john auchter

With gas currently heading toward $5/gallon, it seems particularly ill-timed to be looking for ways to limit our energy options. Especially because renewables (and especially wind and solar) are viable, low-cost sources of electricity now with great potential for technology and scaling to lower costs in the future. So even if you don't believe in climate change (or science in general), the economics are enough to win the argument.

Last week, U.S. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sent a letter to Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett demanding election materials from 2024, including ballots, receipts, and envelopes. The letter said due to an alleged history of voter fraud in the county, the DOJ needed to ensure no election laws were violated in the last presidential election.

Meanwhile, the President of the United States is presenting himself either as Jesus or his best friend, the Vice President is questioning the Pope's theology credentials, and the Secretary of Defense is quoting made-up scripture from the movie Pulp Fiction.

The positive takeaway: The seeming uptick in various hatreds in our country (antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-immigration, racism, etc.)? We've been through this before. That's not good, but it's not unprecedented.

Rock was born and raised in Michigan, a credential he has often burnished (especially when selling concert tickets here). But as demonstrated in the video he posted this past week on social media with a U.S. military helicopter hovering near his hilltop home, he has chosen to live in Tennessee. So I'll be very happy to have him be associated with Tennessee, not Michigan, from this point forward.

But as it turns out, there's a war going on. Actually, multiple ones. And if you are listening to the rhetoric coming out the Trump administration, there are more coming.

And thus did JD Vance find himself in Michigan this week giving a speech in a manufacturing facility. It was awkward to say the least. Of course Vance is famously not just a flip-flopper, but a shape-shifter.

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 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.

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.