Pretty much everyone in Michigan says they are fed up with the high cost of government and the greed and selfishness of the mitten state's politicians. Not to worry -- help is on the way, says Dianne Byrum, a spokesman for a mysterious new group called "Reform Michigan Government Now!" They believe they have just the prescription, and are fighting to get it on the ballot in November.

First, the good news: Far fewer Americans live in high-poverty, high-crime neighborhoods like inner-city Detroit than just a few years ago, and the number is continuing to decline. The bad news is that for the rest of us, that may be a bad thing.

Everyone who has ever seen a TV courtroom drama knows that if you are charged with a crime and are too poor to afford a lawyer, the state will appoint one for you. Yet if you think that means everyone gets "equal justice under law," you are sadly mistaken -- especially if you live in Michigan.

As it stands now, Michigan Supreme Court judges are essentially chosen by Republican or Democratic party bureaucrats. Is that really the best way justice can ultimately be served?

If Michigan is to have any hope of returning to its former prosperity, everyone agrees it needs to attract the high-tech, highly-skilled "new economy" jobs of the future. Now comes one more effort to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools.

What would happen if you took virtually all of Michigan's leading politicians, the state's top business leaders and much of the media, and confined them on a tiny island in the middle of northern Lake Huron? You'd have the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce's annual Mackinac Policy conference

Currently, your federal government, at great expense, is prosecuting one Geoffrey Nels Fieger, the state's most flamboyant and flamboyantly successful attorney. They say he violated campaign finance laws.

Years ago, the time-honored tradition was that Democratic presidential candidates formally kicked off their fall election campaigns in Detroit on Labor Day. But don't look for Barack Obama to show up in Detroit this fall.

At first glance, the sudden agreement by Michigan's Democrats on a solution to their primary mess looks like a victory for Hillary Clinton. But in fact, it is anything but.

The energy package now briskly moving through the Michigan Legislature sounds like an environmentalist and consumer's dream. However, if the bills become law -- and speedy Senate passage is expected -- the average consumer may end up being startled.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finally announced new fuel economy standards, but is Detroit prepared, technologically and politically, for the new standards?

Vern Ehlers is a pillar of the Christian Reformed Church and a stalwart Republican; at 74, he shares a birthday with one of his political heroes, Ronald Reagan. But he is also genuinely worried about the Great Lakes, and the water supply generally, which is why he is the major co-sponsor of the Clean Water Restoration Act of 2007.

Practically speaking, Republicans should have no chance to carry Michigan in the presidential race this November. But this year, they just might.

Once upon a time, the buzz in Detroit was all about what would be the hottest new muscle car of the year. What a difference a decade makes

Dr. Jack Kevorkian's bid for Congress is really a cry for attention from someone the world has passed by, and whose quarter-hour of fame was used up soon after he went to prison nine years ago.

Detroit City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. is a serious, rational man who looks nothing like a certain famous and now-dead country-western singer. Nevertheless, he said wryly, "I've felt a lot like Johnny Cash these last six weeks."

You might say it was a bad week for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. But it wasn't a great week for those who live in his city, either.

Hillary Clinton's victories in Ohio and Texas last week had another consequence that almost no one realized on election night. They meant Michigan Democrats -- and probably those in Florida, too -- will finally have to swallow their pride.

Northwest Airlines and Delta are in serious merger talks. Most airline mergers have been ballyhooed as being great for the industry and great for the consumer, and have turned out to be neither. This one, however, may be different.

In the latest episode of "the government that couldn't shoot straight," Michigan's two highest-ranking Republican officials dealt the state a temporary blow which may prove a lasting setback to attracting jobs and foreign investment to Michigan.

So here's the situation: The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is the closest and most exciting in American history. And the Michigan Democratic Party has screwed things up almost beyond belief.

It may not be clear which Democrat really won Super Tuesday, but there is one big Michigan Republican winner — and it wasn't Mitt Romney.

Lily Tomlin once said "No matter how cynical you get, you can't keep up." Naturally, she is a native Detroiter. So what does a mayor say to the people he represents when he's been exposed for lying under oath and using city resources to have a steamy affair with a subordinate?

There has always been one big problem with ethanol as an alternative fuel. It's normally made out of corn, and experts agree the nation couldn't possibly produce enough to make a difference in the nation's oil consumption.

