Welfare reform hasn’t been kind to Tamika Thomas. Eight months ago, the 33-year-old lived in a rental home in Detroit with her four children. She attended Wayne County Community College, where she was working her way toward an associate’s degree in radiological technology that would have led to the first good-paying job of her life. […]
Welfare reform results: few jobs, few state answers, refuge in a vacant home
Posted inChildren & Families
Some Michigan welfare recipients get reprieve
When the long-awaited cash appeared in her Bridge card account June 29, Elizabeth Weaver had her list ready. She made an appointment to repair her car, which had been leaking coolant for months. The 31-year-old bought shelves, and filled them with toilet paper and toothpaste, things she can’t buy with food stamps. “I need to […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Analysis: State department doesn't live up to Gov. Snyder's transparency pledge
By The Center for Michigan “As Governor, I will ensure that government is open, fair, and accountable to the citizens by making Michigan a national leader in transparency and ethics.” That’s what Rick Snyder pledged on the campaign trail two years ago. Yet last month, the Michigan Department of Human Services gave two completely contradictory answers […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Education in the light of present-day knowledge and need calls for some spirited and creative innovations both in the substance and the purpose of current pedagogy” — Anne Sullivan Macy, tutor of Helen Keller. * Stockton, Calif., just became the largest U.S. city to ever file for bankruptcy. The invaluable Atlantic Cities site rounds up […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Elites are trying to wrest control of courts from the voters
By Dan Pero/American Justice Partnership The recent recommendations of Michigan’s Judicial Selection Task Force have been widely hailed by legal elites, prominent newspaper editorial boards and others. Yet the proposed changes would do little to reduce the influence of money or politics in the judicial selection process, while seriously weakening the power of ordinary voters […]
Posted inGuest Commentary
Guest column: Unfunded legacy costs = big trouble for local governments
By Robert Daddow/Oakland County deputy executive “Property tax revenues implode.” “Deficit elimination plan draconian.” “Troubled pension plan may not pay benefits.” “Pension investments crash, will cost retirees.” These troubling headlines reflect a branding that no responsible official would ever want to see for their community. They create an image that stains a local unit as […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Knowledge is the small part of ignorance that we arrange and classify” — Ambrose Bierce, 19th century American writer. * Owners of charter boats and ferries all around the Great Lakes are either having to curtail their passenger loads or upgrade their fleets to comply with a new federal standard on weight. “The rule went […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Kicking cancer, embracing hope
When Jamiah Williams sat down to watch the St. Jude Telethon, an annual event dedicated to raising money for children’s cancer research, she did so simply to spend some quality time with her mother. Little did the 9-year-old from Detroit know that just a few months later she, too, would be diagnosed with cancer. “It […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Talking Detroit's Eastern Market, the hunt for the Michigan potato, and other food stuff
Dan Carmody joined Detroit’s Eastern Market Corp. in 2007, just in time to catch the local-food wave. The market district covers one square mile on Detroit’s east side and holds about 150 businesses, but the public draws are the five city-owned structures where, on Saturdays year-round, Metro Detroiters flock to buy fresh produce, meat and […]
Posted inQuality of Life
Michigan food and the case of the Chinese cherries
Matt Gougeon runs the Marquette Food Co-op, a store that began the way a lot of co-ops did in the 1970s, as a buying club for a number of families who wanted food that was hard to find in the Upper Peninsula. Over the years, it’s grown into a 3,200-square-foot store with $5 million in […]