If you're still looking for something to be thankful for after last week's holiday — like lawmakers resisting the urge to stuff themselves — I'm sorry to report that the turkeys in Lansing continue to gobble up freebies.

The latest example is state Rep. Pauline Wendzel, a Republican from Watervliet who my student investigative reporting team Eye On Michigan identified last year as one of the Top 25 Takers . The takers are the two dozen and one lawmakers who took more free food and trips from lobbyists than any other state official between 2001 and 2023, which was the last year for which complete data on freebies influencers gave to legislators was available at the time we published our findings.

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