What’s next? Secession?

Since the Newtown Massacre, there have been thousands of additional gun-related deaths in this country. It stimulated a national debate with a heighted push for sensible gun regulation. In response to this debate, Michigan Republicans have introduced legislation that would make it a felony to enforce any federal laws that attempt to regulate gun ownership.

Details after the jump.

Casting the first stone in the name of the Lord since forever Tuesday the Associated Press announced that they would no longer use the term “illegal immigrant.” Besides the fact that people aren’t illegal, actions are, there are several reasons AP made a good decision. Foremost, it’s inaccurate. “Illegal” is a poll-tested Frank Luntz-term designed to gin bigots up and […]

We’re on a roll with guest posts here at Eclectablog this week. Today we have a terrific essay by Amy Lynn Smith, a Michigan-based writer and communications strategist who frequently covers healthcare, government and issue advocacy. She’s writing about Senate Bill 136, legislation that is touted as giving healthcare providers a right to decline to provide or pay for certain healthcare services that they find “objectionable”. As you’ll soon see, this bill is dangerous and there is far more to it than first meets the eye. Fortunately it has not yet passed in the Senate or the House so there is still time to contact your legislator and urge them to vote against this odious, discriminatory bill.

Amy comes to me highly recommended as a writer. In addition to her writing, she served as Deputy Digital Director for Obama for America-Michigan in 2012. You can read more from her at www.alswrite.com and you can find her on Twitter at @alswrite. Please welcome her to Eclectablog. Her piece is after the jump.

The following op-ed was written by Chris Hansen, a teacher in Lansing. He is writing about an educational experiment in Michigan called the Education Achievement Authority (EAA.) The EAA started in the Detroit Public Schools as a way to focus attention on the poorest performing schools by grouping them into a district of their own. The Chancellor of the EAA is John Covington. He was a controversial choice since the school district he left in Kansas City lost its accreditation after he left. I have written about the EAA extensively (click HERE for past posts.)

On March 21st, the House narrowly passed legislation that will expand the EAA statewide and will include up to 50 school districts. The vote was 57-53.

Chris Hansen earned a B.A. in Education from Michigan State University and M.A. in School Administration from Central Michigan University. Please welcome him to Eclectablog. Click through for his essay.

“Citizens United v. FEC is one of the most destructive Supreme Court decisions in the history of this country”

In August of last year Dean of the House Congressman John Dingell introduced the Restoring Confidence in our Democracy Act. This legislation sought to undo the democracy-crushing impact of the now-infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision that has allowed huge sums of money to be spent by wealthy individuals and corporations to pervert our elections and subvert our democracy.

Congressman Dingell will be reintroducing this bill during the current legislative session and tomorrow at 6 p.m. in Ann Arbor he will hold a public forum and panel discussion to discuss it.

Click through for details.

Sometimes you just have to ask “How much money and greed is enough?”

Meijer, Inc. is one of the largest privately-owned companies in the country. When he died, Frederick Meijer, the son of the founder of the company, was worth $5 billion. The stores pioneered the concept of “one-stop shopping”, a shopping center where you could buy everything from car batteries to fresh broccoli.

This past year, Meijer, Inc. has been challenging its tax assessments around the state, saving itself millions and millions of dollars, money that is coming, in large part, directly from the coffers of the municipalities and schools where their stores are located. The Lansing area seems particularly hard hit.

Click through for details.

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 global climate change on the wildlife of our area. What we found was both stunning and shocking.

Click through for the stunning evidence.

Bigotry is just plain hard to defend Since the Supreme Court hearings on Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act earlier this week featured some of the worst arguments ever made in front of the highest court in the land, Republicans have been retreating from their strict position that the federal government should ban same-sex marriage like it’s Mitt […]

Roy Roberts may be a convincing liar but he is still a liar

Michigan’s experiment with Emergency Managers has begun to catch national attention, thanks largely to the efforts of Rachel Maddow and her staff. One of the things that has become quite clear from the things I have written about here and the terrific reporting by The Rachel Maddow Show is that, despite the fact that our state is relying on budget-cutting Emergency Managers to solve problems that are complex and multi-faceted, they have yet to show that they actually WORK. Simply stated, outside of one tiny village, there has yet to be a city or school district that has emerged out from under and Emergency Financial Manager or an Emergency Manager and remained financially stable.

The Detroit Public Schools has been under the control of an Emergency Manager or Emergency Financial Manager for many years. The first Emergency Financial Manager, Robert Bobb, actually left the school district in a bigger financial hole than when he arrived. He was replaced by Governor Snyder by an auto industry marketing and sales guy, Roy Roberts.

Roberts is very proud of his work and went on national television to tell the world that the Detroit Public Schools are back and, not only are they back, they are kicking some serious academic ass, surpassing the state average MEAP scores in a majority of categories.

As it turns out, it was a complete lie. Click through for details.

At what point does climate change denial become a mental illness?

The Great Lakes are now at historically low levels. So low, in fact, that Governor Snyder was forced to prevail upon the legislature to pass emergency funding to dredge 58 harbors and bays so that ships and recreational vessels can continue to use them.

Yet, somehow, the corporate-funded climate change deniers still have a voice in what is no longer a debate about the reality of global climate change.

Much more after the jump.

The fight to reclaim our state in 2014 starts TODAY

Today Michigan, the birthplace of the labor movement, becomes the 24th Right to Work state in the USA. It’s also the day that PA 436, the Emergency Manager law Republicans passed to thwart the wishes of Michigan voters, goes into effect. PA 436 transforms all Emergency Financial Managers to Emergency Managers (EMs), giving them powers above and beyond financial matters as they are the sole rulers of the schools and municipalities over which they have complete power.

Much more after the jump.