Senator Rick Jones appropriated the words of Queen Bey last week when he proposed taking away health insurance benefits for couples that live together but aren’t married. Currently, the law says that unmarried people are allowed to apply for state benefits just like married couples are, as long as they live together. Sen. Jones was…
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Chances are that you, like me, know someone who has or has had breast cancer. It’s the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. That’s why it’s so important that women have regular breast cancer screenings, like…
Your mother’s, sister’s, aunt’s, coworkers’, neighbors’, and friends’ ability to make their own reproductive decisions are under attack – again. An anti-choice group called the Center for Medical Progress has released a series of secretly recorded videos seeking to attack Planned Parenthood and eliminate the organization’s national funding. A third graphic video was just released…
I was in Phoenix, Arizona last week for Netroots Nation. Netroots is one of the biggest progressive conferences in the country. Every year, thousands of activists come together to make new connections and build relationships with others to make progress on the issues we care about most. We also stand together in solidarity when the…
It’s been a banner week for Michigan utility companies. First, with the help of our Attorney General, Bill Schuette, utilities got a free pass to continue polluting our air and water from the Supreme Court. In a 5-to-4 decision, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote: “It is not rational, never mind ‘appropriate,’ to impose billions of dollars…
In case you missed it, Governor Snyder signed the 2016 state budget on Wednesday. Naturally, the governor touted all of the decent things about the new budget but failed to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts being made to critical public services like environmental quality, community health, human services, and transportation. To…
Today, the Michigan Prayer Breakfast Committee held their annual prayer breakfast in Lansing. The prayer breakfast is a time each year when corporate-backed organizations, conservative elected officials, and out-of-control capitalists come together to pontificate about “following the ways of the Lord” while simultaneously attempting to disenfranchise struggling families, women, and LGBTQ people; undertones of homophobia…
I first met Donyetta Hill last year while working on the campaign to raise Michigan’s minimum wage. I had only been working at Progress Michigan for about two months and was still getting the hang of working for one of the largest progressive communications hubs in the state when suddenly we were thrust into an…
Remember when I blogged about how great it would be if leaders in Lansing created a budget that bettered the lives of all Michigan residents? Well, that’s not what Governor Snyder did when he presented his 2016 budget on Wednesday. Just as he did during his last term, the governor has plans to slash programs…
Winter is in full swing in Michigan, as is flu season. Even the most rigorous hand washing, sanitizing, and multivitamin regimen can’t always protect us from the dreaded flu or cold – especially if you have kids (a.k.a small germ factories). When an unexpected illness strikes, sometimes it’s impossible to even get out of bed,…