A Dent in the Wall
of Distrust
by John Lindstrom
Gongwer News Service
July 2, 2010
In black and white kinescopes, a reed-thin Johnny Carson comes back to us from the days in the 1950s when he was being introduced to America as the host of a game show called Who Do You Trust?
A game involving couples was played every [...]

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Dusting Off a Successful Tax Strategy
by Neil Munro
June 1, 2010
Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom recently demanded, “In my Detroit, you cannot sit on vacant property in major development zones. Either you can develop it, or get fined so badly you’ll sell it to someone who will.”
Among other things, the Motor City clearly is a [...]

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Smothering the Hope
of an Early Budget
by John Lindstrom
Gongwer News Service
May 28, 2010
Let us not talk falsely now, because the hour is getting late. So would Bono have sung at the U2 concert at Michigan State University on June 30 had not middle age caught up with him and found him having emergency back surgery?
But [...]

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License to Report
May 28, 2010
Nobody, including the press, is very happy with the press these days. So State Senator Bruce Patterson, a man of luxuriant mustaches and florid expressions, came up with an idea:
Regulate’ em. Set up a board to check reporters’ credentials, license them as if they were manicurists or lawyers, and charge them [...]

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The Politician-to-English Dictionary
by Susan J. Demas
June 1, 2010
Any junior-high girl will tell you that you can’t believe what a catty classmate says to your face.
Sure, Tiffani might coo that your new zebra handbag is soooo cute, but once you leave the room, she’ll whisper that you must have gotten it on clearance at Wal-Mart.
As luck [...]

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Teacher Retirement Push Nothing to Brag About
April 23, 2010
Next time you are out with a group of friends, ask each one to answer this question: “Who was the teacher who had the most influence on your life?”
You will be surprised on two fronts: everyone will have an answer and won’t sit there trying to figure [...]

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You Don’t Know This Jack
April 23, 2010
Have you ever thought about what it would be like to see yourself being portrayed in a movie? Would you be flattered? Outraged? Freaked out or creeped out?
Though I have my own fantasies, mainly involving the sudden inheritance of vast wealth and, occasionally, major league baseball talent, this was, [...]

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Campaign Arm-Wrestling
by John Lindstrom
Gongwer News Service
April 23, 2010
In the fabled land of Klopstokia, the president was he, or she, who could out arm-wrestle everyone else. Cabinet meetings always began with the president, played by W.C. Fields in the picture Million Dollar Legs, outwrestling his cabinet members. It was a land of peace and plenty, plenty [...]

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Constitutional Roulette
by Tom Shields
April 16, 2010
The sheer challenge of collecting a half-million signatures and raising millions of dollars to put a proposal on Michigan’s November ballot has already done its weeding job.
Michigan voters will not entertain anti-mining or the anti-insurance job proposals this year. And, unless proponents of two casino-related proposals get their acts together, [...]

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Border Security Trumps Local Economic Opportunity
Is Michigan doing enough to make sure Port Huron and other border communities connect with their Canadian neighbor?
by John Foren
April 16, 2010
PORT HURON — It is early afternoon on a beautiful Friday, the last vestiges of ice floes are streaming down the St. Clair River and if Port Huron wanted [...]

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