Michigan Radio’s Senior Political Analyst Jack Lessenberry has been thinking about the recent decision by The State Officers Compensation Commission to cut legislative pay by ten percent. Hear Audio Story    There is something to be said for a spirit of shared sacrifice during hard times...

I don’t know James Epolito personally, though people who do tell me he’s done a tremendous job as head of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. Phil Power, who is on the MEDC board, knows Epolito well, and credits him with using $1.5 billion in public funding to lure $7.7 billion in pri...

The University Research Corridor is a great thing for Michigan, and the potential key to our economic future. However, it hasn’t done nearly enough to promote itself – at least within the state. I’ve run into development people and even state legislators who have only the haziest idea of its e...

In case you’ve forgotten, Chrysler and General Motors have only a couple months to file highly developed turnaround plans with the U.S. Treasury Department. If they don’t pass muster, the two automakers essentially will be finished. Not only will they not get any more taxpayer money, they will b...

Everything we know now suggests that when it comes to the economy, this is going to be a rough, batten-down-the-hatches kind of year. It may be even worse for state government. There is one big difference between the state and federal governments, by the way. Washington doesn’t have to live within...

This morning, President Bush announced that he's offering $17.4 billion in loans to the domestic auto industry. Michigan Radio’s Jack Lessenberry would have liked to be at the studio today to share his thoughts. However, he’s snowed in. Nevertheless, we were able to get Jack over the phone… He...

There seems to be a great deal of resentment of the United Auto Workers union, and it is not limited to management. A few months ago, I read a letter from an independent house painter named Ken to the editor of a newspaper in Pontiac. He was bitterly complaining about the union’s cushy benefits an...

Everybody remembers that Franklin D. Roosevelt sought to put a brave face on things seventy-five years ago, when he took office during the worst depression in our nation’s history. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,� the new President told the nation, in what would be his most fam...

Our unemployment rate is the highest in the nation, and our key industry is on the point of something like collapse. What‘s more, Washington doesn’t seem inclined to help us. Not, that is, until it may be too late. Our nation is entering what may be a savage recession. John Dingell, our longest-...

The political winds seemed to shift on Capitol Hill yesterday, and the news they were blowing doesn’t sound good for Detroit. “Right now, I don’t think there are the votes,“ said Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the banking committee. He personally favors the bailout, but doesnâ€...