News & Commentary

The State of Michigan attempted to cover up the fact that its own data revealed a significant spike in lead found in Flint children after the state forced the city to draw water from the Flint River, a researcher who studied the Flint crisis has alleged.

In the summer of 2014, as the City of Detroit was shutting off water to thousands of homes a week, a small group of activists resorted to civil disobedience in an attempt to draw attention to the crisis.

The ACLU of Michigan sent a letter Monday to Detroit Public Schools (DPS) emergency manager Darnell Earley expressing concern over the recent announcement that bilingual clerical staff from several schools in Southwest Detroit will be dismissed. 

With the holiday season in full swing, many of us are focused on family time—celebrating favorite traditions, making new memories or simply basking in the warmth of family and friends.

In a move characterized by critics as both overtly political and terribly damaging, the Board of Regents for Eastern Michigan University on Tuesday decided to keep the controversial Education Achievement Authority breathing when the board ducked a vote that could have pulled the plug on this abject failure.

Last month, Michigan received the dubious distinction of ranking dead last in the nation for state ethics and transparency laws. The State received an “F” based on the weaknesses of these laws and the systems in place to enforce them, which were collectively deemed “An honor system with no honor.”

Constitutional protections should not be guaranteed to only those who can financially afford them. And yet there is an ongoing crisis in Michigan's indigent defense system for those too poor to afford fair and just legal representation.

On Thursday, Dec.3, the first of three victims of the shooting rampage at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs was laid to rest. While our thoughts and prayers were with the victims who were killed or injured, the Senate leadership was doubling down on its intent to divest millions of Americans access to necessary healthcare by defunding Planned Parenthood.

Those in this country with ancestral roots in traditional Africa still revere and adore their warriors, kings, queens and master teachers. When these special people leave this realm and take their places among the ancestors, those who loved them feel the earth tremble. At the moment of transition, Malcolm X, Bob Marley, Chokwe Lumumba, Rosa Parks, Ahmad Rahman and many others caused a figurative, if not literal shifting of tectonic plates for those who stand on the ground that they fought hard to liberate.