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Thanks, Whitmer team, for reaching out

We editorialized on Monday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and her team need to make themselves more readily available to questions from local press, especially when they show up in the back yards of newspapers such as The News.

We have to give credit where credit is due. Her team has done so.

We penned that editorial after learning through local sources last week that Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist planned to tour Rogers City on Monday, and News staff writer Steve Schulwitz struggled to reach anyone in the lieutenant governor’s office to confirm his itinerary or schedule access for us to cover the visit.

However, not only did Schulwitz eventually secure access to the event and to Gilchrist directly, allowing him to provide important information about the lieutenant governor’s visit to Northeast Michigan in Tuesday’s edition, but our reporter walked away from that event with a handful of business cards from contacts in the administration’s communications department should we need to reach them in the future.

And Bobby Leddy, Whitmer’s press secretary, reached out to News leadership on Monday to introduce himself and make sure The News had his direct contact information, should we need comment from the Governor’s Office in the future.

Whatever crossed wires or miscommunication may have in the past caused the disconnect between this newspaper and the governor’s team, Leddy vowed to make the team as available as it could moving forward.

We take him at his word and believe that will happen.

We came down hard on Whitmer’s team on Monday, but we want readers to know that team made eager and we believe sincere efforts to touch base after that editorial published, and we trust we’ll have the opportunity to ask our tough but fair questions on readers’ behalf moving forward.

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