Michigan
Bills to expand FOIA to Michigan Legislature, governor’s office clear Senate panel
Legislation to expand Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act to include both the governor’s office and state Legislature is advancing, after members of the Senate Oversight Committee voted Wednesday to report bills to the full Senate floor for consideration.
Senate Bills 669 and 670 would add both the Legislature and the governor’s office to Michigan’s existing FOIA laws, which allow individuals to request records and other information from government organizations to gain a better understanding of how they’re operating. The bills were introduced by Sens. Jeremy Moss, D-Southfield, and Ed McBroom, R-Waucedah Township, respectively.
In February, the Senate Oversight Committee heard testimony on the bills for the first time. While speakers mostly applauded the bills, there were concerns over some exemptions to open records requests that are currently baked into them, like shielding the communications in the governor’s office for issuing pardons and criminal reprieves, and exemptions for communications between constituents and employees of the governor’s office or Legislature.
Moss and McBroom said after the initial hearing, they worked with advocates to tweak the bills, leading to a pair of substitute bills being adopted and reported Wednesday.
Under the substitute bills, communications between lawmakers and their own constituents remain exempt from open records requests, but communications between lawmakers and residents who don’t reside in their districts are no longer considered exempt.
“We did feel that this was the best route to capture the sensitivity around the communication that somebody engages with their lawmaker on,” Moss said.
Communications between lawmakers and an individual who is required to register as a lobbyist, is a public employee or is appointed to a public board would not be exempt, even if the individual lives in the lawmaker’s district, under the proposed legislation.
Additionally, Moss said the substitute bills now place the burden of explaining why a FOIA request is denied on the FOIA coordinator of the responding agency — the initial draft placed the burden of proving why certain records are of public interest on the individual submitting the FOIA request.
Exemptions for records possessed by majority and minority caucuses in the Legislature have also been peeled back slightly. Under the substitute bills, exemptions are limited to advice, opinions or recommendations about public policy or district work.
Bill sponsors said the substitutes adopted Wednesday are aimed at addressing some of the concerns transparency advocates presented at the initial hearing in February, among them the amount of discretion FOIA coordinators would have when responding to public records requests.
“I think that we have really worked very hard to create a system that’s as objective as possible,” McBroom said. “We’ve tried to create something that can just be more objectively determined. Does this person live in your district? Are they registered lobbyists or not? Is this personal communication? Those are just mostly very objective, easy-to-determine standards.”
Moss and McBroom were the only speakers to testify Wednesday. The committee voted 5-0 to send the substitute bills to the full Senate, with one member, Sen. Jonathan Lindsey, R-Coldwater, passing on both votes.
Michigan has long held a reputation for being one of the worst-ranking states when it comes to government transparency. In 2014, the Free Press reported Michigan was one of only two states in which both the governor and state lawmakers have blanket exemptions from public record laws, and despite efforts from some lawmakers to change that, no legislative expansions of government transparency have taken place in the decade since.
But longtime backers of shedding more sunlight on the governor’s office and Legislature in Michigan are hopeful the current effort to expand open record laws is successful.
“I think this is a historic moment at least for the Senate, because it has been the Senate who has been the block of making this law for the last couple of sessions,” said Sen. Sam Singh, D-East Lansing, who chairs the Oversight Committee. Singh also noted that March 11-15 is the so-called “Sunshine Week,” which aims to educate the public about government transparency and warn about issues arising from excessive secrecy for government operations.
Keeping with that theme, Michigan House Democrats were expected to unveil their own set of transparency legislation Wednesday afternoon — lawmakers had called a press conference to discuss a package of bills called the Bringing Reforms for Integrity, Transparency and Ethics, or BRITE Act, later in the day.
Contact Arpan Lobo: alobo@freepress.com. Follow him on X (Twitter) @arpanlobo. Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, @clarajanehen.
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Michigan
Cage-free eggs ready to roll across Michigan grocery stores as new law begins
DEARBORN, Mich. (WXYZ) — Michigan is all set to roll out its new law banning the sale and production of caged eggs across the state.
The law that was passed in 2019 will be enacted starting Dec. 31, 2024. This places Michigan among the 10 states in the country to ban the production of caged eggs.
But will this lead to an increase in egg prices? And who will it impact the most?
Egg Bar is one of the fresh new restaurants to hit the streets of Dearborn. The co-founder, Karl Makky, says they take pride in the food they serve.
Just about every item on the menu involves an egg.
“Even the bread has eggs in it,” Makky said.
To crack this wide open, Egg Bar place uses more than 800 eggs a day, spending more than $5,000 a month. For them, eggs being important is an understatement.
“One hundred percent. Life for Egg Bar depends on eggs,” Makky said.
It turns out all the eggs used at the restaurant are pasture-raised, cage-free eggs.
“Because that was our statement. We wanted to give the customer the best egg. And animal cruelty, we have a soft spot for animals,” Makky said.
“So you must be welcoming this new rule which is coming to Michigan starting December 31st, any egg sold in Michigan has to be cage-free eggs,” said Javed.
“Yes, I am. But I wish they would have done it from the very beginning. So now, the punishment is on the restaurant and on the customers,” Makky said. “Because the prices are going to go up.”
But Dr. Nancy Barr with Michigan Allied Poultry Industries has the other side.
“I don’t think so. Again, the supply and the demand is really the major factor for egg prices. And because of the impacts of the highly pathogenic avian influenza over the past year or two… that’s why you are seeing higher egg prices now,” Barr said.
