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

His church quickly becoming the center of a question whether former Lee Chatfield used his positional power to take advantage sexually of a teenager some 12 years ago, the Rev. Rusty Chatfield spoke opaquely about the issue from the pulpit Sunday. more

Lansing officials are allowing landlords to rent out homes without any regard for safety codes or regulations. In 2020, the city issued pink tags to more than 800 apartments in Lansing, according to reports in the Lansing State Journal. 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

Horford, 30, recently purchased a home in downtown Lansing with his wife, Cristina. He's eyeing a north Lansing/DeWitt/Grand Ledge House seat labeled as the 77th House District, which would lean Democratic politically. more

Yes, I know how subjective these lists are.  I’ll label this list my 2021 memorable moments of state government and politics because it’s unchallengeable. Who can question what I felt was memorable, but me? more

Ah yes, we remember those first few days of 2021: The unbridled optimism that came from removing a metastasizing tumor from the White House; the near jubilation, at least among Democrats, that our long national nightmare was finally coming to an end. more

The City Pulse attacks again! The City Pulse always targeted me from my first announcement of running for council. They have never let up on Carol Wood. Their biggest dig about a candidate is to say Carol Wood, Jody Washington or Adam Hussain likes them. The newest attack is Jeff Brown. If it weren’t him, it would be somebody else. I get that they are trying to discredit him. I know there are some personal leanings against him by one CP writer, but why does this narrative continue election after election if their candidate does not win. After all, they are continuously supporting and forgiving Betz, even after all of his outrageous actions and comments. And I am always in wonder when they talk about the progressive leanings and the conservative leanings, and the two sides on council. It is ridiculous, and it is time people end that narrative. Council votes lockstep nearly 100% of the time. more

In education, the time for taking stock is June. That’s the end of the academic year. Time for final examinations. Report cards. Graduations and diplomas. Academics is why schools exist. more

The spirit of the holiday season seems a bit harder to come by this year. Maybe it’s because we’re exhausted. And worried. You, too? more

Here’s a piece of news that tells you a lot about the Democratic governor and the Republican leadership of the state House and Senate in Lansing. more

Trust me, nobody gets more agitated by closed meeting and government records being kept from the public eye than I do.  more

Another Lansing teenager is dead. Three more youngsters — ages 16, 18 and a 10-week-old infant — are all hospitalized with wounds suffered during an early morning hail of bullets on the streets of the Capital City last Friday. The week before, just 90 miles down the road in Oxford, a deranged teen whose equally deranged parents bought him a pistol for Christmas took his new present to school and executed four of his classmates. more

As a person who earned a master’s degree in reading and held an Illinois reading specialist teacher’s certificate for many years, I would like to explain that “dyslexia” is a lay term (not used by reading teachers) regarding reading disabilities. more

It’s time to pull the plug. it is drowning and can’t be saved. Hard to believe that this town with a major university and a great little city can’t have a paper that brings out the goodness. more

For anyone serious about putting a ballot proposal in front of Michigan voters in 2022, the clock is ticking. more

Which prominent political figure recently kicked off a press release about the state’s Republican-led House and Senate with the following quote? “Michigan needs a new legislature.” more

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Michigan has now skyrocketed to the top of the worst states in the nation for new COVID-19 cases. Considering the shocking fact that more Michiganders are hospitalized due to COVID than at any previous point in the pandemic, we aren’t the only ones to observe that what we are now doing to contain COVID-19 just isn’t working. Hospital intensive care units across the state are maxing out — again. The situation is so dire that U.S. military medical teams have been called in to provide emergency support to hospitals in Detroit and Grand Rapids. more

Mayor Andy Schor’s post-reelection honeymoon is off to a stumbling start, thanks to his ill-considered decision to lift the City Hall COVID-19 mask mandate despite skyrocketing cases in Lansing and across the state. After catching hell from Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail and others, Schor reversed himself, but the damage was done. more

If Michigan has ever had 12 major-party candidates running for governor in one election cycle, I can’t find it. more