DELTA TOWNSHIP – Governor Gretchen Whitmer addressed the use of nonprofit organizations by lawmakers for personal fundraising on Monday, calling the practice "ripe for scrutiny."
Committee hearings on legislation to increase Michigan's transparency laws began on Thursday, with many lawmakers and elected officials saying they're onboard with the legislation, but they'd like to see it go farther.
A computer won't be drawing any new map for the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission any time soon, even as some members think the tool could make the court-ordered redraw move quicker.
House Minority Leader Matt Hall gave a harsh critique of governmental transparency measures proposed by Democrats in the Legislature during a Wednesday press conference, but said as minority leader he shouldn't have to the legislating for the majority party.
Criminal financial charges filed Tuesday against former Speaker Lee Chatfield and his wife, Stephanie Chatfield, have again led to the state's top law enforcement agent to plead for legislative ethics and transparency reforms regarding political dark money accounts, nonprofits and other accounts commonly called slush funds.
Lawmakers and statewide officers were required to file financial disclosures on Monday for the first time in state history, though the specifics of the filings were limited as officials for the most part don't need to report specific amounts of income.
A special master will not be ordered to draw an alternative Detroit-area Senate map while the Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission attempts to draw its own version over the next few months, a federal three-judge panel ordered Monday.
The plaintiff who sued the state a month ago asserting it removed voter code data from public-facing voter history records, making it difficult to issue Freedom of Information Act requests seeking that data, has dropped the complaint.
The League of Women Voters of Michigan filed late Thursday to intervene in a lawsuit over the maintenance of the state's voter rolls, alleging the suit is based on flawed data and could disenfranchise eligible voters.
The federal panel of judges overseeing the remedy remapping phase of Detroit's state Senate districts has set a July 26 deadline for a new map to be adopted.