Phil's Column

This arctic January has all of us thinking back to winters past. Has the 'polar vortex' made this the coldest, snowiest winter for you? Maybe you should try winter in Alaska…

(photo illustration by AJ Jones) Gov. Rick Snyder likes to describe himself as “one tough nerd.” He is also widely and accurately regarded as a numbers guy. And his annual State of the State speech last week was, indeed, true to type. There was none of the soaring rhetoric of his predecessor, Gov. Jennifer Granholm. […]

Last Sunday, the New York Times published an in-depth article on the rapidly growing number of states in which one political party – usually the GOP – controls all of state government. That’s now the case in Michigan, where Republican Rick Snyder is governor and the GOP runs both houses of the legislature, and has […]

When politicians don’t want people to notice what they’re doing, they often do it at a time when they think few are paying attention. So it was no surprise that Gov. Rick Snyder chose to sign the highly controversial Senate Bill 661 on the Friday between Christmas and New Year’s, when most folks’ minds weren’t […]

There’s no doubt about one thing: Michigan needs a better educated workforce, more now than ever. Yet one of the abiding mysteries of the past dozen years is the strange reluctance of our state’s leaders to invest in our future by investing in our citizens’ brain power at colleges and universities. “Reluctance,” in fact, isn’t […]

Three weeks ago, before the political life of Michigan got interrupted for important things (Thanksgiving, turkey, football) we were treated to a bombshell from Secretary of State Ruth Johnson. Responding to a request by the State Bar of Michigan to require public disclosure of donors who sponsor millions in so-called “issue ads” in judicial elections, […]

Thanksgiving week is a time to remember, to reflect, to give thanks. Last Friday marked the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. When it happened I was a student at Oxford University in England. For me and for many others, the events of that day are frozen in my memory: cold, still, horrible. […]

What happens to great ideas a few years after they’re hatched? That question was on my mind last week when I drove to Detroit last week to visit University Preparatory Academy, the public charter launched back in 2000 by my old friend, Doug Ross. Ross, a former state senator, Michigan Department of Commerce director, and […]

I think it was around six years ago when I first heard faint rumblings about a coming financial tidal wave that was going to break over our cities, townships and villages, bringing with it the risk of a new civil war between retirees and taxpayers. The phrases were dire – “Enormous unfunded liabilities.” “Retiree pensions […]

U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara (courtesy photo) Last week I drove to the Federal Building in downtown Ann Arbor, and waited while the big black security gate slid open. I got off the elevator and was greeted by my old friend, U.S. District Judge John Corbett O’Meara, wearing his customary double-breasted gray pinstriped suit, […]