* I was thinking about using this story for a question of the day…

A 33-year-old requirement that almost everything sold in [Michigan] be adorned with an individual price tag ends today, the result of legislation passed early this year at the urging of Gov. Rick Snyder.

Snyder and other advocates for repeal said Michigan’s item-pricing law, the strictest in the nation, was a relic of an era that was slowing innovation and adding more than $2 billion a year in costs to consumers. Defenders of the old law said repeal would sow frustration and anger among shoppers, result in layoffs for store clerks, and doubted that consumer savings would follow.

Tom Scott, vice president of the Michigan Retailers Association, said Wednesday he doesn’t expect much drama when the stores open today.

I couldn’t find an Illinois statute mandating price tags, so I called the Illinois Retail Merchants Association and spoke with its top dog, Dave Vite. Vite said Illinois has no mandatory price tag law on the books. So, all the tags you see are put there voluntarily.

* I’ve been a bit puzzled about this new “purple paint” law. Thankfully, GateHouse explains…

Purple paint violators will be prosecuted.

Legislation signed by Gov. Pat Quinn this week allows landowners to substitute purple paint on trees and poles for the traditional “no trespassing” signs. The purple option is effective immediately, state officials said.

“The forestry industry brought it to my attention,” said state Sen. John Sulllivan, D-Rushville, a chief sponsor of the legislation.

Sullivan said he got the idea for purple paint from Missouri, where the alternative to trespassing signs already is available. […]

According to research at the Missouri Agricultural Law Center, Arkansas started the purple-paint trend in 1989 in response to requests from agricultural, lumber and outdoor sporting groups for an alternative to metal signs that can be removed, vandalized or wear out.

It also appears to be working in Texas…

“A ‘No trespassing’ sign may be shot up or taken down and a fence may be cut, but a post or tree marked with purple paint is not as easily removed, therefore causing your property to be legally posted more effectively and for a longer period of time before the markings need to be replaced,” said [Lieutenant Game Warden Lewis Rather].

He added that the use of purple paint appears to be a successful measure in notifying potential trespassers.

“Complaints received are down as far as trespassing on property marked with purple paint.”

* Here’s an interesting story on state implementation of the federal government’s new Rube Goldberg Machine healthcare law…

Almost no one wants the state running Illinois’ new health-care exchanges.

Health-care advocates, unions, doctors’ groups and business people testified in unison this week before the Legislature’s rule-making body, the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability that the state should have a limited role in running the health-care exchanges, but they were divided on their reasons.

Each state must create an exchange where people can shop for and purchase competitive health insurance plans, as required under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. But each state can create its own exchange.

At its most basic, an exchange would be a marketplace, a one-stop shop. Some states are looking at online exchanges or physical exchanges or both, but no single model has emerged.

Jim Duffett, executive director of Illinois Campaign for Better Health Care, which advocates for health care for everyone, said exchanges should be outside direct government control and, more importantly, governmental influence.

“Political winds change,” said Duffett. “We need to keep this marketplace stable, no matter if it is a Democrat or Republican in the (governor’s) mansion.”