Can you feel it? The air is thick in Michigan, like just before a January blizzard or a July thunderstorm. The call for reform is everywhere.

Crain's Detroit Business looks at Lansing and can't see the priorities: "State residents are tired, really tired, of government by lobby, government by name-calling and government by exhaustion. Before we get further into another grueling year of dealing with difficult state finances, state leaders need to step back and do the hard work that would force decisions about priorities and foster better spending within them."

Detroit News Business Columnist Dan Howes looks ahead at January and sees fresh opportunity for a tribe of business and reform groups, including the Center for Michigan, to make headway after a year in which chorus calls for reform were largely ignored.

Liz Boyd, press secretary to Gov. Jennifer Granholm said this month in an interview with MIRS News Service reporter Susan Demas that, "Reforms were not as much of an option this year" and acknowledged "there are still many more cuts and reforms to do."

And Center for Michigan President Phil Power looks ahead to 2008 as "The Beginning of the Beginning" to Michigan getting back on its feet.