Michigan State Superintendent Michael Rice has a long list of policy and funding priorities for the Legislature as Democrats take charge in Lansing.

First action is likely an expansion of a tax credit for lower-wage earners. Despite calls for unity and bipartisanship, Democrats and Republicans are already sniping over who should get credit.

Orphan oil wells plague the Midwest, but new federal funds will help plug them. Michigan has around 450 orphan wells in the Lower Peninsula, with large concentrations in Manistee and Benzie counties and along the border of Charlevoix and Otsego counties.

Candidates vying to lead the Michigan Republican Party now embrace absentee ballots to compete with Democrats. But election officials say that ‘ballot harvesting’ — having a political operative collect ballots from multiple voters — remains illegal in the state.

Newly elected county commissioners voted to hire a well-known conservative law firm, bypassing a competitive bidding process and sparking transparency concerns.

Justice Richard Bernstein’s public attack on a fellow justice for hiring a clerk who once shot at police is a tacit admission that Bernstein doesn’t believe in the very system he is oathbound to defend. More than anyone else, Pete Martel gave me hope that the system was redeemable.

Twelve states have passed their own state child tax credits that are independent of the federal credit, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Michigan is not one of them.