LANSING — Those of us who have lived most of our lives in big northern industrial states often think of places like Alabama and Mississippi as backward, and states like West Virginia and Louisiana as hotbeds of political corruption.

And while there is some truth in those stereotypes, here’s another more shocking way in which Michigan is different from those more “backward” states. Citizens in Mississippi or Louisiana can use FOIA — the Freedom of Information Act — to get copies of communications sent between lobbyists and interest groups and their governors or state legislators.

So can people in Ohio or Indiana and all but two other states. But Michigan residents can’t. We in the mitten state live in a state that was ranked dead last back in 2015 by the Center for Public Integrity for it

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