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Brady Hoke has been told he is out as head coach at #Michigan, source just told @FoxSports

The far left Eclectablog repeats what is becoming a recurring drum beat in public education in Michigan – poor people can’t afford school choice. If Detroit serves as an example, statewide statistics show that not only can poor families afford school choice, they often times prefer it. There are 51,083 students from Detroit attending charter public schools, which exceeds the 49,172 Detroit students who attend Detroit Public Schools. And about 89 percent of Detroit charter school students are eligible for free-or-reduced lunch status compared to 82 percent of DPS students, according to an analysis of data from the Center for...

Contrary to the White Houses explanation that a few rogue agents in Cincinnati lead the targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS, newly released emails obtained by Judicial Watch detail Democratic Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) pressuring the IRS to target conservative groups. On March 30, 2012 Levin wrote to then IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman about his concern with the political activity by conservative nonprofits. “Some entities claiming tax-exempt status as social welfare organizations under 26 U.S.C.&501(c)(4) appear to be engaged in political activities more appropriate for political organizations claiming tax-exempt status under 26 U.S.C.&527. Because of the urgency of...

...Interview after interview of IRS employees by congressional investigators began to expose the inconsistencies in the administration’s narrative. There were no “rogue” agents, only employees who followed the implicit or explicit directions of more senior IRS officials in Washington. When Washington told Cincinnati IRS employees to “hold” other tea party cases while officials in Washington scrutinized early “test cases” concerning the group, they did it. When Washington told them to assign a tea party case coordinator, they obliged. Employees also told investigators that the IRS chief counsel’s office was not, as the American people were first led to believe, merely...

Rep. Dave Camp (R-MI), the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, told reporters yesterday that investigators have found the IRS targeting scandal did not start in Cincinnati. Cincinnati IRS Agents Say Targeting Orders Came From Washington– (VIDEO-AT-LINK) The Hill reported: The IRS’s singling out of conservative groups did not originate in Cincinnati, the House Republican in charge of tax policy said Wednesday. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) said bipartisan interviews conducted by House investigators had found out that the targeting did not occur in the IRS offices in Ohio that have been at...

If you ask the Michigan Department of Education, Covert High School is not a good school. On the state report card from a few years ago, the school ranked in the bottom 26th percentile. But on a new report card, the school 40 miles west of Kalamazoo is the No. 1 ranked conventional public high school in Michigan. The reason why requires understanding the state’s report card and those done by other groups. In Michigan, schools are ranked based on the state’s Top-to-Bottom list, which grade administrators and schools based 50 percent on overall test scores, 25 percent on the...

In the last five months, Democrats in the Michigan Legislature have introduced 10 bills and two budget amendments that impose more oversight, reporting requirements, regulations, restrictions or an outright ban on charter public schools and the entities that authorize ("charter") them. The bills are part of an escalating battle over the extent which Michigan parents who can't afford or don't prefer private schools can still choose where to send their children to school. The bills come at a time when the number of charter schools in the state has expanded from 240 in 2009 to 303 in the current school...

In late September, State Superintendent Mike Flanagan said in a press release that there was a “dramatic teacher shortage” causing large classroom sizes in Detroit Public Schools. Flanagan called on businesses, career professionals and the state Legislature to help. A review of the number of teachers relative to the student enrollment in DPS, however, doesn’t paint a picture of a teacher shortage. Detroit Public Schools has one classroom teacher for every 16.65 students, a ratio that is a little higher than the state average but lower than higher performing school districts. Teacher-to-student ratios are not the same as class sizes,...

I’m pretty sure that Iowa Congressman Steve King thought that his detractors would give it a rest for a while after he defeated his Democrat opponent by 24 points earlier this month.  Yet once again headlines like, “Stay away from Steve King,” have been published this week.  This time it’s not the liberals who are ranting and raving about King, its nameless “Republican insiders” and a conservative blogger from the Washington Post. On Tuesday, King announced that he is partnering with Citizens United to put on a 2016 presidential forum in Des Moines on January 24th called the Iowa Freedom...

Bankrupt Detroit’s thousands of empty buildings are being flogged at rock-bottom prices — and Chinese investors are answering the siren call of unbeatable deals. With family homes regularly selling for around $10,000, the beleaguered Motor City is now the number-four destination for Chinese housing investors in the U.S. Bigger spenders have already snapped up some of Detroit’s most iconic commercial buildings. “There are factories, commercial real estate and upscale areas around Detroit with proximity to good schools that are worth investing in,” said Wang Ning, deputy manager in charge of international business at China online real estate agency SouFun. The...

