Good morning. Welcome to Axios Today. It's Thursday, February 18th. I'm Nile Voodoo.

Here's what we're watching today. Washington takes on GameStop. Plus, America's new

can't-do attitude. But first, today's one big thing. Is Michigan's expungement law

of the future of criminal records?

One in three Americans has a criminal record that will show up during routine

background checks, whether that's for finding a job or renting a house. Now, states

across the country are tackling this issue by making it easier to erase or

expunge those crimes from their record. Michigan is the first state that will soon

enact the country's most expansive expungement law. Axios' Jennifer Kingston has

been reporting on what these changes look like. Jennifer, why is this so important?

It's so important on many levels. One is in terms of employment. So many employers will

simply throw out a resume or job application if there's any red flag along those lines.

I've heard of parents who are denied the opportunity to go on field trips or

participate in their children's school life because of what they did in the past.

An expungement takes care of all these things on every level.

So that said, what is said to happen in Michigan this April?

Michigan has set a high bar in terms of creating a broad menu of crimes that can be

expunged with waiting periods. You can't get right out of jail or right off

probation. You have to wait several years, as well as in the future an automated

process for doing so, a computer system that will go through records and when a

statute of limitation is up on the crime that you've committed, it will

automatically expunge your records. How much of the Michigan statewide effort is

...