January 30, 2008 – 1:04 am
Near the end of tonight’s State of the State address, Governor Granholm put Michigan’s current challenges into context, noting that “When history is written, it will say that this decade of economic turmoil was among the toughest any state had to face in generations.” Against that historical backdrop, Granholm asked “How will that history judge [...]
January 24, 2008 – 12:37 pm
When Britain’s Labour party took power in 1997 after 18 years of Conservative rule, their theme song was D:Ream’s “Things Can Only Get Better.” (You can even see Tony Blair “singing” it here.) The song served as Blair and New Labour’s version of “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)” that worked so well for Bill Clinton [...]
September 17, 2007 – 10:01 am
While you might not know it from all the budget news out of Lansing, the last couple weeks have seen some big news at the crossroads of economic growth and the environment. First, today’s Great Lakes IT Report is reporting that Chrysler is setting up a new entrepreneurial engineering division to focus the company’s efforts [...]
September 20, 2006 – 10:07 am
A supporter recently passed along a slick campaign mailing produced by my opponent’s legislative office and mailed out at taxpayer expense. As if the fact that we as taxpayers have to pay for his campaign efforts wasn’t enough, the piece actually contains deceptions as to the industry-friendly diversion loopholes that were written into the Water [...]
September 7, 2006 – 10:17 am
Don’t take my word for it. Those are the words of Dr. Howard Tanner, who ran the Michigan DNR under Governor Milliken, speaking tonight at a forum at Benzie Central High School. Dr. Tanner noted that while Michigan used to have an environmental reputation that was second-to-none, our water and air are now getting dirtier, [...]
The Michigan League of Conservation Voters has once again released their legislative scorecard, and once again, my opponent has received a failing grade for consistently voting against measures designed to protect Michigan’s natural heritage. On the eight issues most important to protecting our state’s environment, the Michigan LCV gave my opponent a score of just [...]
In 1925, Henry Ford predicted that cars rolling off his assembly lines would someday be fueled by vegetation “like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust – almost anything.” [1] Nearly a century later, renewable, plant-based fuel is on its way to becoming a large-scale reality. This weekend, the Michigan Energy [...]
A new report out from the Michigan Land Use Institute sheds some light on a dangerous loophole in Michigan’s new Water Legacy Act that undermines our state’s ability to secure the future of our Great Lakes. Though there is much to like in the new law, the law contains language that allows for the first [...]
March 10, 2006 – 12:06 pm
The debate over Michigan’s Single Business Tax (SBT) is one of the hottest in the state right now, with Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson leading a petition drive to eliminate the SBT in 2007. Yesterday, the State House Tax Policy Committee approved a bill that would do the same thing.
Many of the issues involved [...]
Yesterday, a Canadian trash truck dumped over 15 tons of raw sewage all over I-275 in western Wayne County on its way to dump that human waste in a Michigan landfill. Less than a day before the spill, State House Republicans engaged in yet another round of self-congratulation for solving Michigan’s trash crisis. My question [...]
