Progress Michigan blog posts.
Image by Steve Rhodes via Flickr For out-of-work Michigan residents, news today from Washington, DC that Governor-elect Rick Snyder decided against lobbying fellow Republicans on their behalf couldn’t come at a worse time. State officials have already stopped taking unemployment benefit applications from jobless workers and nearly 200,000 Michigan families face a grimmer holiday season.…
Image via Wikipedia John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the incoming Speaker of the House and Senate Minority Leader, respectively, are reading the results of the 2010 midterm elections as a mandate from Americans. In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post (which, curiously, also boasts a contribution from Ben Affleck, a piece that strikes a much…
If it’s even a little true that we play out our fantasies through the movies we watch, then what are we to make of Rick Snyder’s choice for budget director? John Nixon, executive director of Utah’s Office of Budget and Planning, was named today by the governor-elect to be the point person in dealing with…
E.J. Dionne writes this morning about the politicization of Thanksgiving by the right in a column entitled “A holiday from bickering.” Until I read E.J.’s column morning I was completely unaware that historians from the Tea Party had been training their sites on today’s holiday. Apparently the idea of sharing–even a meal–is an attack on…
If you read a front-page Detroit News story this morning headlined “High Teacher Salaries Under Scrutiny” you might have been shocked to learn that some teachers make $100,000 and that some “could” make near that if they had a master’s degree. The News’ spin on the story was that teachers were getting rich while the…
It’s a good thing the United States Supreme Court decided corporations were people too and gave them permission to secretly spend unlimited amounts of money on politics just in time for the 2010 elections. Otherwise Republicans might have had a harder time winning control of the U.S. House and all of Michigan state government. Soon…
Over the past few months, you’ve probably been bombarded with messages about voting. Perhaps some have even come from Progress Michigan. Obviously, we believe that voting is important – your vote is your voice in the dialog about the future of our state. You wouldn’t enter an important roundtable without arming yourself with information, and…
Image via Wikipedia Lately, my five year old has been trying out a new approach to getting what she wants. When her father or I nix one of her requests – say, for ice cream at 9 am – she will sometimes devolve into a tantrum riddled ball of (supremely adorable) rage, which will cause…
Business Leaders for Michigan–the big business CEOs who want big tax cuts for themselves–are investing heavily in this year’s election. So far the CEO-led group’s campaign spending topped $200,000, according to campaign finance records on file with the Secretary of State. BLM invested heavily in House Speaker Andy Dillon, who lost his election for governor…
Do you get paid mileage for driving TO work? Me either, but Commissioner Mark Ouimet thinks he should, and managed to rack up $35,000 in mileage and per diem charges – including driving to work. From AnnArbor.com: Commissioner Kristin Judge, who pushed for the change, said for the first time publicly on Friday that the…