On the occasion of this year’s 420 Week, the annual celebration of all things cannabis, let’s take an especially savory moment to reflect on the astonishing progress we’ve made in Michigan toward normalizing our favorite herb. As our region’s legal cannabis economy continues to blossom, transforming vacant storefronts into growing concerns and sprouting thousands of new jobs, we really are quite pleased with where things stand today.  more

Michigan's Republican Party is lining up a record-breaking 10 candidates for governor this year.   more

Who’s keeping an eye on Michigan’s $78.2 billion annual budget? On state legislators who drive drunk? On suspiciously cloaked political and campaign finances?  more

If you’ve never heard of Timothy Leary, let us fill you in. Leary was a Harvard psychology professor and countercultural icon of the 1960s who advocated for the widespread acceptance and use of psychedelic drugs. more

When the Lansing Fire Department’s first female battalion chief, Shawn Deprez, went public with accusations that she was sexually assaulted and continuously harassed while employed at the department, this newspaper filed a public records request asking the city for documents related to its investigation of her allegations. more

The functional head of the Michigan Republican Party grabbed firm hold of a third rail in partisan politics this week by endorsing two statewide candidates running in competitive races for the party's nomination.  more

I am running to be the next state representative for the new 74th House District in the Democratic primary election on Aug. 2 because residents in south Lansing and Holt are facing urgent crises that require immediate action. more

Riverwalk Theatre and the Costume Shop have been a part of the Lansing community in some form for over 60 years as Riverwalk Theatre, the Okemos Barn and Community Circle Players. The past two years have been unlike any others in our history. more

It was almost exactly two years ago when I sat in a Lansing School District Board of Education meeting interviewing candidates to become our next superintendent when then-Superintendent Sam Sinicropi leaned over to me and whispered “Detroit (Public Schools) is closing.” more

Lansing Board of Water & Light general manager Dick Peffley is starting to have some real problems on his hands, even though he refuses to look down and acknowledge that he’s still holding them.  more

It’s the end of Black History Month, and I want to draw attention to Black clergy. Clergy have all-encompassing vocation. They can be found pretty much everywhere. They marry and bury people. They keep the Black community on stable ground. They speak from the pulpit and also in the street. They mediate when there is race-based civil conflict. more

One thing Whitmer hasn’t been talking about? COVID-19.  more

One of the key takeaways from the sordid and still-unfolding saga of former Michigan House Speaker Lee Chatfield — who is accused of sexually abusing a minor child who attended his father’s church and school in northern Michigan — is yet another disturbing illustration of the toxic religious fundamentalism that treats women, and apparently children, as second-class citizens. more

We all remember the “One Tough Nerd” Super Bowl ad of 2010 and the less-than-successful “China” Super Bowl ad Pete Hoekstra tried in 2012. more

The decades-long quest to build a performing arts center in downtown Lansing took an enticing step forward Tuesday with Mayor Andy Schor’s reveal of a thrilling but remarkably pragmatic blueprint for finally making the dream come true. The fruit of an intermittent effort to create a new downtown entertainment venue that dates back to the days of former Lansing Mayor David Hollister, the proposed venue will be called “The Ovation.” Schor’s plan is well deserving of one. more

Why are our elected and appointed representatives committing our money (Lansing, Ingham County, State of Michigan) to subsidizing GM to build a plant in rural Delta Township when they own hundreds of acres in Lansing? There are multiple GM-owned properties with water, sewer, roads and rail, including bus lines. This used to be a preferred method of plant location for GM. For example, look at Plant II — the houses and businesses that included, schools, restaurants, and bars that built up in the area when the plant was active. Many of those businesses have closed over the years and the vitality of the community has been lost.  more

It’s the Tuesday after Martin Luther King Day and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is sitting in front of a fireplace, praising a beautiful drawing of a Byron Center eighth grader’s depiction of a stone arch. more

It’s not often that we weigh in on the wide world of sports. It’s just not our thing. We’d rather attend an art exhibition or read a good book. Now and then, however, something catches our attention that makes us twist up our face and wonder why. more

In an effort to identify persistent racial inequities in Lansing, Mayor Andy Schor last week rolled out a data-driven dashboard that tracks, among other things, the racial composition of Lansing’s neighborhoods and the city government workforce. more

After nearly two years on the COVID roller coaster, let’s start this next one by imagining what a return to some semblance of sanity might look like. We’ve unleashed our inner prognosticator to bring you the top developments we hope to see in 2022 and beyond: more