The day after his inauguration, President Barack Obama said, "The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is to make it transparent, so that the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they're being made, and whether their interests are being well served."

And by posting the checkbook registers for their school districts online, that's precisely what many Michigan public schools have decided to do.

Onsted Community Schools is the newest public district to open their books, said Ken Braun, director of the Mackinac Center's "Show Michigan the Money" project. Braun has been encouraging all 551 public school districts, every charter school, and each municipality in Michigan to regularly provide this data on their Web sites.

"These are public funds," said Onsted Superintendent Mark Haag. "I see no reason to not be transparent about everything, especially these days when there are questions about schools and other public institutions and their funding."

With this addition, there are now 78 public school districts and two intermediate school districts statewide providing this information on the internet, including more than half of the largest 20 districts. Nearly one in four public school students now attend a district that has an online check register. Links to all school district checkbook registers are available at www.mackinac.org/9329.

There are 50,000 petitions to defeat the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act out in 73 of Michigan's 83 counties, according to the petition drive's director.

Wendy Day, director of Michigan Citizens for Healthcare Freedom, said the movement also has coordinators in more than half of the counties.

The petition drive is an attempt to roll back the federal health care law recently approved by the U.S. Congress. The petition would put a proposed state constitutional amendment on the ballot in November to be voted upon.

To get on the ballot, organizers need 381,000 signatures by July 5. Day said they've collected 12,000 signatures as of Saturday but many of the petitions are still out.

Day said they've met the early benchmarks of setting up a distribution and collection system.

"It's not easy," Day said. "It will evolve."

The movement is getting some help.

The Michigan Republican Party and the National Federal of Independent Business have joined the cause.

The GOP is offering its 10 Victory Centers located around the state as a place to drop off and pick up petitions.

The National Federation of Independent Business will get the petitions out among its members.

"The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is a massive piece of legislation that will unfold over the next 10 years," said Charlie Owens, the NFIB's Michigan director, in a press release. "Its complex provisions have already proven to be difficult to interpret. However, one thing is already clear — small business will be at the losing end of much of the next tax and regulatory requirements, and those costs will come straight out of the pockets of Michigan small businesses."

Owens stated that the NFIB will get petitions out to members and will also have 10 field representatives who cover the state involved.