Investigation continues of death, bomb threats at Midland's Mackinac Center

Published: Tuesday, April 05, 2011, 12:00 PM

By Andrew Dodson | Booth Mid-Michigan The Bay City Times

 

 

Times FileThe Mackinac Center in downtown Midland.

MIDLAND — Midland Police officials say the investigation continues of looking into who made death threats and bomb threats to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

The threats are believed sparked by a Freedom of Information Act request the center submitted this month. Police officials said the investigation is still early.

The Mackinac Center made national news after submitting a FOIA request to Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. The request sought emails from professors in the labor studies departments that referenced Wisconsin collective bargaining, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and MSNBC talk show personality Rachel Maddow.

The story was one of the top read and most commented on stories on Mlive this weekend, with many people wondering why they wanted access to emails of those university professors.

In a recent article from the Michigan Capitol Confidential, a news service from the Mackinac Center, five hypothetical scenarios are spelled out as reasons for sending out the FOIA requests.

In pursuing this FOIA request, we were not engaging in an activity different from other FOIA requests. We routinely ask for a variety of public documents, including financial reports, salary data and union contracts. We have also asked for emails, including emails sent by academics at public universities. This has always been done with a desire to increase the public’s understanding of why government adopts certain policies or spends money in certain ways. Sometimes we have also been concerned that government officials have engaged in activities contrary to their proper legal mandate. In this case and in others, we were not interested in some sort of bizarre crusade to expose any political bias of professors. — Read the full article

The Center also posted that Michigan State University and the University of Michigan will comply with the FOIA request, citing reports from the Detroit Free Press.

The threatening messages were left on the center’s voicemail on Thursday and Friday, said Michael Jahr, vice president of communications at the center.

Since receiving the threats, the free-market think tank based in Midland has asked the Midland Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to investigate.

“Beyond that, there is really no update at this point, but there is an active investigation,” Jahr said.
In one threatening message, a female voice said, “Scotty Walker is dead. So are you. We know where you live.” The woman cited the Mackinac Center’s address and said, “We are coming to destroy you.”
Jahr said some new security measures now are in place at the center.

“Work is continuing at pace,” said Jahr. “We’re not backing off our daily work we do to advance good ideas for improving Michigan.”