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March 29, 2011
Michigan Think Tank Asks 3 Universities for Labor Professors' E-Mails

By Peter Schmidt

A free market-oriented think tank in Michigan has sent the state's three largest public universities open-records requests for any e-mails from their labor-studies faculty members dealing with the debate over collective bargaining in Wisconsin.

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, based in Midland, Mich., sent the requests on Friday to labor-studies centers at Michigan State University, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and Wayne State University. The boilerplate wording on the requests, as first reported on Tuesday by the blog Talking Points Memo, asks the universities to provide all e-mails from the employees and contractors of their labor-studies centers containing the words "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison," and "Maddow," in reference to Rachel Maddow, the liberal commentator on MSNBC. Mr. Walker is the Republican governor of Wisconsin.
More:http://chronicle.com/article/Michigan-Think-Tank-Asks-3/126922/?sid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

Michigan's Freedom of Information Act is brief and to the point:

M.C.L.A. 15.231

Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated Currentness
Chapter 15. Public Officers and Employees (Refs & Annos)
Full text of all sections at this level Freedom of Information Act (Refs & Annos)
Current selection15.231. Short title; public policy


Sec. 1. (1) This act shall be known and may be cited as the “freedom of information act”.

(2) It is the public policy of this state that all persons, except those persons incarcerated in state or local correctional facilities, are entitled to full and complete information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those who represent them as public officials and public employees, consistent with this act. The people shall be informed so that they may fully participate in the democratic process.

CREDIT(S)

Amended by P.A.1994, No. 131, § 1, Imd. Eff. May 19, 1994; P.A.1996, No. 553, § 1, Eff. March 31, 1997; P.A.1997, No. 6, Imd. Eff. May 16, 1997.