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This public syllabus started out modestly, as a short syllabus for the Summer course I'm teaching on Literature and Social Engagement. I wanted to teach a course that was rooted in local and regional social concerns and chose to focus, which should come as no surprise...

Look, I've written this same post I don't know how many times, so I won't belabor it. But what's the point of a system that pretends to hold corporations accountable without ever holding them accountable. I mean, I appreciate that the DNR Commissioner wants to pretend...

Do you get déjà vu? Among the very first assignments I gave myself when I started this blog more than ten years ago was to read and draw some lessons from the comprehensive report released in July 2012 by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) after its...

I'm on vacation this week, enjoying the Lake Michigan paradise so many of us are working to protect. For that reason, I don't have time to provide any real analysis here. But I do want to note that major news has come from federal court in Wisconsin: a judge has rule...

Shameful. Reprehensible. Disgusting. Settler colonialism in action, 2022-style. A year or so ago, I wrote about Enbridge's cheap pr stunt aimed at sowing division among tribal members. At the time, I said it was probably the worst thing they'd ever done. But this...

Today marks twelve years since Enbridge Line 6b ruptured near Marshall, Michigan and spilled a million gallons of diluted bitumen into the Kalamazoo River. As of this writing, I haven't seen any acknowledgment of the grim anniversary from Enbridge, even though they...