There were some interesting revelations in statements made to day by Jay Carney, President Obama’s Press Secretary relating the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Recall that in the bill to extend the middle class income tax break, Republicans put in a requirement that he give his ruling on it by next month. Follow me over the orange squiggledegibbet for what went […]

It’s not often that I’m scooped in the blogosphere on news about Michigan’s Emergency Managers but, if I’m going to get scooped, I’d rather have it be by Laura Conaway at The Maddow Blog than anyone else. Today she reports that Benton Harbor Emergency Manager Joe Harris removed Marcus Muhammad as Mayor Pro Tem and replaced him with Sharon Henderson. […]

Yesterday, I wrote about how Pontiac Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel signed an agreement with Oakland County to manage monies from a substantial HUD grant. This boneheaded decision, it turns out, would have resulted in a loss of upwards of $800,000 per year for Pontiac. Thankfully, Congressman Gary Peters stepped in to prevent this from occurring. Federal and local politicians lined […]

Generally speaking, the political writing I do is catharsis for me. It helps me to deal with the things that upset me in the realm of politics and government. But, every once in awhile, I write something that actually makes me more upset. My most recent piece for A2Politico is one of them. The piece is titled Whirlpool Corp — […]

The effort to recall Senate Education Chair Phil Pavlov got underway on January 7th. The group working toward his recall now has a webpage, RecallPavlov.org, and is actively seeking petitioners, petition signatures and financial support. Senator Pavlov voted to support the odious “anti”-bullying bill that was not anti-bullying. He has supported legislation that reduces tax credits used by many Michiganders […]

This is shocking to me (though I suppose it shouldn’t be.) Pontiac’s Emergency Manager Louis Schimmel that all but gave away millions of dollars dedicated to the City of Pontiac due to a single decision he made as EM. He was able to do this with no accountability because he is, after all, completely in control of the entire government […]

Last night I spoke on the phone with Pastor David Bullock, the president of the Michigan Chapter of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and the Highland Park NAACP. He and his group are organizing a Martin Luther King Day march on the Ann Arbor home of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder. Details on the “Occupy for Democracy Rally” to protest Michigan’s anti-democratic […]

It’s been no secret that Governor Snyder and his team were going to force union members to bear the full brunt of the financial problems Detroit faces. Now they have finally gotten around to saying it publicly. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the City Council must reach concessions with city unions by early February to avoid a recommendation of state […]

Just a quick note to let you know that we have landed on a final version of the new Eclectablog logo. This one is a vast improvement in a variety of ways. First, the lettering is bolder and more legible. We wanted to keep the font because it’s unique and characteristic. However, the font itself is not that “fat” so […]

Yesterday, I had a guest post from Mark Miller called Michigan Presidential Primary Follies”. In it, Mark describes how the Michigan Republicans basically forced a Democratic candidate (Barack Obama) to appear on the February primary ballot as a way of making it look like Dems shared blame for the expenses incurred by having a primary instead of a caucus. The […]

As Tony Trupiano asked on his Facebook page, “How the the hell was [Janice Daniels] elected?” From the Detroit Free Press: Troy Mayor Janice Daniels, lambasted at a City Council meeting last month for calling gay people “queers” on her Facebook page, is embroiled in another controversy about gay people — this time involving students from Troy High School. While […]