One major piece of legislation was approved in the 98th Michigan Legislature’s lame duck session, which adjourned Dec. 15 except for a few last-minute house-keeping duties on New Year’s Eve. In the dying hours of lame duck, lawmakers gave final approval to an overhaul of the state’s energy policy in a deal brokered by Gov. […]
Yooper Solons Don’t Like Wolves
There he goes again! A bill sponsored by that veteran scourge of four-legged predators, state Senator Tom Casperson (R-Escanaba), is moving with lightning speed through the Legislature and could reach Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s desk by week’s end. The measure (SB 1187) would resurrect wolf hunting in Michigan despite a litany of defeats for the […]
Mark Brewer Returns from Elba — What’s Next?
Does Mark Brewer want his old job back? Could be, and his party could do worse than let him have it. When longtime Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Brewer was ousted from his post at a 2013 party convention after a record 18 years at the helm, one immediate result was that judicial campaigns are no […]
Michigan Presidential Vote Recount Imbroglio
Mass confusion continues to reign over what is happening, or may happen, with respect to a recount of the Nov. 8 election results in Michigan. Everyone knows Green Party candidate Jill Stein has petitioned for a recount, even though she received only 1% of the vote. Against all odds, she’s winning her battle to get […]
A Letter to Lansing from Ann Arbor
In the wake of her Nov. 8 general election victory, the newest State Representative from the 52nd State House District evidently plans on spending only a single term in the state House before she takes on her next goal — winning election to the state Senate in 2018. That’s the only way you can explain […]
Presidential Recount in Michigan? Here’s How Things Stand
The Board of State Canvassers has certified Republican Donald Trump’s victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton by a margin of some 10,700 votes in the Nov. 8, 2016 general election. Libertarian Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee Jill Stein trailed well behind, with some 5% of the vote between them. Now Jill Stein claims she’s raised […]
Is There Hope for Michigan Democrats? Wisconsin Says Yes!
In a major victory for those who believe it must be up to the courts to rein in reapportionment plans that give an unfair advantage to one political party or another, a three-judge federal panel of judges ruled last week (Nov. 21) that Assembly districts in the Wisconsin legislature, drawn up by majority Republicans five […]
Feeding the Hungry: 26 Years of Harvest Gathering
“If you extend your soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.” — Attorney General Bill Schuette, quoting from Isaiah, Section 58, Verse 10, before hundreds of gatherers at the state’s 26th Annual “Harvest Gathering” at the Country […]
In Michigan: What Happened Last Tuesday?
The stupefying Campaign 2016 is now history, but would putting it in some historical context help us understand it? First, The horse-racing style “odds” established by The Ballenger Report were certified as being what odds frequently are — WRONG! In horse racing, the odds-on favorite in a multi-horse race actually wins only about a third […]
48 HOURS TO GO: The Final Odds in Michigan
It’s fitting that the final week-end before the 11/8 General Election features one of horse racing’s premier events, the Breeder’s Cup, staged at California’s iconic Santa Anita Downs. True railbirds care more about whether California Chrome can win the Cup’s showpiece, the Classic, than if a sagging Hillary Clinton can hold off a fast-closing Donald […]