Tag: waste

Yesterday while the President was turning a long-planned town hall meeting with Macomb County moms and dads into an invitation only speech for Democratic Party donors and big-wigs about Community Colleges a little dose of that "yes we can" attitude was force-fed into the southeast Michigan atmosphere.

If only it'd filtered south a few miles and made it's way into the D, where Robert Bobb has been waging a one-man war with the entrenched Democratic Party education bureaucracy in an effort to turn around one of the most maligned public school districts in the nation.  And the man has been getting things done.

His reward from the all-Dem Detroit Public School board?  A lawsuit seeking an injunction to stop him in his tracks.  The Detroit News:

"We have no problem working with him, but we have a problem with him working around us, (said board President Carla Scott). You can't do something without discussing it with us. You don't have a right to set the policy."

Last week, Gov. Jennifer Granholm's spokeswoman said Bobb, whom the governor appointed earlier this year, is not overstepping his role with the district. Granholm gave him a very difficult job of turning around the district, and he doesn't need to be micromanaged, Liz Boyd said.

Apparently Ms. Scott and the rest of the board (which voted unanimously to take the man to court) didn't get Ms. Boyd's message.  And while I fully understand there is ZERO chance the Governor will actually defend her appointee against elected Democrats in public, at least we've got last week's statement to keep us warm at night.

Not that I wouldn't trade those warm fuzzies for a bit of common sense at DPS.  Let the man do his job cleaning up your mess, Madame Chairwoman.

Read on...

There's the same-old, same-old that could seemingly (and probably will) carry a political conversation for an entire Presidential term with talk of restructuring in the Big 3; this morning we learn the UAW may be making concessions with General Motors.  There's the steady and continuing escalation in jobless claims and applications for benefits.  Autos and layoffs in Michigan.  We've been down that road before and we'll be down it again.

There's better... and more peculiar... news out there this morning, too, though.

We've got Attorney General Mike Cox taking on Blue Cross, for instance, over their decision to again dramatically hike health insurance rates on Michigan senior citizens.  According to the Ivory Tower:

"Blue Cross should stop putting profits over people and focus on its mission as the insurer of last resort," Cox said in a statement announcing the challenge.

Overall, average increases sought would be 56% for non-elderly people buying their own insurance; 42% for group conversion policyholders who purchase coverage they once had at work, and 31% for seniors with supplemental Medicare, also known as Medigap policies.

The massive hikes would slam more than 400,000 Michigan seniors, folks on fixed incomes who can afford it the least.  Of course, BC/BS claims they're caught between a rock and a hard place and can't afford NOT to hike rates.

I get tough times.  If you live in Great Lakes State then YOU get tough times.  Baseball, apple pie, hot dogs and tough times.  That's how we roll.  The Attorney General doesn't think Blue Cross is quite as pinched as they're claiming, though.  Remember, this is the same company that last year gave away more than $1.54 million in bonuses to members of their board of directors.

And while we're on the subject of inappropriate use of scant resources, the Detroit News checks in with the Detroit City Council which continues to break land-speed records for inappropriate behavior and irresponsible spending.

The City currently faces a $300 million budget deficit but the City Council has increased their own budget by 12 percent over the last three years and now spends over $6 million a year.

Read on...