Last Sunday, the pastor of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church invited Cleveland's U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich to address his congregation after the service. Hundreds packed into the modest-sized sanctuary. Hundreds packed into the modest-sized sanctuary. By and large, they were just Democrats hungry to see a presidential candidate -- and very angry at their party for denying them the chance to participate fully.

Willard "Mitt" Romney always has been conscious of his father's legacy. Indeed, he's been on the same path, exactly four decades behind. George Romney, the hard-charging three-term governor of Michigan, was 40 when his youngest son was born.

Judge Milton Mack has been frustrated for years with Michigan's increasingly crowded and costly prison system. What's more, the chief judge of Wayne County Probate Court thinks he knows how to save taxpayers a lot of money and heartbreak.

This was a year when it became perfectly clear to anybody watching closely that the political system is a mess in Michigan. And worse, that no one in power is trying to fix it.

Sean Morrison, the 39-year-old director of the University of Michigan's Center for Stem Cell Biology, is a rarity among scientists. Personable, well-spoken and easygoing, he seems as much at ease with the media as he is in the laboratory. But he must be one of the most frustrated men in the state. By all accounts a brilliant young geneticist, he has the resources of one of the nation's major universities and a background in what is the cutting-edge frontier of biology: stem-cell research.

For Rebecca Humphries, these should be the best of times. Three years ago, she was appointed director of Michigan's Department of Natural Resources, where she has worked since she graduated from college in 1978. Yet in fact, this is perhaps the worst time in her professional life.

For years, Detroit's automakers managed to fight off attempts to tighten mandatory fuel economy standards. Their biggest ally was usually U.S. Rep. John Dingell, D. - Mich., once again chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee. But times have changed.

Michigan's Legislature hasn't been able to agree on a way to balance its budget after more than a year of squabbling. The state hasn't found a way to turn around its worst-in-the-nation unemployment rate, or deal with the foreclosure crisis. But it will now have one of the nation's first presidential primaries on Jan. 15, thanks to some legislative maneuvering and a dubious decision by the Michigan Supreme Court.

Milo Radulovich, who died Monday, told me that he was changing a diaper when the event happened that changed his life and, eventually, this nation's history.

Some people remembered his comrades on Veterans Day last Sunday. They'll do it again on Memorial Day in May. They will mostly remember the dead, those who died in America's many battles and many wars, from Valley Forge to Gettysburg to Fallujah. They'll put little flags on their graves.

Michigan's political parties can't agree on something as simple as balancing the state budget, as events over the last year have shown, time and time again. But when it came to crafting a presidential primary that violated both parties' rules and embarrassed the state, the GOP's Saul Anuzis and his Democratic counterpart Mark Brewer are soul brothers. Big time.

The camel, someone once said, is a horse designed by a committee. The dromedary that is Michigan's new state budget staggered out this week sporting a few extra humps and pleasing no one. Business owners were unhappiest of all, thanks to a package extending Michigan's 6 percent sales tax to a seemingly random variety of services. They see this "service tax," as one put it, "as the camel's nose under the tent." In other words, once it's established, it will be relatively easy for cash-strapped politicians to come back to the well.

Two weeks ago, one of my college students at Wayne State University asked me if I was watching "The War," Ken Burns' magnificent documentary on World War II. "Yes," I told her. She had watched one of the installments with her grandfather.

When the United Auto Workers union called a national strike against General Motors last Monday, the reaction from most analysts was a polite version of, "Are they crazy?"

Michael Boulus, whose job is to look after the interests of Michigan's colleges and universities, is mad. Hopping mad at what he sees as self-destructive and irresponsible behavior on the part of the Michigan Legislature.

Last summer, Joe Schwarz was defeated in the GOP primary by a candidate whose resume was far shorter than his and whose politics were far to the right of his own. So the question now is does Schwarz stage a rematch in next year's GOP primary?

Michigan seems poised to violate the rules of both major parties and move its primary up to Jan. 15, ahead of both the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primaries, which have a sort of quasi-holy "first in the nation" status. The Democratic National Committee harshly penalized Florida recently, taking all its convention delegates away for moving its primary to Jan. 29. Similar action against Michigan is expected to follow.