In my experience, there are two basic types of conferences: * The rehash, where you see/meet new people but don’t learn much new. * The eye-opener, where you hear something quite new that shoves your thinking in new directions. Tuesday’s gathering in Lansing, sponsored by the Center for Michigan to consider expert response to the report, “The […]
Phil's Column
Phil Power is the founder and chairman of the Center for Michigan.
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Report on Michigan schools should be start of statewide discussion on reform
News flash: Michigan residents want better schools, expanded early childhood programs and more support and more accountability for teachers. And they’re willing to pay more to get them. These are among the findings from the largest effort ever made to gather and analyze public attitudes on K-12 schools in Michigan. More than 7,000 people participated […]
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Supreme Court vacancy gives Snyder chance to combat big money’s influence
It’s rare for a governor to have the power in his own hands to remedy a problem that’s been embarrassing his state since the present state constitution was adopted, half a century ago. But with Justice Diane Hathaway’s retirement next week from the Michigan Supreme Court, Gov. Rick Snyder has an easy chance to lock […]
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Capitol Hill chaos should drive voters to kill off old ‘gerrymander’
Most people agree that our politics and government today are too often severely dysfunctional. And there’s one big reason why: The taproot of much of all this can be traced to our severely gerrymandered state legislative and congressional districts. For a glimpse of just how powerful this is, all you have to do is glance […]
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Life isn’t like it used to be, and that’s a bad thing
Like many other dogs, my black lab, HomeTown, has a bed in the back hallway. It used to be his preferred snoozing place. No longer. Several weeks ago, he chewed a big hole in the bed cover, and we sewed a piece of heavy cloth over the hole. HomeTown has yet to sleep on his […]
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Michigan still needs action on schools, universities, Detroit
It is what it is. I am referring, of course, to the political firestorm that has engulfed Michigan ever since Gov. Rick Snyder announced he would sign Right To Work (or Freedom To Work, if you prefer) when legislation ending the union shop reaches his desk. Naturally, we all wish we could live in a […]
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Handel’s ‘Messiah’ always gets one jazzed for the holiday season
Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare Is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of The Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. *** […]
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Legislature poised to act on Right to Work
The Legislature opened its 2012 “lame duck” session this week. Where’s that phrase come from, anyway? Well, it was first used as a down-on-his-luck stockbroker, since an injured duck who cannot keep up with the flock is an easy target for predators. In the political world, lame ducks are something else again: Officeholders who were […]
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Michigan citizens can help nation avoid ‘cliff’
Now that the election is finally over, the national news these days is dominated by the specter of the coming fiscal cliff. So here is a “Michigan Citizens’ Survival Guide to Navigating the Cliff, Understanding it and, Hopefully, Surviving.” What the fiscal cliff means to Michigan: Perhaps the biggest event of the decade will start […]
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After election, before Thanksgiving, a cheer for democracy
“Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” – […]