Michigan Adoption Agency Changes Course, Allows Same-Sex Couples To Adopt

You see? When you fight, you can win. And Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is doing just that. From The Detroit Free Press over the weekend: A major faith-based foster care and adoption contractor for the state of Michigan said Monday it will place children in LGBT homes, reversing course following a recent legal settlement. Grand…

Michigan GOP Hoping People Forget How We Got Here

State Republicans are trying their best to paint Governor Whitmer as a big-city-loving lawmaker who despises those of us who live in rural areas. The playbook has been used for years by Republicans, including the 2016 election. But as Rick Haglund writes in Michigan Advance, it’s kind of rich for Michigan Republicans to play this…

Left of Lansing Podcast Episode Seven–Sean McBrearty from Clean Water Action

Episode Seven of the Left of Lansing podcast is posted! This week, Sean McBrearty from Clean Water Action joins the podcast. We talk about the controversial Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac. Former Republican Governor Rick Snyder and his Republicans rushed through a bill during Lame Duck last year allowing Canadian energy company…

So, By All Means, Let’s Just Keep Doing What We’re Doing?

I know this story broke a few weeks ago, but I want to highlight here because I’ll be covering the environment and the Great Lakes on the next LOL podcast. From Michigan Radio: A new report commissioned by the Environmental Law and Policy Center urges Great Lakes states to mitigate and prepare for the “profound”…

Raising Taxes On Michigan Businesses Won’t Bring On The Armageddon

So says Michigan Advance’s business writer, and friend of the LOL podcast, Rick Haglund. Governor Gretchen Whitmer is proposing a 6% income tax increase on small businesses. Business groups and Republicans are warning of economic peril if Whitmer gets her way. But Haglund refutes critics of the tax increase proposal by saying: Nonsense. None of…

“I Need A Dollar-Dollar, A Dollar Is What I Need.”

Michigan’s minimum wages increased 20 cents today to $9.45 per hour Friday. It won’t reach $12 an hour until 2030 after Republicans delayed the increase by eight years. — Motor City Muckraker (@MCmuckraker) March 29, 2019 Hundreds of thousands of Michiganders signed petitions to raise the state’s minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022….

Left Of Lansing Podcast: Episode 5–Rick Haglund from Michigan Advance

Here’s Episode 5 of the Left of Lansing podcast! This week, Rick Haglund joins us to talk Michigan economics. Rick is the business columnist for the fantastic Michigan Advance news site. I’m telling you, check it out. They do some awesome work over there. I talk about how conservatism is no longer based on solid…

Will Business Leaders Push GOP On Roads?

Susan Demas from Michigan Advance writes: During Snyder’s tenure, there was rarely any daylight between Republican politicians and business leaders. But on Thursday, Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Sandy Baruah was candid about a “growing split” between the two groups on infrastructure. Business leaders have certainly enjoyed their tax breaks, but they’re feeling…