Policy Issues

The House Government Operations Committee is scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday to take up the 10 bills and a resolution that makes up the House Republicans' $5 billion property tax reduction plan that has received the acronym HELP UP (Hall Effectively Lowering Property Taxes and Utility Payments).

While the House last week passed a budget slashing 62% of state funding from Michigan State University (MSU) and the University of Michigan (UofM), a national survey came out suggesting 78% of college grads believe their degrees were worth the cost.

President Donald Trump’s acting attorney general signed an order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug.

Term-limited Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Bloomfield Twp.) sponsored his last-ever Holocaust Remembrance Day resolution, SR 105, in the Michigan Capitol Tuesday. He said that in today's politics, both parties have an antisemitism problem.

If lawmakers were expecting a slow return from spring break, they didn’t get it. The Republican-led House opened its first session back by advancing one of its most polarizing proposals — the bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.

If legislators don't grant the Selfridge Air National Guard Base funding by early May to construct a new runway accommodating the new fighter jets the President assigned to the base last year, House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) doesn't believe the new aircraft will come at all.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed an executive directive instructing state agencies to help registered businesses pursue tariff refunds from the federal government and to report on the impacts of those tariffs.

Moral issues have defined the political divide between Democrats and Republicans for as long as the donkey and elephant have graced political cartoons, but the fault lines continue to shift as new debates emerge and old ones fade.

House Speaker Matt Hall (R-Richland Township) said he was “feeling charitable” when he helped move a bill, HB 4044, to designate the wood duck as Michigan's official state duck, taking a jab at bill sponsor Rep. Alabas Farhat (D-Dearborn) in the process.

Senate Democrats adopted a resolution urging President Donald Trump and Congress to reverse federal energy policies they say are driving up fuel and utility costs, prompting sharp criticism from Republicans who dismissed the move as partisan messaging that will not lower prices.

Organizers for this weekend's "No Kings" rallies are anticipating the largest showing yet, with protests in around 115 different locations across the state.

The outrage was not off the charts when the federal government sent ICE-arrested inmates to a former private prison in the north woods of Baldwin.

An anti-abortion advocate filed a lawsuit to close the 15-foot “buffer zone” between himself and “every patient and companion within a 100-foot radius” around a clinic’s entrance.

The Senate passed SB 502 on Thursday, aimed at ensuring the $20,000, 20-year felony for making threats under Michigan's anti-terrorism law can withstand arguments that it might violate First Amendment rights.

“KRATOM SOLD HERE” signs plastered across gas stations and smoke shops have turned the once-obscure substance into a roadside staple, though it could soon become just a moment in time.

Sleeping teens are awakened and snatched by adult strangers, who handcuff them, put them in a vehicle and drive them away – all at the request of parents at their wits’ end.

The House Oversight Committee could soon take up an investigation into the Interlochen Center for the Arts after Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing) formally requested a probe into the school's past ties to convicted child sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

The Michigan Press Association (MPA) announced last week it would not present its annual Peter Pettalia Memorial Sunshine Award to a public official leading the charge on open government after another 12 months of no meaningful advancements on transparency reforms.

While the news of the war in Iran may seem like something distant and unconnected to Michigan, businesses have been directly attacked by Iran state agents and actions from the war may have caused one attack on Michigan soil.

Michiganders may soon be able to get sloshed off a single can.