detnews.com - Opinion

Editorial: House health bill would hit Michigan with $500M Medicaid hike

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

Lurking in the federal health care reform bill passed by the U.S. House is a Medicaid balloon payment that potentially would add as much as $500 million to Michigan's budget challenges when it came due a decade from now. It's a major concern to the state.

Legislature should ensure school districts allow taxpayers to sit in on labor negotiations

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

This fall, Michigan school districts are negotiating with teacher unions, trying to stave off budget deficits and even bankruptcies. Taxpayers should have a right to know what these talks include so they can make their wishes clear to school board members.

Amber Arellano: Add women, change Lansing

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

When the going gets tough, the tough go hunting.

George Will: There is still no alternative to oil

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

What city contributed most to the making of the modern world? Paris, pioneer of mass armies and nationalist statism? London, seat of parliamentary democracy and center of finance? Or perhaps Titusville, Pa.

End K-12 teacher tenure

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:22:00 EST

Idea 44: End the practice of teacher tenure as we know it and base continued employment, promotion and compensation on jointly established performance goals.

Clarence Page: Steer between political correctness and profiling

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

I admit it. As the early horrifying news of the Fort Hood massacre unfolded and I was jerked alert by the word that the suspect was a Muslim, a thought-prayer suddenly flashed across my mind: Oh, please don't let him be black.

Kathleen Parker: Don't choose to ignore China's forced abortions

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

One of the few incontrovertible assertions one can reasonably make is that no one supports forced abortion.

Froma Harrop: GOP becomes party of fiscal babies

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

Nearly every Republican these days calls for tax cuts and lower deficits, and in the same sentence. Point out that these goals clash -- that taxes pay for government and not paying for government causes deficits, and the Republican counters, "We must shrink government, instead."

There is still no alternative to oil

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:57:00 EST

Letters to the editor

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 01:00:00 EST

Michigan State University professor of crop and soil sciences Phil Robertson is a few trees short of a cord of wood ("Carbon rules could damage Michigan's biofuel industry," Nov. 10). The auto industry doesn't produce cars or trucks that run on "grasses or very fast-growing trees." I wouldn't get on a plane powered by such, either. Perhaps he means to replace coal as a fuel with grass and wood, but I doubt the thermal output of grass or wood can compare with that of coal.