Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Gabriel Powell
The last thing Michigan needs is rent control for mobile home parks
| Font size: 75% 100% 125% 150% Lawmakers in Michigan are considering bills that would impose rent control on mobile home operators. Five bills before the Senate create many new regulations, including restrictions on owners of manufactured housing communities. Instead of determining their rental rates independently, they would have to submit any rent increases above the inflation rate to a state board for approval. Controlling prices is the wrong way to get affordable housing.
Michigan Senate takes aim at hunting
This article is edited and expanded from testimony submitted to the Michigan Legislature. Some Michigan legislators are looking to pass some of the strictest occupational licensing regulations for hunting and fishing guides in the nation. Senate Bills 103 and 104 mandate that people do the following in order to earn money guiding people to capture game. They must: Possess a valid driver’s license. Pay a license fee of $150 for state residents or $300 for out-of-state residents.
Ohio jobs head for right-to-work states
This article originally appeared at Real Clear Policy September 2 2022. The first sentence has been modified. We feel compelled to alert policymakers of a robust movement of manufacturing and other jobs and opportunities from Ohio to Michigan and Indiana, our home states. We have examined the employment impact of state right-to-work laws at the county level. Right-to-work laws simply say that no worker need be compelled to join or financially support a union.
Indiana works with Right-to-Work
Just over 10 years ago, the Hoosier State adopted a powerful economic development tool in the form of a right-to-work law. This law simply states that workers need not be required to financially support or join a union to keep their jobs. Scholarship generally shows right-to-work laws are beneficial to workers and to job providers in states that adopt them. Our new research shows this as well.
A declaration of cold civil war
Share this post? Facebook Twitter Pinterest President Joe Biden declared war on his political foes last week. His speech “On the Continued Battle for the Soul of the Nation” was only slightly mistitled: he was openly declaring a war that had been quietly occurring for some time, moving that war into a more public and dangerous chapter. That speech ramped up the rhetoric in the president and his administration’s continued demonization of the opposition party.
Legislature Should Clarify Michigan's Emergency Powers
Editor's Note: This piece was first published in The Detroit News on June 23, 2022. Michigan was embroiled in not one, but two emergencies in 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic, and the legal controversy over the governor’s use of executive power. Residents were subjected to legally questionable mandates and rules that were unprecedented, contentious and everchanging. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s power lasted seven months before the Michigan Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.
What we know about the Michigan Parents' Council
| Font size: 75% 100% 125% 150% By Gabriel Powell Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s newly created Michigan Parents’ Council does not appear to require significant input from parents of schoolchildren in the state. The administration also omits political viewpoints and non-public school attendance from its list of diversity criteria.
Supreme Court Reinvigorates Separation of Powers
| Font size: 75% 100% 125% 150% By Gabriel Powell The United States Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed plan to combat carbon dioxide emissions by restructuring America’s energy infrastructure exceeded the power Congress delegated to the agency. The high court’s 6-3 decision in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency could have far-reaching effects across the federal government and the entire country.
Mackinac Center in The Wall Street Journal: Electricity Blackouts are Coming to Michigan
As gas prices for Michiganders continue to skyrocket, it is becoming increasingly apparent that higher energy prices won’t just be a problem at the pump. The Palisades Nuclear Plant, which had supplied seven million megawatt hours of electricity to the state in 2021, shut down ahead of schedule on May 20. The Mackinac Center’s director of environmental policy, Jason Hayes, recently wrote an opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal addressing Gov.
A fix for Michigan’s emergency powers laws
Most people in Michigan had no idea the Emergency Powers of Governor Act of 1945 existed, let alone that it allowed a governor to control what we could buy at stores or whom we could invite into our own homes. But that’s what Gov. Gretchen Whitmer did in 2020, creating a predictable and substantial amount of controversy. While that law has since been ruled unconstitutional and repealed, there are similar statutes on the books that could also be abused.
