This ad just came up on my iPhone Pandora app: It was complete with the President’s voice exhorting me to call Congress to urge them to pass his jobs bill. “Learn about it, fight for it!” That’s how you use social media/new media, kids. That’s how you win the future. FTW. (P.S., it’s paid for by the Democratic National Committee. […]

Today, former governor Jennifer Granholm and former First Gentleman Dan Mulhern released their new book A Governor’s Story – The Fight for Jobs and America’s Economic Future. The book is an important contribution to the conversation and debate that is occurring right now over our economic path forward as a country. The question is, will the rest of the country […]

I’m reprinting a guest column titled “Dunes Decision Troubling for All”, first published at The Bridge. In this piece, Alison Swan describes how Aubrey McClendon and his development company circumvented the normal legislative process and took his fight to develop the sensitive, rare and, of course, beautiful Saugatuck Dunes directly to the courts. Here, with his deep pockets and bloated […]

I’m reading former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm’s new book A Governor’s Story in preparation for a review I’ll be writing for its release in a couple of days. I came across a paragraph which reminded me why Mitt Romney should probably just skip right over Michigan if he were to win the nomination. He should probably skip over Michigan trying […]

The Sugar Law Center is requesting that Michigan Supreme Court Justice Stephen Markman recuse himself from anything related to their lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager Law: Lawyers fighting Michigan’s tough new emergency manager law want a Michigan Supreme Court justice to recuse himself from the case because his wife represents the government in a […]

I was taking a gander at one of the Republicans’ latest bits of anti-Obama pablum, a report called “Broken Government: How the Administrative State has Broken President Obama’s Promise of Regulatory Reform” (pdf). In it, the very first job-killing regulatory move they decry is described thusly: The removal of the opt-out provision in the EPA lead paint rule is a […]

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how Governor Rick Snyder has asked the Michigan Supreme Court to intervene in a Sugar Law Center lawsuit on behalf of 28 Michigan citizens, challenging Public Act 4, the Emergency Manager Law. Snyder asked the Court to expedite the process and make an instant decision, avoiding the discovery process and fact-finding that takes […]

An event took place this past week that didn’t get much attention but shows us that a lot happens in the White House that we never hear about. Efraim Halevy, an Israeli intelligence expert and former head of the Mossad spoke in New York about the recent uprisings in Cairo, Egypt. He tells the story of three Israelis who were […]

The state House passed a bill today that would prohibit schools from deducting union dues from teachers’ paychecks. The bill doesn’t say they don’t have to provide this service, it says they are prohibited from providing this service. Why? It’s definitely not a cost-saving measure. School administrators agree that the cost to schools for providing this service to teachers is […]

I have a new piece up at A2Politico where I look at the Michigan Republicans attacks on teachers in our state. I also look at how, although teachers are fighting back, politically-speaking, they are also working hard to make things better for our schools, particularly the ones facing the biggest challenges. Teachers unions are also working to help poorly-performing districts […]

This would be hilarious if these idiots weren’t serious. Democrats and Republicans all agree that the nation needs to move on a jobs agenda. And Republicans have a new plan: unleash the reins of snake commerce. GOP members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today called attention to a proposed regulation that would restrict the transportation and importation […]