Everything former U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) warned against in 2013 has come to pass. Majority Republicans in the U.S. Senate have indeed changed their chamber’s rules to break a Democratic filibuster against the nomination by President Donald Trump of Neil Gorsuch. Gorsuch was confirmed by a simple majority, 54-45 with one absent Senator, this […]
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Will Sex Sink Sparty? Filibuster History; C. Miller Rips Republican Senator, & More …
Will the sex scandal permanently damage MSU? Will ending the filibuster hurt Republicans? MI Republicans are publicly feuding, and is the MI income tax cut alive? https://soundcloud.com/user-595768561/will-sex-sink-sparty-filibuster-history-c-miller-rips-senate-leader-more/s-WoW6E
Michigan Scores High in “Pivot Counties” That Voted for Both Obama and Trump
Michigan was among the top states in the nation in our number of “pivot” counties — those that voted for Barack Obama twice (in 2008 and 2012) and Donald Trump once, last fall. Twelve counties in Michigan (out of a total of 83) were “pivot” counties, tying us with Illinois for fifth-most in the country. […]
Letter to the Editor: Redistricting Expert Blasts Detroit Free Press for Bias and Hypocrisy
A former state legislative aide renowned for his knowledge of legal and judicial history has excoriated a Detroit Free Press reporter and the newspaper’s editorial policy that favors establishing an independent commission to draw Congressional and legislative maps. Bruce A. Timmons, for decades a key committee staffer for both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in Lansing, […]
Legislation Introduced to License Weather Forecasters
LANSING — A bi-partisan bill to license and regulate meteorologists and TV/radio weather forecasters was introduced in the Michigan House of Representatives Friday. The measure’s primary sponsor, State Rep. Sam Yeotis (D-Engadine), said he had secured 96 co-sponsors from both major political parties, well more than the 55 votes needed to the pass the bill […]
Scandal in Capitol; Trump v. Bill Clinton; Flt. Water Update with Paul Egan
Another scandal under the Capitol dome? Is Trump like Bill Clinton? What’s going on with the Flint Water Crisis–interview with Paul Egan from the Freep. And future Senator Kelly Rossman-McKinney? https://soundcloud.com/user-595768561/more-scandal-in-capitol-trump-v-bill-clinton-flt-water-update-with-paul-egan/s-LUUpc
Snyder on Verge of Overlooked Historic First
Rick Snyder is about to become the first governor in Michigan history to single-handedly appoint a four-member majority on the state Supreme Court, and he will have done it in just his seventh year in office. The only other governors with as many appointments to the high bench as Snyder were William G. Milliken and […]
Trump and Trade; Hertel v. Bishop; Mark Gaffney, Unions & Great Lakes Freighters
Bill Ballenger and Dennis Denno talk Trump and free trade, discuss Sen. Curtis Hertel v. Congressman Mike Bishop, and interview Mark Gaffney about unions and Great Lakes freighters. https://soundcloud.com/user-595768561/march-24/s-ljEDS
The New Yorker: Are Liberals on the Wrong Side of History?
Three new books interrogate the premises of the Enlightenment. By Adam Gopnik The true élite of modern societies is composed of engineers, mechanics, and artisans—masters of reality, not big thinkers.Illustration by Leigh Guldig Of all the prejudices of pundits, presentism is the strongest. It is the assumption that what is happening now is going to […]
Does Tennessee Have a Lesson for Michigan?
There have been three Michigan governors who lay in state in the capitol rotunda in Lansing after they died (Stevens T. Mason, Frank Fitzgerald in 1939, and George Romney in 1995), but only one state legislator received such an honor. That would be Mo Hood (D-Detroit), who died in 1998 at the end of his […]