Used to be, newspapers would honor the occasion with extensive coverage. There would be salutes to stalwart individuals, many journalists among them, who had, against all odds, patched together information pulled from uncooperative government sources to expose waste, fraud, theft, cronyism, indecision and bad ideas.
For instance, a review of the story last year about the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund extracting Department of Home Land Security documents concerning the department's monitoring of the Occupy Movement would have been commendable.
Closer to home, a summary of Progress Michigan's investigation utilizing FOIA requests for information about Michigan Rep. Roy Schmidt's machinations in changing his party affiliation would have been instructive.Just a week ago it was reported that the Michigan Chapter of Americans for Prosperity was told it would have to pay the Michigan State Police about $19,600 for copies of a few hours of video tape recorded last December. That, too, would have been a worthy subject for discussion during Sunshine Week.
Also during past Sunshine Weeks, there would have been a recounting of the year's efforts to strengthen Freedom of Information statutes to make it easier for the public to acquire the records their tax dollars had paid for; and especially, to expose corruption and ineptness in government.
What happened this year? I suppose editors could have pointed out that last September Rep. Mike Shirkey introduced in the Michigan House a watery bill, intended as an improvement on Michigan's outdated statute, to speed up FOIA compliance, reduce costs and increase fines against government offices that failed to comply.
Unfortunately, the bill expired in December. But wait! Shirkey reintroduced the bill in January. It continues to languish. Wow. There's a scoop.
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