Category Archives: Michigan

Michigan… come for the great lakes, stay for the corporate oligarchy

By Mark | May 7, 2013

According to the Detroit News, our Governor’s secret education privatization task force, nicknamed the Skunk Works, was just the tip of the iceberg. Apparently, in spite of Snyder’s pledge to bring unprecedented transparency to Lansing, a great deal of the legislation coming out of the Capital these days seems to be the product of corporate [...]

Also posted in Uncategorized | Tagged corporatocracy, cyber school, education reform, Michigan is doomed, Oxford Foundation, privatization, Rick Snyder, Royal Oak, school vouchers, secrecy, shadow government, Sidney Kardon, skunk works, threats to Democracy, threats to public education, transparency | 25 Comments

Jessica Meissner on assisting non-venture capital backed companies, and expanding the role of co-ops in Michigan

By Mark | May 5, 2013

Among the people in the audience at Thursday night’s “Doing Business in Ypsilanti” panel, was a woman who has been tasked by Washtenaw County to study the needs of non-venture capital funded entrepreneurs, and make suggestions as to how we might better support them. Her name is Jessica Meissner, and what follows is our email [...]

Also posted in Economics, Ypsilanti | Tagged access to capital, Alternative Energy, BALLE, BEC, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, co-ops, collaboration, cooperation, cooperatives, corporatocracy, Costa Rica, Dug Song, economic anthropology, Jessica Meissner, local procurement, Maker Works, Organic Valley, Paul Saginaw, purchasing, sharing assets, Small and Mighty, small business, sustainably, The Shed, Tom Root, triple bottom line, underemployment, unemployment, University of Michigan, venture capital, Washtenaw County, Wisconsin, workforce development | 9 Comments

Who speaks for the wolves of Michigan? We do.

By Mark | May 4, 2013

Last year, as you may recall, our friend Jeff Clark worked with noted labor historian Peter Linebaugh to produce an ambitious little book which touched on everything from the history of May Day, and the inherent vampirism of capitalism, to the life of Demetrius Ypsilanti, the hero of the Greek Civil War whom our city [...]

Also posted in Environment | Tagged Aldo Leopold, Beezy's, book making, books, Christine Hume, Christopher Camuto, circumventing the democratic process, commons, Derrick Jensen, Edible Commons, Franklin Burroughs, friends with books, Fund for Wild Nature, Geoffrey G. O’Brien, hunting, Jack Turner, James Galvin, Jeff Clark, Jeff Irwin, Juna, Keep Michigan Wolves Protected, lame duck, legislative tricks, Marybeth Holleman, May Day, McNaughton & Gunn, Natural Resouces Commission, Norm Bishop, Pure Michigan, Republicans, Rick Snyder, SB 288, Terry Tempest Williams, threats to Democracy, Tom Casperson, Tsilikomah, Ugly Mug, Upper Peninsula, wolf, wolf hunting, wolves | 44 Comments

Governor Snyder’s office and corporate interests conspire in “secret work group” to bring voucher system to Michigan K-12 education

By Mark | April 20, 2013

In November, I told you about an attempt on the part of the Michigan Republicans to create a parallel, for-profit education system, right alongside the Michigan public school system, unanswerable to anyone, save for an appointee of the Governor. Well, according to a report in yesterday’s Detroit News, things are progressing quickly thanks to the [...]

Also posted in Education, Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged Bay Mills Community College, Bhushan Kulkarni, charter schools, David Behen, dismantling of public education, distance education, EduCard, edutainment, keeping the poor from education, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, MEA, Michigan Education Association, Michigan Education Card, Mike Huckabee, Oxford Foundation, public education, public school teachers, Rick Snyder, school vouchers, Steve Cook, teachers, threats to public education, top secret, trends in American education, value school | 37 Comments

Raising the minimum wage in Michigan is the right thing to do

By Mark | April 15, 2013

At the end of last week, Democrats in Lansing, led by State Senator Bert Johnson, proposed that we increase Michigan’s minimum wage to $10 an hour, from $7.40, where it’s been set for the past five years, in spite of the rising cost of living. Given that it would make Michigan’s the highest minimum wage [...]