Hear more from Nancy Barr in the video player below:
FULL INTERVIEW: Dr. Nancy Barr talks about cage free egg law
Even though whole egg prices are set on the commodities market, in the long run, Barr says supply should not be an issue. And that’s because the state law, which only allows the sale and production of cage-free eggs, was signed in 2019 and was given a five-year, phase-in period.
“Our farmers have been committed to moving in this direction, so they’ve been doing it over a number of years and they are ready to supply all the eggs Michigan needs,” Barr said.
The new requirement exempts eggs produced at farms with less than 3,000 egg-laying hens. The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will monitor the cage-free standard.
Barr says the quality and taste of the eggs won’t change “a bit” and customers should not notice a difference.
“Only that the company that is selling the eggs has labeled the carton as such,” Barr said.
Barr also says that even if egg prices rise in the new year, they will still be an affordable source of quality protein.
Michigan
Oklahoma vs. Michigan Prediction, Odds and Key Players for Wednesday, December 18th
Oklahoma will take its unbeaten record to a neutral site showdown for a matchup with upstart Michigan.
While the Wolverines have dropped two straight after an 8-0 start, they appear to be a formidable Big Ten unit this season under first-year head coach Dusty May. They are poised to take down 10-0 Oklahoma as favorites in Charlotte on Wednesday.
How do these two teams match up? Will OU maintain its sterling record, or can the Wolverines show that the two-game skid is nothing more than a blip on what should be a strong first campaign from May in Ann Arbor?
Here’s our betting preview.
Spread
Moneyline
Total: 150.5 (Over -110/Under -110)
Odds courtesy of FanDuel Sportsbook
Oklahoma
Jeremiah Fears: The freshman has been stellar in starting his career in Norman, averaging nearly 17 points per game with three rebounds and nearly five assists while doing an excellent job of getting to the free-throw line.
Michigan
Danny Wolf: The Yale transfer has been an instant star for the Wolverines, playing point forward as the team’s leader in assist rate while also contributing as a top three score as a threat from both inside and out. Wolf is scoring more than 12 points per game with nearly 10 rebounds and three assists, one of the Big Ten’s unique talents.
Michigan is over-reliant on Wolf’s creation as its backcourt is way too sloppy with the ball. Overall, the Wolverines are 335th in turnover rate with its best offense being Wolf and Vladislav Goldin’s two-man game. While effective, the Sooners’ defense is elite against the pick-and-roll and is a turnover-minded defense that ranks top 20 in the country in turnover percentage.
Michigan’s inability to protect the rock and stop transition opportunities for opponents, ranking below the national average in points allowed per possession in transition against an OU offense that loves to hunt for opportunities in the open court.
This game should be open with plenty of possessions, and Michigan should find answers around the rim against a limited OU frontcourt that is 239th in points allowed near the rim, per Haslametrics. I expect a big night for Wolf and Goldin around the rim.
However, the OU offense should be able to win on the margins with transition buckets and a justified top-50 effective field goal rate.
In what should be a back-and-forth affair, I’ll side with the over in Charlotte.
PICK: OVER 150.5
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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Michigan
Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast: Recapping Spartans’ Win Over Oakland
DETROIT, Mich. — No. 20 Michigan State earned its third double-digit victory on Tuesday, defeating Oakland, 77-58, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.
The score wasn’t a very accurate representation of the meeting, as Oakland tested the Spartans for most of the game — it wasn’t until late in the second half that the Spartans really began to pull away.
Michigan State had just a 1-point lead at halftime, having only scored 31 points through the first 20 minutes. But halftime adjustments were made, and the Spartans eventually found an offensive rhythm while locking down the Golden Grizzlies on defense, holding Oakland to just 28 points in the second half.
Michigan State had three players finish in double figures in the scoring column — sophomore forward Xavier Booker, who recorded a career-high 18 points, senior guard Jaden Akins, who posted 16 and junior forward Jaxon Kohler, who earned his third straight double-double, scoring 14 points while grabbing 10 boards.
Our Michigan State beat reporter, Aidan Champion, recaps the contest on this latest postgame edition of the Michigan State Spartans Insider Podcast.
You can watch the episode below:
Below is a partial transcript from Michigan State coach Tom Izzo’s opening statement of his postgame press conference:
Izzo: “For the people down here — I mean, there’s part of me that hates this game, I’ve said it every year — but you got to give Kampe credit, man. The time he’s put in there, the job he’s done, the different lineups he’s had to play, the injuries he’s going through. I thought the kid, No. 7, who’s been out, [Isaiah] Jones, the other Jones, I mean, this team is going to be damn good, and that league, I think, is going to be really good. Now, we didn’t come with the same defensive intensity the first half, and they caused some of it. I thought Jeremy Fears, of all the people, when you talk about a guy that has one basket and really not as many assists as normal — four assists — I thought he won us the game just because of the job he did on [DQ] Cole. And he asked for him at halftime, and I said, ‘Sure.’ And that was the difference in the game. We had some other guys that played pretty well. [Xavier] Booker, of course, came in. Jaxon [Kohler] gets another double-double, which was really big on his part. … I can’t thank our crowd enough, and hopefully Oakland’s crowd too, but the number of people from Michigan State that showed up, that’s why I play it, so people that never see us can see us. And a lot of times, those people don’t get to get into Breslin, and I greatly appreciate it, the way they were.”
Don’t forget to follow the official Spartan Nation Page on Facebook Spartan Nation WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE, and be a part of our vibrant community group Go Green Go White as well WHEN YOU CLICK RIGHT HERE.
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