Will the bright light of public scrutiny dim even more under the Capitol dome?

While there have been notable journalistic successes over the span, there is much to lament about cutbacks in coverage of state government and politics since I, decades ago, started covering Lansing for United Press International (UPI).

There was the long-ago demise of UPI as a zesty competitor of the Associated Press, and then the closing of Lansing bureaus by Detroit TV stations, and by widely heard WJR radio, and downsizing of the bureaus of Detroit newspapers.

Throughout that span, excellent coverage was maintained by Booth Newspapers, including those in Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Jackson, Muskegon, Flint, Bay City, and Saginaw. (Two longtime Booth Lansing bureau chiefs are in the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame, Guy Jenkins and Bill Kulsea.)

Publisher Bill Ballenger of Inside Michigan Politics newsletter says Booth has "done an outstanding job for more than a half century - one of the shining beacons of political journalism." But he raises the question whether now it is "trying to get political coverage on the cheap?"

Buyout fever, which has hit the auto and other industries, is at play in Booth's Lansing bureau, with buyout offers made to 10 of the 16 employees who report to Bureau Chief Meegan Holland.

Of the 16, the six who cover sports, including Detroit professional teams, are excluded from the buyout offer - a reflection of the focus of readers, including this one, on sports.

Holland hopes that after pending sale of the building that houses the bureau, "we'll still have a Lansing presence. Hope is the key word. We'll know more by late June."

Like the Detroit papers, as well as most dailies in northern Michigan, the downstate Booth papers have had revolving door ownerships. Booth currently is a division of privately owned Advance Publications, which also owns the Times-Picayune in hurricane ravaged New Orleans.

Could Katrina losses down there be impacting operations in Lansing?

Hardball Much has been made about the GOP complaint that Governor Jennifer Granholm is using kids as "political pawns" with her threat to cut state aid by $125 per student unless Republicans agree to a tax increase to make up for plunging revenues.

Now comes Representative Kevin Elsenheimer with a letter to Granholm contending "it would appear that your office is engaging in a high stakes poker game to force the legislature to accede to additional taxes by refusing to release already budgeted, already appropriated funds that cannot be used for any general fund purpose." He says there's a delay on payments for snowmobile trails from restricted funds generated by registrations/permits.

Paul Beachnau, executive director of the Gaylord Tourism Bureau and chairman of the Otsego Board of Commissioners, said after an unsuccessful appeal to Granholm's Marquette office that "this is really going to screw us up" in preparing for a season that is important to the northern economy.

Granholm is not the first governor to juggle funds while negotiating agreement with recalcitrant lawmakers on how to avoid a looming cash crisis. But the snowmobile funds, like those generated by boat registrations, are earmarked in a cookie jar that cannot be tapped to bail out the general fund.

Cradle to Grave

I've observed previously that that has been the span of the consumer protection initiatives of Attorney General Mike Cox, who has cracked down on everything from deadbeat parents on child support to abuses in nursing homes that have resulted in death.

Last week, he charged an Oklahoma man, Clayton Ray Smart, with alleged embezzlement of up to $70 million in cemetery trust funds affecting 28 cemeteries in Michigan.

Among them were three in the Upper Peninsula, Oaklawn Chapel Gardens, Sault Ste. Marie; Northland Chapel Gardens, Negaunee; and Garden of Rest, Wells.

Cox called it "a disgusting theft from the dead of Michigan."

George Weeks retired last year after 22 years as political columnist for The Detroit News. His weekly Michigan Politics column is syndicated by Superior Features.