The Declaration of Independence could readily have been the Declaration of Independency.

Sunshine Week is a nonpartisan collaboration among groups in the journalism, civic, education, government, and private sectors that shines a light on the importance of public records and open government.

We can be bereaved, we can be bereft, and sometimes we can be both bereaved and bereft.

We live in difficult, challenging times. Our nation is again at war. (Wait. What's that? Oh, sorry. Our nation is again at major combat operations.) Closer to home, Michigan faces continued economic uncertainties. Affordability is a growing crisis. Reading scores for our children are abysmal. The calendar tells us winter is almost over, but we all know it isn't.

There are a few different ways to be wonky, some of which are positive and some of which, not so much.

It will help if readers are familiar with slapstick movies from the early 1900s — Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Three Stooges, and the like. Specifically the classic bit with a guy carrying a long board on his shoulder and — as he navigates safely through a construction site — unknowingly and repeatedly clobbering people with the back end of the board.

The way some people use "resonate" doesn't resonate with all of our listeners.

It's natural for political parties to evolve. Over the course of time, they adjust to meet the realities of their current era. A century ago, the Democratic Party was primarily a combination of Jim Crow southerners and working-class northerners. Sixty years later it started shifting more toward the party of minorities and women. And today, it's the neurotic, often self-defeating mishmash that we all know.

If we’re involved in a hurry-scurry retreat or a harum-scarum dash, perhaps things are also helter-skelter.

Last week, President Donald Trump threatened to delay the opening of the new, $4.7 billion Gordie Howe Bridge that connects Detroit to Windsor, Ontario. Chalk this one up to "didn't see it coming but not at all surprised."