Mackinac's Director of Research Testifies on Emergency Powers
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is a nonprofit research and educational institute that advances the principles of free markets and limited government. Through our research and education programs, we challenge government overreach and advocate for a free-market approach to public policy that frees people to realize their potential and dreams. Please consider contributing to our work to advance a freer and more prosperous state.
Universal Licensing Recognition: Why Not Michigan?
| Font size: 75% 100% 125% 150% By Gabriel Powell Michigan’s southern neighbor, Ohio, is on the verge of passing a nearly universal licensing law. Companion bills that recently passed both the Ohio House and Senate would have Ohio recognize occupational licenses from other states for nearly all of Ohio’s licensed occupations, lessening the regulatory burdens on someone moving into the state who already possesses a license for a given occupation. If they can do it, why not Michigan?
Mackinac Center in WSJ: Indiana Benefits from Becoming a Right to Work State
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy demonstrated the advantages of right-to-work laws in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed. Michael LaFaive, senior director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative, and Todd Nesbit, assistant professor of economics at Ball State University, worked together on a study analyzing the benefits for states that have enacted right to work laws.
WSJ Ed Board Supports Mackinac Research on Student Opportunity Scholarships
A recent Wall Street Journal editorial cites a study by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in support of Michigan’s stalled proposal for student opportunity scholarships. Michigan’s Legislature last October passed the Student Opportunity Scholarship Program, which would have provided up to $500 million in funding to help students pay for tutoring, private tuition, additional courses, and other education expenses.
Why Do Michigan Flower Growers Need a State License?
A friend was visiting a small local garden shop recently, and the owner had a bin of flowers she was forced to give away free of charge. Why? One of Michigan’s many inane licensing laws. “I’ve had some health issues recently and I can’t afford to pay the state license fee, so I’m legally not able to sell them,” the roadside shop owner said. Crazy as it may sound, the state of Michigan actually requires a special license of anyone who wants to sell certain flowers.
Canada’s Descent into Tyranny Should Worry U.S.
Canadians protest | Xavier Newswire Canada left the ranks of liberal democracies last weekend and became a dictatorship under its Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. At his order, police called in from throughout the country crushed an up to that point entirely peaceful protest against his COVID-19 vaccination mandate, forcibly removing the truckers from the capital of Ottawa. In the United States, the press have devoted little coverage to the trucker protests.
Rand Paul is Kentucky's best presidential hopeful in 2024
Courtesy | Flickr If any Kentuckian is in the running for the 2024 presidential election, it is Sen. Rand Paul, not Gov. Andy Beshear. It was recently argued that Beshear would be an ideal candidate to step in if President Joe Biden does not run for a second term, thus creating an opening for a new Democratic nominee — but that was a flawed analysis. Simply put, many of the same issues that are causing Biden’s approval ratings to plummet have been wholeheartedly endorsed by Beshear.
State legislatures have the power to determine the presidential election
Under the U.S. Constitution, state legislatures have power over presidential elections. They may have to use it. Over the past week, allegations of widespread election fraud have been made in several crucial 2020 swing states. Lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign contain sworn affidavits from election officials who claim they were directed to ignore or violate state elections law in both Michigan and Nevada, with campaign lawyers claiming there are more lawsuits to come.
The Heart in Conflict
Settling for superficial peace and the ceasing of hostilities is tempting. But the goal of the believer is to glorify God by being conformed to the image of Christ. That can only happen when we deal with the heart first and foremost. How long has it been since your last conflict? Many of us could count the hours—maybe even minutes. We are sandpaper people in a sandpaper world. Friction is a part of life. A needy child interrupts your morning devotions.
Managing Change The AVEVA Way
Addressing the Need for Better Efficiency When Managing Change In today’s marine-scape of declining newbuild activity, many boatbuilders are seeking to buoy up productivity by reducing time to market. But how do you go about contracting intricate concurrent design and production flows without loss of quality, let alone the risk of production spiraling out of control? The general tendency is to overlap design phases. However, this potentially creates a greater number of uncertainties.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Gabriel
Contact Gabriel, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack