The Congressman from Flint, Michigan, explains why the American Health Care Act isn’t really about healthcare at all. By now, you’ve surely seen it: The beer bash at the White House where House Republicans jubilantly celebrated robbing an estimated 24 million Americans (and counting) of their health insurance after their “repeal and replace” vote on the American Health Care Act […]

We have a saying in Michigan: There’s really only 3 seasons in our state: Winter, summer, and Road Construction season! To that I would sadly add a fourth: Testing season. And we are now firmly entrenched in the middle of this, the worst season of all in our neck of the woods. I’ve been seeing high levels of anxiety, stress, […]

In what can only be described as a laughable op-ed in The Detroit News today, multi-millionaire Republican and Foreclosure King David Trott attempts to portray a Republican bill to roll back consumer financial protections under Dodd-Frank and kneecap the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), a federal bureau that has “won almost $12 billion in refunds and relief for an estimated […]

Anyone who listened to our podcast interview with Flint activist Melissa Mays knows that having their drinking water poisoned with the powerful neurotoxin lead is only part of the ongoing catastrophe they continue to deal with three years after the switch to the Flint River. In addition to elevated lead levels, residents are still experiencing skin rashes, bacteria-related respiratory infections […]

Tuesday is National Death to TrumpCare Day. Call 866-426-2631 and be a lifesaver. Despite little evidence of that it’s swaying anyone, Trump’s White House wants a vote on the new, even more deadly version of TrumpCare this week and it could come down to just a few votes. We explained why on this week’s The Sit and Spin Room but […]

While the world was reeling and dealing with the outcome of the November 2016, an election won by a man who claims to value jobs over the environment and the climate, wind energy was quietly sneaking into fourth place as the source of electricity in America. In 2016, for the first time, wind energy became the leading source of renewable […]

The following essay was written by my friend Desiree Cooper. Desiree is the author of Know the Mother, a freelance writer, and the former Communications Director for Planned Parenthood of Michigan. Enjoy. Birth control is a no-brainer. Americans have agreed that family planning is a good thing as far back as 1936, when Gallup first asked whether Americans favor the […]

In the past couple of days I’ve seen a number of troubling statements about education and policy-related issues, like standardized testing, from a variety of political leaders. And I keep coming back to the same word to describe how I feel after reading their ideas about the state of public education. Disappointed. One of these statements was from a hopeful […]

House Republicans continue to show their true, cruel colors with the latest amendment to their bill to gut Obamacare. [NOTE: This post was written when the House was debating the AHCA, but it remains true about every Republican attempt to repeal the ACA.] I’m sick of being a pawn in the Republican game of repeal and replace. I’m sick of […]

Trump’s long-awaited platitudes mean nothing if his administration continues its propaganda wars At my Hebrew School, every day felt like Holocaust Remembrance Day. My first teacher in my first year of Bar Mitzvah preparation was a survivor of a camp, I never found out which one. We’d seen her tattoo and I noticed her occasionally brushing her fingers against it. […]

The following guest post was written by Dennis L. Green, a retired certified Professional Engineer from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD). Dennis graduated from Cass Technical High School’s Electrical program in 1963 and received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Lawrence Tech in 1969. After graduation, Dennis went to work for the Detroit Water Department, Engineering […]