U.S. District Judge Mark Goldsmith finally weighed in on Michigan’s presidential vote recount, something the country has been waiting on since around 1 p.m. This evening he ruled that the recount should now end. This is the result of a Court of Appeals ruling saying that the Board of State Canvassers ruling that Green Party presidential candidate’s petition to start […]

The next decisive battles for the soul of the country will  take place in Michigan and Ohio, again One big reason Republicans want to wait three years before actually passing an Obamacare replacement is that they have a real chance of putting together a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate come 2018. That and they no motherpupping idea how to replace […]

We talked about this during this week’s podcast but I think it deserves a post all of it’s own. Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards recently completed a new round of testing of the water entering the homes of Flint residents and found that 43% of them are still contaminated with lead: Water in Flint continues to improve, researchers reported Friday […]

As I mentioned in my update last night, a Michigan Court of Appeals panel ruled that the Board of State Canvassers needed to reconsider Jill Stein’s petition to force a recount and reject it. At nearly the exact same time, the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the federal order allowing the recount, rejecting the appeal by Michigan Attorney […]

As I wrote about earlier this week, one of the more outrageous things being pushed through during the Michigan legislature’s lame duck session is a 13-bill package that would “end post-retirement health care for new local government workers and generally force existing workers and retirees to pay 20% of their post-retirement health care costs”. This was the first time that […]

When Green Party candidate Jill Stein announced her intention to demand recounts in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, I was skeptical. In fact, it looked to me like she was simply using it as a way to raise money and, more importantly, her profile along with getting Democrats to sign up for her email list. I’m still not so sure that […]

NOTE: This post is a companion piece to this week’s episode of The Sit and Spin Room podcast. Click HERE or scroll to the bottom of the post to listen to the podcast or find it wherever you get your podcasts by searching for “Sit and Spin Room” on iTunes, Stitcher, etc. The news that President-elect Donald Trump had nominated […]

He sees not only the risk to his young son’s health, but to the economy and the country at large. When a healthy child starts having uncontrollable seizures out of the blue, it’s terrifying. So is the prospect of having to cope with a serious medical condition without health insurance. For Pete and his family, his six-year-old son’s diagnosis of […]

This past week I wrote about a package of voter suppression bills currently being blasted through the state legislature (HERE and HERE.) They are House Bills 6066, 6067, and 6068. Here’s a piece of what I wrote on Friday: First, we have the voter suppression effort that I wrote about on Wednesday. This legislation does away with the option to […]

Let’s just dispense with the euphemisms. Republicans are poised to ram through bills that will make it harder to vote in Michigan. Here’s where we are. Michigan already had a voter ID law, but this new legislation toughens up the process. Currently, if you don’t have your ID when you vote, you sign an affidavit and cast a provisional ballot. […]

Like President-designate Donald Trump, and his nominee for Secretary of Education, Michigan billionaire and Amway heiress, Betsy DeVos, I’m a huuuuge proponent of “school choice.” What’s more American than the freedom to choose (unless you’re a woman, and we’re talking about reproductive health choices–but I digress…)? It’s a fundamental human right to be able to make important personal choices about […]