back on its feet. Missing from that package was a bill that would have prevented regional municipalities from renewing the existing voter-approved 10-year millage or the levying a new millage to fund the Detroit Institute of Arts. (Details […]

Attempting to deceive senior citizens is, simply put, sick and disgusting. Governor Snyder is summoning his inner Obi Wan Kenobi, using the Jedi Mind Trick to try to convince seniors that he’s not taxing their pensions. “I want to be proactive, ” he said, “and let people know it’s NOT a pension tax. What we did was clean up our […]

A couple of weeks ago, Amy Lynn Smith posted about an upcoming awards dinner being hosted by the amazing organization Michigan Universal Health Care Access Network (MICHUHCAN) is a state-wide network that promotes comprehensive health care for everyone. When she posted it, I said in the comments, “Hopefully Amy Lynn Smith is up for an award from this group. She’s […]

We can’t do anything about climate change but we won’t just sit back and let women get birth control Less than a day after President Obama unveiled his plan to curb carbon emissions using the EPA’s regulatory power, China indicated that it will be curbing its carbon pollution for the first time ever. This historic act of cooperation (and self-preservation) […]

Last week, Governor Snyder pretended that he’s suddenly concerned with adding protections for LGBT folks to our state’s civil rights law, the Elliott-Larsen Act. As I have already said, this is a sham. Governor Snyder’s own words show how squishy his “support” is: “I’m encouraging them to say there’s been a lot of dialog and discussion on this. It’s been […]

Without Obamacare, the KyNect exchange is just website that lets people know they can’t afford health insurance When Republicans lie about Obamacare, it’s hardly news. But the lies coming out Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul in Kentucky show what a bind the party is in now that the Affordable Care Act has truly began to take hold and work as […]

Yesterday at the Mackinac Policy Conference on Mackinac Island, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder did an about-face on his position regarding civil rights for members of the LGBT community. His actions or, rather, lack of actions on behalf of the LGBT community are well-known so the abrupt change is cause for considerable skepticism. Snyder spelled out his new-found interest in LGBT […]

If you need any further proof that The Michigan Embarrassment, Terri Lynn Land, is out of her league in running for the U.S. Senate, this is it: A gaggle of reporters, photographers and cameramen clamored to get in a few questions to the former Secretary of State after the forum on Mackinac Island where she and U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, […]

Back in March, I wrote about an effort by McCoig Materials to create a gravel mine just north of Chelsea, Michigan in Lyndon Township. Here’s what I wrote then: As you look at the photo of downtown Chelsea above, imagine 80 gravel trucks a day, 6 days a week rumbling through the middle of it and then back again after […]

Many of us in the progressive arena advocate passionately for LGBT civil rights. And right we should; it is literally the civil rights struggle of our time. Interestingly and unfortunately, LGBT rights have become mainly synonymous with civil rights for gay and lesbian men and women. Bisexuals like myself often aren’t taken seriously by straight or queer people and we […]

Koch tested. Right to Life approved. Democrat Gary Peters continues to lead his likely Republican opponent for the U.S. Senate Terri Lynn Land. Meanwhile, Republican hopes of a wave that could help them take over the Senate should be waning, if Republicans actually paid attention to polls they don’t like. The Washington Post‘s Greg Sargent notes: A pair of new […]