Posts by Ed Brayton

We’d already reported that ACORN had closed all of its offices in the state of Michigan. The Metro Times confirms that the organization that found itself under attack, primarily by conservative politicians and interest groups over its voter registration program, has no operations at all in the state of Michigan.

The Thomas More Law Center, founded by Tom Monaghan of Domino’s Pizza fame, has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of several Michigan religious leaders against the federal government over the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, which was passed into law last year.
The plaintiffs include Gary Glenn, president of the [...]

The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners have joined Rep. John Conyers and the family of slain Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah in demanding a thorough inquiry to reveal the truth about the circumstances that led to the Muslim leader being gunned down in an October raid on a warehouse in Dearborn. The Detroit Free Press reports:

While Gov. Jennifer Granholm and other Great Lakes leaders were meeting at the White House with the leadership of the key executive agencies involved, the Obama administration released the details of a 25-point plan to prevent the destructive Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes — but stopped short of agreeing to close the locks [...]

Attorney General Mike Cox has filed a brief, along with 13 other state attorneys general, in a case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court called Christian Legal Society v. Martinez. The case involves the question of whether recognized student organizations at a publicly funded university can set their own standards for membership or whether the [...]

According to one Michigan resident, Phyllis Schlafly’s ultra-conservative Eagle Forum has been taking out radio ads attacking Rep. Pete Hoekstra, a Republican running for governor, and broadcasting them on talk radio in the Detroit area. The resident posted about this on gather.com and describes the commercials:

When the Detroit crime lab was shut down in the fall of 2008 after a report found a “shocking level of incompetence” in handling and analyzing evidence, the already underfunded and overworked state police crime labs had to try to pick up the slack on the extra work. Somewhere along the line, however, it was [...]

The Michigan Senate overwhelmingly approved the sale of $250 million in bonds by the city of Detroit, which will be used to pay down the city’s already existing $300 million in debt. The House already approved the legislation and Gov. Granholm is expected to sign it. The bonds will be guaranteed against future property tax [...]

One of the things Gov. Granholm proposed in her State of the State speech was to restore the funding for the award winning Pure Michigan ad campaign. As if on cue, a new study commissioned by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation has concluded that the campaign drove half a billion dollars worth of economic activity [...]

State Rep. Andy Coulouris (D-Saginaw) already surprised observers by announcing last month that he would not run for reelection. Now he’s leaving his seat vacant for the last 8 months of his term — and doing it to become a lobbyist for Dow Corning. The Saginaw News reports: