We want to thank our many clients and other food service operators, owners, and chefs, who responded to our call to join us in this new program. Detroit Area Chefs' Feed The Need program was started in late August and we quickly signed up 52 Detroit area restaurants, hotels, markets, hospitals, clubs and others to feed the homeless and unemployed men, women and children in Detroit and Pontiac. We chose several homeless centers or organizations such as the Cass Community Center in Detroit and the Baldwin Center in Pontiac. Our program involves one of our food service establishments serving 200-450 men, women and children on a Wednesday once a year, at noon in one of these facilities. The restaurant or hotel provides a complete meal and dessert, prepares it at its own facility, and then delivers it and serves it at the facility. We launched the program on October 18th with Buffalo Wild Wings CEO Sally Smith and a number of owners and chefs at the MRA Food Show in Novi. The press coverage was excellent, and on Wednesday, Mike Ansley and his Buffalo Wild Wings staff provided the first meal to about 250 people.

Mike Brown Wraps Up Work on Governor's Liquor Control Advisory Rules Committee

The Advisory Rules Committee ("ARC") formed pursuant to Governor Snyder's Executive Order 2011-5 for the purpose of reviewing the current Administrative Rules of the Michigan Liquor Control Commission held its first meeting on August 24, 2011. The ARC held seven additional meetings throughout the months of September-December before concluding its work on December 5th. In total, the 20-member Liquor Control ARC met for approximately 30 hours to deliberate dozens of proposals brought forward by committee members to revise the existing Liquor Control Code and Administrative Rules. The full report of the ARC that will eventually be submitted to the Office of Regulatory Reinvention, and ultimately Governor Snyder, is expected to be over 100 pages in length. Some of the rules being recommended for elimination or amendment date back to Michigan's initial Liquor Control Code adopted in 1933 at the end of Prohibition. The ARC took decisive action in reviewing many aspects of Michigan's Liquor Control Code and Administrative Rules in an effort to "modernize" Michigan's regulatory environment as it relates to liquor licensing and other aspects of liquor regulation. Because the full report of the ARC has not yet been released for public review and comment, we are unable here to divulge the specific proposals adopted by the Committee. Once the specific proposals and recommendations of the ARC are made public, we will provide a thorough discussion of those proposed changes, and their likely impact on our clients, in a future special newsletter. The ARC's report is expected to be made public in January 2012.

Michael Brown was one of only two private-practice attorneys appointed to the Liquor Control Advisory Rules Committee. Mike was responsible for drafting several of the proposed amendments and was a key contributor to much of the discussion on the proposed revisions. Mike estimates that since August he spent well over 100 hours on ARC-related work.