Page 21 - Progress Michigan News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Democrats were in trouble. It was November 1984, and white, working-class voters in Macomb County had overwhelmingly voted for President Ronald Reagan for a second term. The Dems were losing their suburban, blue-collar base, and nowhere was the loss more pronounced than in Macomb County, home of the white, unionized autoworker. Just 20 years earlier, three-quarters of Macomb County voters turned out for President Lyndon Johnson, making it the most heavily Democratic suburban county in the U.S. To figure out what happened, local Democratic Party leaders hi...

EDITORIAL There’s too much secrecy in state government. It’s time for a constitutional amendment to change that Many of the documents that are readily accessible to the public in other states are off-limits here. By The Editorial BoardUpdated April 20, 2021, 2 hours ago Email to a Friend Massachusetts’ state government has long been one of the least transparent in the country. Want to know how your representative voted in committee on a crucial climate change or police reform bill? Good luck with that. There’s no requirement the information be made public. Curious about wh...

Open records expansion poised to advance in Senate committee as group tees up ballot initiative Updated Mar 19, 2021; Facebook Share Bills subjecting the governor’s office and state lawmakers to open records laws appear poised to move forward in the Michigan Legislature, but an advocacy group says it’s readying plans to launch a ballot initiative on the matter on grounds the package doesn’t go far enough. The Michigan Senate Oversight Committee held a hearing on a 10-bill package Tuesday that would subject the governor, lieutenant governor and their staff to the state’s Freedom of In...

Michigan public record advocates unveil details of ballot proposal By David Eggert LANSING, Mich. - Advocates for open government on Tuesday unveiled the specifics of their ballot proposal that would open Michigan’s governor and lawmakers to public-records requests. Protesters are expected at the Michigan State Capitol and lawmakers have opted to cancel next week's session out of an abundance of caution. The state is one of only two to wholly exempt the governor’s office from the Freedom of Information Act and among eight where legislators are explicitly exempt. The liberal advocacy grou...

FOIA requests, often just referred to as FOIAs, are tools commonly used by journalists and others to access information from public agencies, like city councils, police departments and other agencies. This information can include prior financial records, documents, even emails between public officials.  FOIA coordination and cooperation is often seen as a measure of government transparency, something Michigan has been subject to criticism for. Michigan is one of only a few states whose governor and Legislature are exempt to FOIA laws. The Progress Michigan initiative would place those two bo...