Griffin Rivers, the former chairman of the Ingham County Democratic Party, announced Tuesday he was running for the open 68th House District seat being vacated by term-limited Rep. Joan Bauer, D-Lansing, at the end of the year.

Turning a Lansing Center parking lot into a casino floor won’t happen overnight. Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero understands that, which means getting the public’s support is almost as important as getting a judge’s support for the Sault tribe’s unproven legal theory that would allow a casino here.

For the first time in 28 years, John Daher’s name will not appear on Lansing Township ballots for supervisor, forcing the township’s 8,200 residents to reassess their government’s structure.

For the first time in 28 years, John Daher’s name will not appear on Lansing Township ballots for supervisor, forcing the township’s 8,200 residents to reassess their government’s structure.

At about hour three of the Lansing City Council’s banging-head-against-the-wall deliberations over its 2012 president, community observer Mary Reynolds assumed the seat at the head of the table where the eight Lansing City Councilmembers should have been and announced:

Thank God, 2011 is over. That's the mindset of Michigan's unions and progressives, anyway. Act Two is coming here in 2012 with the state's Republican-led government attacking many of the same issues, but not with the fervor of the last 12 months.

1. Organized labor - Gov. Rick Snyder's "reinvention" of Michigan equaled a "shared sacrifice" for just about everybody except business - who saw lower taxes, fewer regulations and long-sought policy changes that improve their bottom line at the expense of the injured and the unemployed.

However, sources around town tell me Grebner doesn´t believe Lindemann is operating the Drain Commissioner´s Office as frugally as he could. I couldn´t get anyone to elaborate on what that means. It´s probably because few people on earth understand the hidden corners of the Ingham County´s budget like Grebner.

Occupy has successfully raised the specter of homelessness Exhibit A of corporations putting profits over people. The subject is particularly relevant since our Supreme Court ruled that a corporate computer system, as opposed to a live human being, can boot families from their homes.

She is rubbing people the wrong way with her micromanaging of personnel decisions as she tries to get more minority representation into the workforce, but Rodgers isn’t running a one-woman crusade. And change for the better doesn’t come without upsetting the applecart.