You've likely heard that Michigan's year-end financial housekeeping led to the happy conclusion that the state has a projected surplus of $971 million for the next budget year.

Trivia time! This quiz, gauging how many Michigan tourist attractions you've visited, is making the rounds on the intertubes this week. Our communications director scored a 69, then suffered the slings and arrows of lesser Michiganders who complained bitterly of the unfairness of it all.

This is a favorite time of year for many Michiganders: Deer season is in full swing. One MEC staffer has a freezer newly full of nutritious, local venison, while another keeps shaking his head and muttering about a big buck that trotted close but didn't offer a clean shot.

One night in the late 1980s I wandered unannounced into Grand Rapids' Fountain Street Church for a meeting of the West Michigan Environmental Action Council (WMEAC). I had a vague idea that I'd like to write something about "The Environment" for the Grand Rapids-based chain of weekly newspapers I was working for, and an "environmental council" seemed a likely spot to find such a story. Beyond that, I was as clueless as a 24-year-old could be.

In a twisted nod to Halloween hijinks, the Michigan Senate's Energy & Technology Committee today takes up a piece of legislation, SB 314, that surely is no treat.

The heartbreaking plight of Isle Royale wolves was chronicled in Silence of the Wolves, a terrific package of stories published this weekend by Lansing State Journal writer Louise Knott Ahern.