MIDLAND — In a filing yesterday with the Michigan Supreme Court in the lawsuit Loar v. DHS, Mackinac Center attorney Patrick J. Wright lodged a response to a Department of Human Services brief that he later described as a "thin hodge-podge of technicalities." The filing by Wright, director of the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, called on the Supreme Court to immediately rule in favor of the home day care business owners the Mackinac Center represents in the case.
MIDLAND — A lower court's interpretation of what constitutes a "public record" under Michigan's Freedom of Information Act would shield criminal and other improper government activities from public scrutiny, according to an amicus brief jointly submitted to the Michigan Supreme Court today by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and the Michigan Press Association.
LANSING — The Mackinac Center Legal Foundation will appeal the case of Loar v. DHS to the Michigan Supreme Court, according to Director Patrick Wright.
The public-interest law firm brought suit against the Michigan Department of Human Services in September on behalf of home-based day care providers who were forced into a government employees union and had dues withheld from state subsidy payments provided to low-income families. In late December, the Michigan Court of Appeals dismissed the case without explanation.
Show Michigan the Money project Director Ken Braun said he is pleased that at least eight Kent County school districts began posting their check registers online in early 2010. In response to a news release issued earlier today, one Kent County school district notified Braun that the district had been posting check registers online. Repeated requests from Braun seeking participation from the region's districts appeared to produce no posted check registers — and even some resistance — in 2009, but a breakthrough appears to have occurred this year in eight Kent County districts.