About 25 members of the pro-affirmative action group By Any Means Necessary -- also known as BAMN - broke out with chants of "Minority enrollment's been going down, open it up or we'll shut it down" and "We don't need another committee, open it up to Detroit city," during the University of Michigan's Board of Regents meeting Thursday afternoon. The chants quickly turned physical as the protester pressed forward toward the regents. Security responded and the group continued to press forward as multiple protesters were forced to the ground after refusing to back down and move their protest out of...

When it came time for the US Senate to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline, Sen. Mary Landrieu’s (D-LA) “clout” did not have much of an impact on fellow Democrat senators. In fact, 35 of the senators who voted against the project were given campaign cash by Landrieu since the 2008 election cycle. Take a look here at the list of senators who don’t seem to acknowledge Landrieu’s “clout.” Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) $10,000 Sen. Richard Blumenthal (R-CT) $5,000 Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) $10,000 Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) $7,000 Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) $10,000 Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) $3,500 Sen....

A consultant considered an architect to the federal health care law who said a “lack of transparency” and “stupidity of the American voter” were critical to getting it passed reportedly received $481,050 from the state of Michigan, and a recently elected state representative said he wants an investigation. Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who created an econometric model intended to project health care spending and costs under different assumptions, along with his team, was granted a $481,050 contract by the state of Michigan, according to the Washington Post. He was paid that to help set up state...

In 2007, newspapers around the state trumpeted Google’s announcement that it was opening its AdWords office in Ann Arbor. Then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm came down to Ann Arbor for the press conference and former University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman and several high-ranking state officials all commented on Google’s arrival. This week, MLive reported that the owner of the buildings Google currently inhabits will be leasing out that space in 2016, raising questions about Google’s future in Ann Arbor. Google was projected to bring in 1,000 jobs within five years of moving into its Ann Arbor offices. A company spokesperson...

Muslim groups have stepped up efforts to co-opt protests over the fatal shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., with a drive to equate the teen’s death to the death of a radical Islamist shot during an FBI raid in 2009, a Washington-based security watchdog group is warning. Using social media, conference calling and traditional outreach methods, leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are portraying Brown and Detroit mosque leader Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah as African-American victims of police targeting, according to the Washington-based Center for Security Policy (CSP). In a conference call organized by CAIR-linked "Muslims for...

Hall Of Heroes': Michigan School Replaces Mural With Paintings Of Oprah, Obama, And Other Celebrities Michigan parents are infuriated that the “Hall of Heroes” mural depicting historical figures at South Arbor Charter Academy has been replaced with paintings of Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, and other celebrities. South Arbor Charter Academy in Ypsilanti, Michigan, removed the likes of Albert Einstein, Betsy Ross, Gandhi, astronauts, Mother Teresa, and other accomplished historical figures and replaced their images with those of Oprah, Obama, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, and J.K. Rowling. “This is no longer a hall of heroes. Now we have a hall of...

The Truth: According to the website for the Oscar G Johnson Medical Center Veterans Affairs hospital in Iron Mountain, Michigan, the chapel is described as "non-denominational, although weekly Protestant and Catholic services are scheduled there "on a regular basis." The hospital was told that Christian symbols, statues and religious items inside the chapel were no longer permitted. This according to a June 3, 2014, article by Christian Today. The article said that the chapel "was found in non-compliance with a 2008 federal regulation that mandates that the house of worship be nonsectarian." In order to comply with the regulation statues,...

Obamacare architect Jonathan Gruber made $4 million pimping Obamacare. ** $400,000 from Health and Human Services ** $1.6 MM from other states, and that’s just four of them. ** Another $2 milion from HHS for other work. It was a nice gig. The dude made millions because of his central role in lying to get health care passed. Video surfaced this week of Jonathan Gruber admitting the Obama administration lied to “stupid” Americans in order to get Obamacare passed. Jonathan Gruber made $400,000 from HHS. He also made an additional $3.6 million for consulting with states. Glenn Kessler at The...

In 1950 America’s richest city was Detroit. Now it is nip and tuck with Cleveland as the nation’s poorest city. Today, in order to get into the sixth wealthiest spot on the list, the once wealthy and powerful New York City must be lumped in with Northern New Jersey and Long Island. By comparison Detroit was clearly better off 65 years ago than New York City is today. In 1950 Detroit relied on the auto manufacturing industry to fuel its economy and “See the USA in your Chevrolet” to keep the cars rolling off the assembly line. Sixty five years...

On Friday, an overwhelming majority of House members passed legislation sponsored by Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) which approved construction of the long-delayed Keystone XL Pipeline. By 252 to 161, the House opted to send the measure to the U.S. Senate, where it will face a vote from the upper chamber next week which could, for the first time, force the president to determine whether to approve or veto the oil transit route. 31 Democratic representatives voted with every Republican member of Congress save Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), who voted present, to approve construction of the pipeline. It is an...