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Brian Dickerson

  • Recent columns
  1. Brian Dickerson: The case of money v. justice in Supreme Court

    State Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly and U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Ryan are two of the most experienced jurists in Michigan. They tend to diverge on political matters -- she's a liberal Democrat, he's a conservative Republican -- but between them is more than 25 years of service on our state's highest court.

    • 1:37 AM
  2. Brian Dickerson: Madeleine Albright reflects on her family's tragic past, what she has learned

    "Who am I?" is a question most of us start asking in adolescence and answer, with varying degrees of self-awareness, by making critical choices in early adulthood -- where to live, how to make a living, with whom or what to affiliate.

    • May. 3, 2012
  3. Brian Dickerson: Justices poised to decide if size matters

    When last we assessed the state of bipartisan cooperation in Michigan's state capital, Republicans and Democrats were in the midst of a heated constitutional debate over how to count to 73.

    • Apr. 29, 2012
  4. Brian Dickerson: Little Leo's lemonade ordeal yields legislative fix

    Leo Ratte learned how abruptly the state can sunder the lifeline between a boy and his family on a Saturday afternoon in 2008, when a Comerica Park security guard alerted police that he saw Leo, then 7, sipping from a bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade.

    • Apr. 26, 2012
  5. Brian Dickerson: What Rick Snyder wants most of all

    What does Rick Snyder really want? And what might Michigan look like when he and his Republican colleagues in the Legislature are done reinventing it?

    • Apr. 22, 2012
  6. Brian Dickerson: Sloppy law snags another medical pot user

    One of this column's cardinal principles is that the people who make Michigan's laws should be held accountable when their work is substandard -- even when the lawmakers in question are the people themselves.

    • Apr. 19, 2012
  7. Gov. Rick Snyder signs budget legislation for Fiscal Year 2011-12, one of his most important priorities last year. STATE OF MICHIGAN

    Brian Dickerson: Who's watching the kids while Gov. Snyder focuses?

    I haven't had the opportunity to watch Rick Snyder at work. But as best I can figure, a typical weekday in the governor's office begins something like this: Snyder: Good morning, Dennis. Today I intend to focus like a laser on workforce development. Get Mike Finney on the phone, would you?

    • Apr. 15, 2012
  8. Brian Dickerson: Tax reform shouldn't end with millionaires

    President Barack Obama is barnstorming the country to demand that Americans who earn more than $1 million a year pay at least 30% of their income in federal taxes. It's a sensible proposition, and it's winning huzzahs from the very large group of voters who earn somewhat less.

    • Apr. 12, 2012
  9. Brian Dickerson: In Lansing, a mortgage bill tailored for one

    In 2009, when real estate developer David Schostak realized that a mall he and some partners owned near Traverse City was worth a good deal less than the $8.7 million they'd borrowed to purchase it, he did what a lot of less affluent Michiganders have done upon finding themselves upside-down on a mortgage: He stopped making payments.

    • Apr. 1, 2012
  10. Brian Dickerson: Global warming biggest threat to U.S. security, retired officer says

    Lee Gunn -- "Lee" is how he introduces himself, although most people call him Admiral Gunn, in deference to his 35 years as a U.S. Naval officer -- does not look like a Prius driver, much less a tree-hugger.

    • Mar. 29, 2012
  11. Mayor Dave Bing at work in his office. ROMAIN BLANQUART/ DETROIT FREE PRESS

    Brian Dickerson: In Dave Bing's dreams, would he be out of here?

    It's hard to imagine that, when he enjoys a rare, wakeful moment of repose, Dave Bing doesn't rue the day he decided to run for mayor of America's most financially distressed city.

    • Mar. 25, 2012
  12. Brian Dickerson: Where is privacy law after peeper's plea?

    The criminal case against an Ann Arbor pediatrician charged with spying on his 12-year-old neighbor as she undressed in the window of her bedroom closet has ended abruptly without answering the key question raised by the prosecution of the doctor. Can it really be a crime to watch anything out the window of your own house?

    • Mar. 22, 2012
  13. Brian Dickerson: Could Texas affirmative action case buoy the GOP nominee?

    For as long as anyone reading this has been alive, the United States has been a two-party country. But serious people on both ends of the political spectrum are speculating that 2012 could be the Republican Party's last hurrah -- not just a down year in which it fails to knock off the incumbent president.

    • Mar. 18, 2012
  14. Ed Harris as U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Julianne Moore as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in "Game Change." Catch one of the encore broadcasts that continue to air most nights on HBO stations. PHIL CARUSO/HBO via the Associated Press

    Brian Dickerson: 'Game Change' familiar tale of smart people making dumb decisions

    I'm not sure what I was expecting when I tuned into "Game Change," the HBO movie that chronicles Sarah Palin's rise from political obscurity to a place on the 2008 Republican presidential ticket. But I certainly didn't anticipate that I would identify with any of the main characters.

    • Mar. 15, 2012
  15. Brian Dickerson: Gov. Rick Snyder can't just shrug off right-to-work issue

    If Rick Snyder thought he could avoid a divisive showdown with organized labor just by changing the subject every time someone mentioned "right-to-work," he'd better think again.

    • Mar. 8, 2012

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