State lawmakers are sitting on an extraordinary amount of cash right now. Between federal government transfers to the state budget -- financed by the national debt -- and unexpectedly strong state tax collections, policymakers have at least $11 billion sitting around. That’s the equivalent ...

On the behalf of our HOMES lakes — Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior — the hard work of political wrangling is done. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed in August points $1 billion at the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which funds pollution and contamination clean ...

A possible statewide ballot proposal could go before Michigan voters next November that could have an impact on the race for governor, even though the issue itself deals with abortion. This past week, four decidedly pro-choice groups filed petition language with the state, signaling their ...

As ice-fishing season kicks into high gear, it’s important to do everything we can to stay safe on the ice. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says there’s no reliable measure of how thick the ice should be before it’s safe, because ice of any thickness can still be ...

As a journalist, I love numbers and spreadsheets. Once you’ve got all of the context to make sure you understand what the numbers are telling you, most numbers are almost unimpugnable, a solid foundation on which to build a story. As a die-hard political junky, the numbers most ...

Good riddance. That was on the minds of many last weekend as they ushered out 2021 and welcomed in 2022. In a world turned upside down and inside out by COVID-19 concerns that washed over from 2020 into 2021, many wondered if the disease would ever leave us alone. As the coronavirus’s ...