I had the good fortune a week or so ago to attend the Netroots Nation conference in Detroit. Among the people that I met while there was attorney Alec Gibbs, who, in recent years, has been keeping busy representing retired public employees left without adequate insurance in the wake of the Emergency Manager takeover of […]
Tag Archives: Emergency Financial Manager
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Emergency Manager takeover of Michigan, and how we allowed it to happen
If Detroit was a person, Kevyn Orr would be selling its kidneys
This weekend, upon hearing Kevyn Orr’s suggestion that we explore the possibility of selling the art collection of the DIA in order to satisfy the creditors of Detroit, it occurred to me that our newly appointed Emergency Manager might find it a bit more difficult to pillage the public coffers on behalf of Wall Street […]
City Manager Ralph Lange indicates that Ypsilanti is moving toward a hybrid police/fire scheme in which public safety officers will be expected to fight fires, save lives, pursue suspects and dispense lethal force
It would seem that Ralph Lange, our new city manager, has made up his mind that we should merge Ypsilanti’s Police and Fire departments in hopes of further delaying landfall of the category-five fiscal storm gathering on the horizon. He’s admittedly in a tough spot, and I’m sympathetic. He’s trying to radically cut spending, in […]
Middle class Michiganders to pay considerably more in taxes despite the anti-tax rhetoric of Lansing Republicans
Reading an article in the Detroit Free Press this evening about how taxes are going up precipitously on working class Michiganders, I’m reminded of something that I wrote about a year ago for this site. Here’s how my post began. Why is it that we allow the Republicans to refer to themselves as the anti-tax […]
What the WISD got wrong in the marketing of their Ypsilanti, Willow Run school consolidation plans
As of right now, I don’t feel as though I have enough information to make an informed decision concerning the proposed merging of the Ypsilanti and Willow Run school systems. When I heard, earlier this evening, that Washtenaw Intermediate School District administrators had launched a new website with the intention of improving communications about the […]