It’s a good gig if you can get it… After leaving as Detroit’s Emergency Manager, bankruptcy attorney Kevyn Orr was quickly tapped to do consulting work for a newly-appointed Emergency Manager in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Orr has completed his work there after just over three months and returned to work at his former employer Jones Day last week. During […]

The contentious nature of Proposal 1 has been well documented on these pages and both Chris Savage and I have taken a great deal of criticism and of have been the recipients less than honorable insults from some of you who believe that to disagree on an issue somehow makes us instant conservatives or “slackies” for the Right. Of course […]

To call their stubborn refusal to listen to the public “tone deaf” is an understatement. On Tuesday, three vocal opponents of marriage equality visited Michigan — a state where a recent poll shows strong support for legalizing same-sex marriage. New state-based polling data from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that Michigan voters favor marriage equality by an overwhelming margin: […]

A couple of weeks ago, Eclectablog team member Charles Gaba – publisher of the internationally-recognized ACASignUps.net – busted Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck for spewing lies about the Affordable Care Act. Charles found no less than seven clear factual errors in Colbeck’s op-ed in The Detroit News. Here are a few of the more egregious items: He claimed that the […]

Part 3 of series. Part 1 is HERE and Part 2 is HERE. I have been writing about my strong support of Proposal 1 over the past couple of weeks. I have found few issues that have so divided the progressive community as much as Prop 1 has. Those of us, like me and Tony Trupiano, who have advocated for […]

In a move that demonstrates the Democratic principle of fairness for all, lawmakers seek update to Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. In a press conference today, members of the House and Senate Democratic caucuses urged an update of the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) that will protect Michiganders from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Placing LGBT […]

There is a great deal of speculation on how the Supreme Court will decide the case of Obergefell v. Hodges, the case that will likely decide once and for all whether or not same-sex marriage bans at the state level are constitutional or not. Yesterday, they heard two and half hours of oral arguments, an unusually long session (most are […]

With the U.S. Supreme Court hearing testimony tomorrow on the constitutionality of same-sex marriage bans in places like Michigan, I thought it would be a good time to repost my interview with April DeBoer and Jayne Rowze. Although much has happened since our interview a bit over a year ago – like the addition of a fourth child to their […]

Legislation would give state-funded, faith-based agencies the right to refuse service to anyone on religious grounds. Those of us who support equality for all were hoping for the best, but were largely unsurprised by the 4-1 vote by the Michigan Senate Families, Senior & Human Services Committee to send a package of discriminatory adoption bills for consideration and a likely […]

If you’re on Governor Snyder’s email list you recently received his most recent glitter bomb of self-congratulation. In it he points out that Michigan’s unemployment rate has dropped by half from 11.2% in December, 2011, but offers no reasons for this drop. It’s reasonable to assume the drop is primarily related to the increase in auto sales along with the […]

Senate Families, Seniors and Human Services Committee to meet on bills that would allow adoption agencies to refuse placement of children based on religious objections. Once again, the Michigan Legislature isn’t wasting any time moving forward with bills that could hurt Michigan children and families, and the voices of Michiganders who oppose faith-based discrimination need to be heard. On Wednesday, […]