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 […]

As I reported back in April, two pension boards in the City of Detroit filed suit in the U.S. District Court challenging the Republican-passed Public Act 4 — The Emergency Manager Law. From a now-unavailable Detroit Free Press article: The City of Detroit’s two pension boards have challenged part of the state’s new emergency financial manager law, calling it unconstitutional […]

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 […]

Not surprisingly, there is a huge push to “Buy Michigan” to help our local economy these days. For example, there is Buy Michigan Now, BuyMichiganProducts.com, Buy Michigan First, and Think Michigan Made. With all of this, I was shocked to see this on my parking ticket last weekend: Click for a larger version Really, Ann Arbor? You’re outsourcing the processing […]

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 […]

I’ve been on vacation with twelve of my wife’s family members in town so the blogging has been light. Normal blogging resumes this week. Here’s an update of what’s been happening in my fair state. Remember when Republicans took over Congress in Washington, D.C. and they reversed Nancy Pelosi’s “Green the Capitol” effort just to be dicks? Michigan Republicans are […]

As I have written about before, tomorrow, October 1st, over 41,000 Michiganders will be thrown off the welfare rolls in Michigan. Nearly 30,000 children are affected by this. Over half of these families live in Detroit where, as reported by the Detroit News, 21,000 families will now be without benefits. In Part 1 of a 2 part MLive series, there […]

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 […]

The Committee to Recall Rick Snyder announced this morning that they have failed to gather enough signatures in the amount of time allotted by the Michigan Constitution to place the recall of Rick Snyder on the ballot. It is with a measure of sadness that we announce that the bid to recall Gov. Rick Snyder will come up short in […]

You know what I hate? I positively detest the phrase “union thugs” or “union goons”. It implies this organized group of people willing to harm others to make sure they get their way. When you look at what Republicans are doing to unionized teachers in Michigan, you realize that when Senate Majority Floor Leader Arlan Meekhof says making our state […]