Big Mac, please...

So again, the movers and shakers move and shake their way north to Mackinac Island for the annual policy conference hosted by the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce. There are always workshops and sessions that are the planned portions of the agenda, but the real story of Mackinac often boils down to the conversations on the massive porch of the Grand Hotel between the sessions.
The big topics this year will no doubt include Mayor Kilpatrick's troubles and whether the Governor (who will hear no end to mayor-related questions during her appearances here) should intercede and act on the city council's request to remove the mayor from office. There will also be plenty of discussion about the mess that is the Michigan delegate tally in the presidential primary. (That may finally be settled on Saturday as the Rules Committee of the DNC meets to try and hammer out a deal on the Michigan and Florida delegates.) And lastly, I'm curious to see what kind of discussions break out over mass transit. It's almost a running joke that every year, Mackinac is the setting for a lot of talk on transit which is followed up by absolutely no action back at home. But this year, with gas rocketing higher and higher, John Hertel (who leads the transit effort in southeast Michigan) is finally feeling some traction. He's told me we're getting very close to a big announcement on progress, but given the "you first" mentality that often defines progress in our region, the announcement has to wait until everyone is on board. So tomorrow, we're off to Big Mac --- watch for updates from there.
-Devin