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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Government Integrity? Report Finds Michigan Lacking

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Tuesday, November 10, 2015   

LANSING, Mich. – Not only did Michigan receive a failing grade in a new 2015 State Integrity Investigation, it came in dead last in ethics and transparency laws.

The state failed in 10 out of 13 areas scored in the report released Monday by the Center for Public Integrity.

Melanie McElroy, executive director of Common Cause Michigan, says residents need to hold state government accountable by ensuring more information is openly available to the public.

"Because Michigan has become so weak on transparency and disclosure, the voices of ordinary people are being drowned out by special interests," she says. "There's really no safeguard for that. We have abysmal lobby disclosure laws."

According to McElroy, Michigan does not require elected leaders to disclose personal financial holdings, and the governor and state legislators are exempt from public Freedom of Information Act requests.

Michigan isn't alone at the bottom of the barrel – ten other states also received similar rankings. Alaska ranked the highest, with a "C" grade, in the study.

Opponents of expanding open records laws say it could jeopardize some constituents' private information. Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan, says current law is failing the people of Michigan. He says the open records laws need to be reformed.

"Government is supposed to be for the people," he says. "Transparency is an important part of being able to hold government accountable. The lack of transparency and lack of information that comes out from our state government, at this point, is really sad."

In response to the findings, a state spokesperson says Governor Rick Snyder is focused on making Michigan a leader in transparency and ethics, referencing an "A-minus" grade the state received in a 2013 public transparency report from the Public Interest Research Group.


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