Inaugural addresses are meant to be aspirational, so President Joe Biden might as well have doubled down on his call for unity in his address. After the events of Jan. 6, there’s much to be said for more unity, or at least less poisonous division, and Biden’s emphasis on the theme was ...

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer recently encouraged school districts to reopen their doors to in-person learning by March 1. This is another abrupt turn in the governor’s pandemic policies. The state’s current data on COVID-19 do not appear to support such a move, especially in context of the ...

“We must end this uncivil war,” Joe Biden proclaimed shortly after he became the 46th president on Wednesday. Hours earlier, in his last moments as the 45th president, Donald Trump extended “best wishes” to the “new administration.” Graceful words, but accompanied by sharp and, in ...

Broken icicle fragments were scattered across the frozen ground, glinting in the winter sunshine. The remaining ice on my roof was melting, falling almost rhythmically into a pool near the icicle fragments. This moment seemed to sum up the unusually gentle weather that’s taken place this ...

I have never been a free speech absolutist. I am, however, somewhat closer to being a First Amendment absolutist. Many free speech absolutists don’t like this distinction because they think the First Amendment should guarantee the ability to express yourself in virtually any manner you ...

For many students these days, getting to school entails logging on to a computer from the comforts of home. The issue of school transportation, though, will become significant as more families return to face-to-face instruction. In late 2019, the Mackinac Center unveiled a plan for Student ...

For the most part, Michigan lawmakers kept an expansion of the state’s corporate handout complex at bay last year, and in 2021, they should trim taxpayer subsidies for corporations and industry. The money would be better spent addressing higher priorities. In December, legislators rebuffed a ...

Is your child’s school open now? Probably not because teachers unions say that reopening would "put their health and safety at risk." They keep schools closed by lobbying and protesting. “If I die from catching COVID-19 from being forced back into Pinellas County Schools, you can drop ...

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer got it very nearly right this week in terms of criminal justice reform. The governor signed a package of bills aimed at keeping those who present no threat to public safety out of jail. The legislation, stemming from a task force she appointed, reduces a number of ...

The coronavirus pandemic has given me more time to reminisce in old memories. I already wrote about my first MLB White Sox Baseball Game, so now I am going to write about my favorite moments and traditions from the holidays over the years and how Covid changed some of my holiday traditions. ...

Michigan lawmakers passed a temporary income tax hike in 2007 that’s still with us, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Michigan’s finances are looking good. Lawmakers can afford to lower the income tax if it is important to them. Lowering the income tax rate makes Michigan more ...

The president of the United States incited a mob. It was a disgraceful, inexcusable, impeachable act. Donald Trump’s defenders offer any number of excuses in order to shave off the shame. The media didn’t condemn riots last summer by left-wing groups, and therefore this was inevitable or ...

Twitter and Facebook have permanently banned President Trump from their social platforms. Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and attorney Sidney Powell have also been permanently banned as Twitter announced a purge of “accounts dedicated to sharing content related to the far-right ...

The policies of defeated one-term presidents are not as easily reversed as their victorious successors, suffused with campaign rhetoric, sometimes suppose they will be. Even when, as now, the winning party has majorities in both houses of Congress. Those margins, after Democrats’ wins in ...

WASHINGTON — Nearly 80 years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt condemned the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as “the date which will live in infamy.” On Wednesday, another such date informed the American people that lame-duck president Donald Trump had personally incited an ...

The mob violence that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday was deplorable and disgusting. It is the antithesis of a free society that wishes to remain free. Any supporter of President Trump and his policies must denounce this horror with even more vehemence than they denounced the riots ...

President Donald Trump, it turns out, was being quite literal when he told us Jan. 6 would be “wild.” And so Wednesday was, but it was also disastrous for the party and the movement Trump has led for the last five years. Wednesday, the defeats of Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue ...

We were pleased to see Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Director Robert Gordon ease restrictions on a variety of businesses, as well as allow the return of in-person classes at high schools. Yet restaurants remain a target, and it’s decimating the ...

Dysania: The state of finding it hard to get out of bed in the morning. “On Mondays, my dysania can cause me to reach for the snooze alarm upward of five times.” This little-used word and fitting usage example resonated with me as soon as I read it on the Wayne State University Word ...

As Donald Trump’s Republican Party descends into madness, dragged down by the president’s lies, threats and possible mental illness, it’s become hard to imagine democracy-loving conservatives continuing to live in the same house. They’re in a marriage that can’t be saved. The ...