An hour’s drive south of the Mackinac Bridge, a 67,000-acre patch of state forest known as Chandler Hills offers a stunning glimpse of how Michigan appeared in 1800, before a century of logging left much of the state looking like a moonscape.
The hiss of wind coursing through towering hardwoods and the gurgle of a brook that bursts forth from a ravine are often the only sounds in the densely wooded forest.
by Chad Selweski Michigan s Legislature seems determined to retain the state s status as the least transparent, least ethical public body in the nation. The latest sleight of hand in Lansing is an effort by Republican leaders -– and some leading reformers on the left to bastardize legislation that would have ended a key proviso of state government secrecy.
Clear skies over a murky workplace (Photo: Nancy Derringer) Michigan remains one of only two states that don’t require state lawmakers to disclose their finances – business ownerships or partnerships, real estate, stocks – which would reveal legislators’ conflicts of interest. A previous bill to require full public disclosure of income and assets has been twisted into a secretive system where only a small committee of lawmakers could see the financial records that would be submitted by fellow legislators.