Progress Michigan blog posts.
In 2019, it’s hard to believe we’re still having this conversation—but in response to House Speaker Lee Chatfield’s ignorant comments about why he doesn’t believe in protecting LGBTQ+ Michiganders’ civil rights, let’s make one thing really clear: Despite Chatfield’s bizarre world view, civilized society must not protect bigotry. Of course, this isn’t new. It’s the…
This week, teachers in LA are on strike for the first time in 30 years, demanding better pay and smaller class sizes. Their strike reflects a broader debate between two approaches to education policy: those who want to lift up public schools, and those who favor privatization in the form of for-profit charter schools. Here…
In response to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s executive directive working to end the gender wage gap, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey recently made the elementary argument that he doesn’t see a gap, therefore none exists. Shirkey recently told the Michigan Advance, “I don’t. I have no evidence of such. I have both a staff…
You wouldn’t expect someone who doesn’t speak a foreign language to be your translator. You wouldn’t want a pediatrician designing bridge construction. And you wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t understand the basics of firearms safety to be dictating gun laws in Michigan, would you? Probably not, but unfortunately, Republican Lee Chatfield is the Speaker of…
With a new year comes an old conversation: how to fix Michigan’s sky-high auto insurance rates. Addressing this problem seems to be at the top of the list for Republicans House Speaker Lee Chatfield and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey. As is often the case in public policy, discrimination based on race and gender are…
During an interview with WDET, Republican House Speaker Lee Chatfield said his top two priorities for the House this year are lowering Michigan’s auto insurance rates and expanding the Freedom of Information Act. We’ll focus on the latter of those two issues for this piece because, frankly, this problem can be corrected today. When it…
This week, Detroit News editor Nolan Finley published an op-ed calling for bold solutions in the fight against cancer. He shares his experiences of losing loved ones to cancer, laments that many folks can’t afford care even in cases when treatments would likely succeed, and concludes that we as a society must come together to…
What would the Brian Calley of 2017 say to the Brian Calley of 2019? I pose this question because back in June of 2017, Brian Calley rightly called out the problem of the revolving door of lawmakers becoming lobbyists as soon as they leave office. In a 10-point package of (mostly bad, but some good)…
After retaking the U.S. House in the 2018 midterms, Democrats have announced their first act: an overhaul of voting rights that includes automatic voter registration, independent redistricting, an end to Citizens United-era corporate spending, and a full restoration of the Voting Rights Act. Michiganders also took some of these steps at the ballot box this…
In a state where water contamination is a growing crisis, threats to our Great Lakes go unchecked, and corporate interests lobby to dump pollution into our air and water, people are rightly concerned about the records and proposed policies of those seeking higher office. Throughout the last year, Attorney General Bill Schuette’s record on the…