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Hard to say what's more glorious: sunrise on Belle Isle or sunset at Sleeping Bear. Or what's more ominous: purple-gray snow clouds massing in March or the Legislature convening a lame-duck session in December. Over 40 years of reporting on, writing about and talking to people making news in Michigan, you get a little of everything.
Memorial Day has to be a little strange for Joe Beyrle, even after all these years. He pays tribute to the nation's war dead knowing that, for a time, he was among them. Even had a funeral with full honors.
On a recent visit to Chicago, I was surprised to hear a young man ask a tour guide who was showing off the city's Gold Coast along Lake Michigan: "Now, is that salt water?" I could only assume he wasn't from around here, but the question showed the general lack of awareness about what just may be America's greatest and least-appreciated natural resource, the Great Lakes. It may also show the general belief that any body of water you can't see across must be ocean.
Allowing a sale of Great Lakes water will start a run on the lakes that Michigan and other states in this region, with their clout declining in Washington, may not be able to stop. If the Great Lakes are to stay great, they must stay put. Michigan, surrounded by these magnificent sweet water seas, should be leading the charge in their defense.
If she believed in omens, she never would have said yes.
If you voted in the March 1994 special election, you may have thought you were trading a property tax cut for a sales tax increase and, indeed, that was the pocketbook impact of Proposal A. But it also shifted school finances to the state.
What started three years ago as an exciting idea to create a stretch of white water for kayaking through downtown Grand Rapids has evolved into a larger-scale project to restore the Grand River to a more natural state that will include the rapids that gave the city its name.
The Sunday night shift is typically a pretty quiet one in police work. The weekend is winding down, families are all in, getting ready for another week of work or school. Traffic is light.
Don’t blame police around here for seeming a little edgy for the next little while. When one of their own is taken, they must come to grips anew with the inherent risk of their work.
If they won't tell you who they are, don't let them tell you what to do. Let that be your guide this fall as the wave of political ads becomes a tsunami. If you can't tell who (or whose money) is behind an ad, it's not worthy of your attention.
While she certainly electrified the Democratic National Convention, Jennifer Granholm also mildly shocked some of us folks back in Michigan who hadn't seen such a fiery side of Granholm in the eight years she served as our governor.
With just six and a half minutes at the podium, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm didn’t waste any time in low gear Thursday night as she addressed the Democratic National Convention.
Local governments throughout the soon-to-be-defunct 11th Congressional District that Thad McCotter represented in Washington for 10 years are going to be on the hook for an estimated $650,000 to pay for this election, necessitated because McCotter screwed up his re-election filings and then abruptly resigned rather than complete his current term as a very lame duck.
Snyder, of course, is supporting fellow Republican Mitt Romney for president. As governor, he’s also salesperson-in-chief for the State of Michigan which means he’ll be touting the recent economic improvements — which are due in no small measure to the improving U.S. auto industry that, with the exception of Ford Motor Co., was largely rescued and rebuilt under the administration of President Barack Obama.
Four years ago, a surge of young voters helped carry Barack Obama into the White House. Turnout among 18- to 29-year-olds was about 53% -- its highest level since 1972, when males in that age group were still being drafted for the Vietnam War. In 2008, Democrat Obama took two-thirds of the young vote over Republican John McCain.
While officially we still have a few weeks of summer left, everybody in Michigan senses on Labor Day weekend the curtain coming down.
The latest survey found that 63% of all Americans believe the Republican Party favors rich people and 71% of all people surveyed think Romney’s policies will do more to help wealthy people. Democrats are less closely identified with any class, with 35% of the people surveyed saying the Democratic Party favors the middle class, 32% the poor and 20% the wealthy.
Once you buy something, you own it, right? And whether you want to use it, sell it or give it away that's entirely your business, isn't it?
Despite being declared outlaws in Michigan, wild hogs sure seem to be making themselves at home here -- and making more of themselves, too. Sightings of feral swine are on the rise around the state, and the destructive, omnivorous beasts appear to be living up to their reputation as prolific breeders.
After a “lost decade” for its economic well-being, the shrunken American middle class is an unhappy lot, although not quite ready to give up on the future.
Frank Acosta had a lot on his mind, none of it good, when he pulled into a Costco store just outside Toronto on Nov. 10, 2010.
Thirty-five major print publications, 13 TV broadcasts across five networks (basically Sunday and nightly shows) and National Public Radio.You won't believe this. There's no liberal bias in the news media coverage of this year's presidential campaign.
Your ballot features Democratic and Republican primaries that will generally be decisive for the office at stake in the fall. There is a three-way GOP primary to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow. Plus you'll decide a slew of local and regional tax proposals involving the Detroit Institute of Arts, bus service, public safety and veterans programs, among other issues.
Of Michigan's last three attorneys general, one served 37 years in the pre-term-limits era and went on to become a high-powered lobbyist in Lansing, influential on many major issues. The next served just four years but went on to become governor for eight and now hosts a national political talk show.
What bugs you most about your cell phone? Dropped calls, according to a new survey of cell phone owners, who are now 88% of the U.S. adult population — and probably close to 100% of teenagers.
The middle class will decide this election. It's a struggle for the heart of the middle class. It's all about who has the best message of hope for the beleaguered middle class. The middle class is the battleground. So it goes in most election years. All the candidates have to do is figure out who's in the middle class.
Education is our great equalizer -- especially free public education. Done well, it is an elevator of opportunity. But done poorly, it's the shaft. And a very expensive one at that, for children, parents, taxpayers and society in general, who pick up the tab for public schools and, in many ways, also for the un- and under-educated.
"What's life without a little adventure?" If she'd heard him say it once, she'd heard her dad say it a hundred times. When she was 6 and he planted her in the front seat of a rubber boat to shoot the rapids of a West Virginia river.
Not too long ago, the tiny Suttons Bay Public Schools system was worried about going under. Now, buoyed by a community that opened its hearts and wallets, the district is not only well above water but planning to host a world-record "floatilla." A what?
Gone but not forgotten. Or are they? Every year about now, this column offers readers a Michigan quiz, something that might help pass the time if you're traveling home today after a holiday break. But don't try to read the paper while driving. That's worse than texting.
Distracted drivers are a danger that will only get worse as manufacturers keep loading up vehicles with technology intended to let you do more stuff other than driving while you are driving.
Free speech. Oh, the price we pay sometimes for that precious right we have. The U.S. Supreme Court added to the cost last week in a decision that came out the same day as -- and was completely overshadowed by -- its historic ruling on health care.
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Mike Thompson
