Security pork in Michigan

A long-running preoccupation of mine is the way in which states use "homeland security" grants. I spent a lot of time looking into this in New York back in 2004 and found that the state had spread the money around to small local police agencies far from any potential terror attack, many of which used it to fight meth or buy pickup trucks for their officers — laudable goals not exactly connected to the mission. (The pickup trucks were, in theory, to haul trailers full of decontamination equipment to actual terror targets.)

The topic remains a fun one. A 2008 Michigan inspector general's report found, among other things, "unauthorized use of an emergency tow vehicle for personal commuting," and the state's conservative Mackinac Center for Public Policy filed a freedom-of-information request for more detail.

The state police, clearly eager to turn over the information, is trying to bill the center an eye-popping $6,876,303.90 for the documents.