Gas prices are slowly dropping across the state and nation, as they have been for two months. That’s thanks to an increase in gasoline production, federal initiatives, and a cutback on driving.

It’s what economists call the “rocket and feather” effect. Gas prices shoot up quickly and fall slowly. Unlike a falling feather, though, the slow drop in gas costs is painful. Gas prices are still abnormally high. That in turn, is making the cost of many products, which are dependent on vehicles, to be abnormally high, too.

People have endured this expensive cost of living for too long. For some, it’s a frequent inconvenience. For others, it’s another dent in their already too-strained paychecks, a sacrifice of comfort.

Weeks after kicking off her carbon neutrality plan for Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer created a critical mobility council Thursday that included no environmental, transit or non-motorized leaders.

Michigan Environmental Council, Transportation Riders United and Environmental Law & Policy Center are calling on Gov. Whitmer to add at least one seat to the Michigan Council on Future Mobility and Electrification designated for the aforementioned leadership.

When Bill Rustem stepped away from his countryside home in Frankenmuth and into Lansing, he never stopped birding among the pine trees and fishing from trout streams. In the 50 years since, he has never stopped shaping landmark policies and laws that protect the nature he has deeply cared for.

Rustem’s passion for the public good is decades deep, and his work’s legacy will extend for decades more. He led a ballot campaign to create the state’s revolutionary bottle deposit system. He helped create a public land and recreation trust fund powered by energy industry revenue. He shaped policy on water and wildlife protections. And he continues to strengthen the protections he helped create through partnership, patience and persistence.

Many Michigan families once had a set routine on school day mornings. Now, they are hazy due to COVID-19. The pandemic not only threatens public health and school openings, it could impact how well children concentrate and succeed academically.

Some families, however, have struggled to get children to school and to learn effectively at no fault of their own long before the pandemic began.