Maddow v FOIA

And yes, as someone who has lived in Michigan forever, Mackinac is pronounced "mack-a-naw" :-)

http://www.freep.com/article/20110402/NEWS06/104020331/Think-tank-receives-death-threats-over-request-e-mails

Think tank receives death threats over request for e-mails

A Michigan free-market think tank at the center of a controversy over Freedom of Information Act requests to university labor studies departments received death and bomb threats Thursday night and early Friday.

Employees at the Midland-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy reported the five calls to the FBI and local police. Spokesman Michael Jahr told the Free Press that the calls appeared to come from one or two women and made repeated references to "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC.

Maddow's name was one of the terms included in a Mackinac Center newsletter's FOIA request for e-mails from labor studies departments at Wayne State and Michigan State universities and the University of Michigan. She has talked about the request on her show.

Four messages appeared to be from one woman. The other may have been from another woman, though in that call she left a name and indicated she lived in a neighboring state. The center declined to release the name or the state.

The calls referenced the ongoing fight over collective-bargaining rights for public employees in Wisconsin, the state's Republican governor, Scott Walker, and the FOIA controversy.

The newsletter requested e-mails containing the terms "Scott Walker," "Wisconsin," "Madison" or "Maddow." Maddow has criticized Walker for his push to severely curtail collective-bargaining rights. The FOIA requests also have raised concerns about limiting academic freedoms, though staff with the Mackinac Center's newsletter, Michigan Capitol Confidential, say they're not unlike other requests their reporters have made.

In one of the calls to the Mackinac Center, the caller said, "Scotty Walker is dead. So are you. We know where you live." She then recited the center's address and said, "We are coming to destroy you."

In another call, the caller said, "You are the first place to be bombed."

Midland Police Chief Gerald Ladwig confirmed an investigation is under way and said it was too early to determine how serious the caller or callers were.

"It's very hard to know how to take these threats," Jahr said. "They were definitely very troubling to listen to."

------------------

And this:

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/14846

Mackinac Center Received Bomb Threats and Death Threats Over FOIA Request