LANSING -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm and 148 lawmakers ended nine months of haggling over the state's budget crisis by essentially agreeing to preserve the status quo.
They settled early Wednesday on a $9.8-billion general fund budget, up $760 million from the previous budget year. After agreeing Oct. 1 to raise $1.3 billion [...]

A recent report from Michigan's Auditor General says the Department of Natural Resources is not collecting enough in hunting and fishing license fees to support its operations.
The DNR says without more money, the state will be forced to close parks, shutdown wildlife management programs, and lay off conservation officers.
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A couple of weeks ago, I invited 15 people to a meeting room at the Detroit Athletic Club for a "community conversation."
That's how Phil Power describes the small-scale discussions he's orchestrating throughout the state about a new, nonpartisan agenda to fix Michigan. I'm one of 100 volunteers who agreed to host [...]

The Ann Arbor-based Center for Michigan is looking for ways to build consensus on Michigan's future and to eliminate partisan politics.
The nonprofit think tank, headed by founder and President Phil Power and six other co-chairs, has pulled together more than 100 community leaders from throughout Michigan to identify a common vision [...]

Politics doesn't abhor a vacuum nearly as much as nature does, which explains why there's no rush to fill the absolute absence of leadership in Lansing.
The state's dysfunction is the fault of politicians who lack courage, vision and competence. Michigan faces its most critical crisis led by the most uninspired governor in [...]