The following editorial essay was written by Ingham County Clerk and former State Representative Barb Byrum. Enjoy. Administering elections is a fascinating job, and one that I take very seriously. Like Michigan’s other 82 county clerks, I’m focused on providing reliable, secure, and hassle-free voting for all U.S. citizens, including military and overseas voters who face unique challenges in exercising […]

Since publishing my post on teacher silencing yesterday, my mailbox has been inundated with stories from teachers about being harassed, threatened, and intimidated by school district administrators for posting their opinions about standardized tests, opting out, and other issues of education policy and practice. One teacher wrote: I was having a discussion this morning with a colleague and we weren’t […]

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I received the note below from a former student who is now a teacher. For obvious reasons, I won’t identify her or where she teaches, but–shockingly–her story is becoming all too common… We had a union meeting yesterday where they warned us that the governor is going after the certificates of teachers that opted out their kids (of the state […]

There isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t hear some version of, “Wait, you don’t do this as your full-time job?!” And the answer is always the same: No. This blog is what I do when I’m done with my full-time job as a chemist and nearly full-time (volunteer) job as the Chair of the Washtenaw County Democratic […]

Earlier this year, the City Council of Jackson, Michigan passed a non-discrimination ordinance (NDO) that prohibits discrimination against anyone for housing, employment, or public accommodation based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The vote was 5-2. Shortly thereafter, a local group of Jackson residents, supported by clergy in local Catholic churches, started to circulate petitions to rescind the NDO and […]

Here’s a handy way to help history know how big of a creep you are Bill O’Reilly really may be in trouble this time. As an occasionally offensive hack whose Twitter icon is a self-cleaning elephant, I’ll let the free market decide if the career of host of the interminable O’Reilly Factor should survive revelations that Fox News seems to […]

Let’s face it, every day America is becoming more and more like a fascist society. The ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency and the takeover of so many of our state governments by corporatist stooges who are dismantling protections and public schools and civil rights is plain to see and those who are most vulnerable depend on the rest […]

Given the events over the past two months with the ascension of Donald Trump to the presidency, I don’t need to tell you that our progressive values are under daily assault. With blue states like Michigan under total Republican domination, it goes without saying that we are all feeling the brunt of their anti-women, anti-worker, anti-public schools, anti-government attacks on […]

Recently, I spent the day observing two student teachers. Both were teaching instrumental music in middle and high schools, and each was assigned to an experienced, master teacher. But that’s where the similarities end… One of the student teachers was placed in an urban school and the other in a rural school. The differences between these two schools were stark, […]

Republican Congressman David Trott from Michigan’s 11th Congressional District has a long and sordid history profiting from the “human misery” caused when his foreclosure business threw victims of the Bush Recession out of their homes. He didn’t just run a foreclosure-based law firm. He created a vertically integrated machine to ensure that he got profit every step of the way: […]