Guest Commentary

District Detroit is seeking $800 million worth of public subsidies. Billionaires like Ilitch Holdings and Stephan Ross shouldn’t be receiving corporate welfare tax abatements from one of the most impoverished U.S. cities.

The chair of the Michigan Women’s Commission says recently passed tax savings will put more money back in the pockets of hundreds of thousands of women, especially those hardest hit economically.

Joe Biden is making his first presidential visit to Canada this week. He can be silent no longer as Canada supports the efforts of Enbridge Energy to keep its aging oil and gas pipeline flowing through the Straits of Mackinac.

Gretchen Whitmer’s Sixty by 30 plan emulates failed efforts by predecessors to raise the number of post-high-school degrees. But the plan only helps a few thousand. Holding colleges accountable to graduate more students would go farther.

Forcing Michigan to send all its electoral votes to who earns the most votes nationally for president will disenfranchise state voters and drive candidates to focus on big states to the detriment of places like Michigan.

State Superintendent Michael Rice urges the Michigan Legislature to quickly fund a full-time state preschool program, more tutors, free lunches and improve school buildings.

The stable, moderate climate that humans have enjoyed for our entire existence is beginning to disintegrate before our eyes. Where is the proportionate response to a truly existential climate crisis? This can’t be minimized as the ‘new normal.’

Firearm-related injuries are now the number one killer of U.S. children, and fewer than half of adults safely store their weapons. Preventing young children from gaining access to guns is proven to save lives.

An MSU economics professor does the math and makes the case for mileage fees as the best way to replace gas tax revenue that will dwindle as we turn to EV’s. We won’t pay more, just differently.

Diverting this money the from state’s $9 billion surplus would amount to an $80 million tax cut every year, because taxes would no longer be needed to fund operations of our state parks and other outdoor spaces.

Batteries and other high-tech materials cannot exist without nickel, copper and rare earths — significant quantities of which are here in Michigan. We have a generational opportunity to take the lead in building clean technologies.

Two Michigan House Republicans argue the Democratic sponsored measures would destroy legal gun owners’ right to due process and create potential dangerous showdowns with law enforcement.

Older residents are experiencing worse mental health since the start of the pandemic, a challenge made worse by the lack of psychiatrists and in-patient beds. We continue to need greater treatment flexibility and a more holistic approach to better serve patients.

‘In a country that idolizes freedom, I need freedom. I need freedom to go to my dining hall without checking over my shoulder for a gunman. I need freedom to tell those close to me I love them without fear it’ll be the last time I say it. I need freedom to get a violence free education.’

When I was adopted, my original birth certificate was sealed and I was given a new identity. Adoptees who know the names of their birth parents and have their consent to be contacted as adults must be given easier access to their full identities.

Outrage over the MSU shootings combined with a Democratic majority in Lansing would suggest a clear path for gun reform. But history shows there will be hurdles. An MSU professor explains what gun safety advocates must do to win this time.

Members of a juvenile justice task force urge lawmakers to shift funds toward more diversion programs for low-risk youth and away from detention and out-of-home placements, while creating a more consistent, statewide infrastructure.

Jennifer Conlin covered the 2021 shootings at Oxford High School for The New York Times. Now, as a freshman representative in a swing district, she said there is growing consensus even among gun owners that something must change.

All Michigan residents use the roads whether they drive or not. It’s clear that funding for maintenance and improvement should be broad based, not just borne by vehicle owners.

What these shootings do when they target young people is also target possibility. The 50,000 different stories on campus last night converged into one shared, terrifying detour. And for them, what was going to be is no longer.