A federal judge in Michigan today smacked down a new Republican-passed law that will throw tens of thousands of Michiganders off the welfare rolls with little notice, temporarily halting its implementation. A federal judge today accused the state of “sleight of hand,” and halted plans to end welfare benefits to nearly 41,000 Michigan residents. U.S. District Judge Paul Borman determined […]

Reporting by the Livingston County Press & Argus shows that Michigan schools will take hit of over a half billion dollars under a new plan by Michigan Republicans to eliminate the state’s Personal Property Tax (PPT). The elimination of a state tax on business furniture and machinery would further cut funding for Michigan’s public schools, state and school officials said. […]

Yesterday at their two-day state convention in Detroit, Michigan AFL-CIO members elected Karla Swift as the organization’s new president. Swift replaces Mark Gaffney who led the group for 12 years. Karla Swift (pictured right with UAW president Bob King in Lansing), is a long-time organizer for the International Union, the UAW and for various community groups. Most recently she was […]

This past week, Rep. Tim Walberg (MI-07) sponsored a jobs fair. So far, so good. I’ve been waiting for him to do something, anything related to jobs so I view this sort of thing favorably. Unfortunately, the fair doesn’t appear to have been very successful. On Wednesday, I hosted a Job Resource Fair at the Jackson County Fair Grounds. This […]

Last week, former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and her husband Dan Mulhern released their new book A Governor’s Story – The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future. (You can read my review of their book HERE.) Since then, they have been on a whirlwind national tour, conducting newspaper & magazine interviews, talking on radio shows, and appearing on television […]

On Mackinac Island at the GOP Leadership Conference this week, Governor Rick Snyder got a frigid reception from tea party types on his position on a new bridge to Canada, Right to Work for Less bills, and a new proposal for doctors to report children’s body mass indices in an effort to curb childhood obesity. The question, at this point, […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Eclectanews) – Observers from around the world gathered in America’s capitol this week to observe the expected end of the world as a confluence of three profound events threatened the planet Earth’s very existence. First, on Tuesday of this week, a decades-old military policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) was repealed. This occured after over a […]

Michigan state Representative and advocate for making Michigan a Right to Work for Less state, Mike Shirkey, has been busted for showing higher than normal level of Republican hypocrisy (“GOPocrisy”) today. Todd Heywood of Michigan Messenger reports that Shirkey benefited from a tax abatement involved with creating a “Tool and Die Recovery Zone”. The tax break gives his nonunion company […]

A plan to privatize nurses aides at a state-run veterans health care facility is drawing sharp criticism from unions as well as patients at the facility. At a Michigan Civil Service Commission (MCSC) hearing this week, Commissioners heard from a variety of speakers asking them to reverse their decision. Don Slocum sought relief from the heat in the shade of […]

Singer Pat Boone now has solid proof that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. What’s his proof? He went to Kenya a while ago and some people there told him so. President Barack Obama may have released his birth certificate this spring to debunk rumors that he was born outside the United States, but old school crooner Pat Boone […]

President Obama’s new-found populist voice has reinvigorated liberals across the country and across the blogosphere. This week, for example, you would hardly recognize the Daily Kos vaunted Recommended List. Former Obama-bashers are thrilled that the president is coming on strong, naming names and shaming the shameful in his fight to get his new jobs bill passed. Example after example of […]