A couple of years ago, I wrote this: I have been saying for years (since 2011, precisely) that Emergency Management is a model that will not work to solve the intractable problems that have led to financial crises in our state’s former urban manufacturing hubs. Emergency Managers are armed only with tools of DEstruction, not with tools of CONstruction. They […]

Back in 2012, Indiana became the second state after Michigan to pass an emergency manager law that allows the state to take control from locally, democratically elected leaders and put it into the hands of an appointed bureaucrat. The law covers any “distressed political subdivision” which, like in Michigan, includes municipalities or school districts. Furthermore, Indiana’s Emergency Managers have the […]

I haven’t written much about the Flint Water Crisis lately, largely because my pals over at Michigan Advance and the fine reporters at MLive have been doing such a good job. I’m inspired to write today as I reflect on two recent stories, one of which is not actually about Flint. The first story is the astonishing move taken by […]

For the past seven years, the city of Flint has been under the control of the state of Michigan. All government decisions made there were made by an unelected Emergency Manager or, later, a Receivership Transition Advisory Board. In the meantime, the city had its water poisoned with the powerful neurotoxin lead, saw 12 people die from an Legionnaire’s Disease […]

In April of 2012, control over Muskegon Heights schools was handed over to an un-elected Emergency Manager, appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder. By July, Emergency Manager Donald Weatherspoon had signed a contract to turn the entire public school system over to the for-profit charter school operator Mosaica. Two years later the district was still insolvent and having to borrow almost […]

In what can only be described as a Hail Mary attempt to use the Jedi Mind Trick on three judges on the Michigan Court of Appeals, Attorney General Bill Schuette’s Assistant Attorney General Nathan Gambill is arguing that Emergency Managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder are not “state officials”: The Michigan Court of Appeals is weighing legal arguments which may […]

Testimony in the first day of the preliminary examination for Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Nick Lyon, facing felony charges in the Flint Water Crisis, revealed that health experts believe the switch to the Flint River was the cause of the huge increase in cases of Legionnaires’ Disease in the beleaguered city: “My opinion is the most […]

We’ve seen this movie before… Last month, disinfectant dispensing equipment that chlorinates the drinking water supply of Flint, Michigan ran dry, allowing untreated water to be distributed to city residents. According to documents obtained by MLive reporter Ron Fonger, a plant worker attributed the mistake to water plant staff members who are severely over-worked and under-paid: A Flint water plant […]

With the bombshell news yesterday that two former Flint Emergency Managers are being charged with felonies in their connection to the ongoing tragedy known as the Flint water crisis, the calls to repeal Michigan’s anti-democratic “financial martial law” are rising again from around the state. The corporatists that see Emergency Management as a key to accomplishing their dual goals of […]

There is a whole lot of news to report about the ongoing tragedy in Flint, Michigan where the drinking water of tens of thousands of city residents was poisoned with the powerful neurotoxin lead through actions taken by state-appointed Emergency Managers. The biggest news of the day is that Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette is bringing charges against two Emergency […]

Back in March of this year, the city of Flint announced that it intended to file a lawsuit against the state of Michigan in the Court of Claims over the poisoning of the city’s drinking water with the powerful neurotoxin lead. There were no immediate plans to do so but they needed to be on record so that option remained […]