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Earlier this month in a legislative session that went until the early hours of the morning, both chambers of the Michigan Legislature passed the budget for 2017. Included in the budget omnibus bill is $114.3 million in emergency supplemental funding for solutions to the Flint water crisis. As late as the week before, it looked like there was a good possibility that the Legislature would adjourn for summer recess without passing funding for Flint. The State Senate passed $128 million in emergency funding for Flint with a 34-3 vote in early May. For weeks, the Senate bill languished in the House

On June 6, 2016 we said goodbye to Helen Fabela Chavez, a first generation Mexican American, wife, mother, activist, union bookkeeper and visionary, born in Brawley, California. Not much is known or documented about women activists in the United Farm Workers of America (UFWA). History rarely cites the contributions of the mujeres, esposas, hijas, hermanas, and tias, contributors who led the grape boycott and kept the home fires burning. One thing we do know: Without Helen at his side, Cesar Chavez could not have fulfilled his dream of a union to serve farm laborers. Helen Chavez played a

It was a dark, cold January day, shortly after Michigan officials had finally admitted that the people of Flint had been exposed to poisoned water running through their taps. We drove from Lansing to St Michael’s Church in Flint for an organizing meeting. Local activists, people from the non-profit community, and even experts who had run door-to-door canvasses in response to Hurricane Sandy, were all there to do something about the water crisis that is still being ignored by our state government. It is hard for me to write about what happened in Flint. The most important voices of this tragedy