Phil's Column

Phil Power visits three candidates, Dan Kildee, Bill Schuette and Gretchen Whitmer, all likely to seek the governorship in 2018. All are smart and able, but each has yet to find a theme that can bring Michiganders together.  

The riot – or rebellion, as some call it – raised long-suppressed issues of race, poverty, joblessness and despair among African-American Detroiters. How much has truly changed?

Michiganders told us they can’t count on Lansing to handle the basics. Ending term limits and legislative gerrymandering are two ways to make politicians more responsive to all residents.  

If we don’t have public confidence in our system of representative government and in our political leaders to reform and improve, our options are pretty much reduced to chaos or authoritarianism.

How you can help the state clean up the best of the worst examples of incomprehensible government forms, laws or other documents.

Lansing’s tax-cutting obsession is leading Michigan down the drain

Lawmakers are floating elimination of the state’s income tax at a time when evidence shows that Michigan desperately needs more state revenues to fix crumbling roads and keep drinking water safe.  

Bridge Magazine’s “Michigan Divided” project aims to walk in the shoes of, and find common values among, those who are different from us.

Living in a post-fact world, in which there is no independent standard by which to judge the accuracy of any assertion.