National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

Author: NFOIC

Profile picture of NFOIC
Website
https://nfoic.org

Posts by NFOIC

Nevada Legislators Are Exempt From Public Records Laws — For Now

Posted on

Nevada legislators make public records law, but it turns out they don’t have to follow it.

That could change during this legislative session. Senate Bill 170 would make the Nevada Legislature subject to public records laws, and would expand the kinds of information that can be requested.

But will legislators go for it? Will they pass a bill that exposes them to greater scrutiny?

Continue…

[…]

Read More… from Nevada Legislators Are Exempt From Public Records Laws — For Now

Wisconsin Supreme Court wrestles over open meetings law

Posted on

The Wisconsin Supreme Court wrestled with how broadly to apply the state's open meetings law in a case Wednesday that open government advocates warn could provide a gateway to getting around public access requirements.

The lawsuit was brought by the parent of an Appleton Area School District student who said meetings of a committee charged with reviewing course material for a ninth grade English class should have been open to the public.

Continue…

[…]

Read More… from Wisconsin Supreme Court wrestles over open meetings law

TN: Bill easing open records requests passes House committee

Posted on

A bill making it easier for Tennesseans to make public records requests passed an important hurdle Wednesday on its way to becoming law.

The House State Government Subcommittee recommended passage of a bill sponsored by Rep. Courtney Rogers, R-Goodlettsville, that would require records custodians that accept requests "in writing, to accept a handwritten request submitted in person or by mail, an email request, or a request on an electronic form submitted online."

[…]

Read More… from TN: Bill easing open records requests passes House committee

Gilman Halsted, retired Wisconsin Public Radio reporter, named Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog

Posted on

Gilman Halsted, a retired Wisconsin Public Radio reporter who produced award-winning examinations of the state’s criminal justice system, has been named the 2017 recipient of the Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog Award.

Over the course of two decades, Halsted became a familiar voice to WPR listeners, working for six years in the Wausau bureau before moving to Madison in 2000. He covered the courts and the prison system and also wrote and produced general assignment stories for daily state newscasts until his retirement in 2016.

[…]

Read More… from Gilman Halsted, retired Wisconsin Public Radio reporter, named Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog

From CFOIC: House committee unanimously endorses bill to open records on wage-law violations

Posted on

A wage-theft transparency measure that died in the Colorado legislature last year passed unanimously Thursday in the House Judiciary Committee.

The amended version of HB 17-1021 is identical to a proposal that earned bipartisan House support in 2016 but was killed in a Senate committee. The bill allows the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to disclose whether an employer has cheated its workers.

[…]

Read More… from From CFOIC: House committee unanimously endorses bill to open records on wage-law violations

Important open meetings case before Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday

Posted on

The Wisconsin Supreme Court is to hear arguments in a case that could give school boards and other governmental bodies a way around the open meetings law.

The case up for argument Wednesday focuses on whether meetings of a committee created by employees of the Appleton Area School District to review books for use in a ninth grade class should have been open to the public.

More broadly the court will examine whether committees created in the same way that the one in Appleton was brought together allows them to be exempt from the law.

[…]

Read More… from Important open meetings case before Wisconsin Supreme Court on Wednesday

Court Rules Missouri Corrections Officials Did Not Violate Sunshine Law In Execution Cases

Posted on

Missouri corrections officials are not required to disclose the identities of the pharmacists who supply the state’s lethal execution drugs, an appeals court ruled Tuesday.

Reversing a lower court judge who had ordered the Department of Corrections to reveal their names, the Missouri Court of Appeals found that the DOC did not violate the state’s Sunshine Law by refusing to provide them.

[…]

Read More… from Court Rules Missouri Corrections Officials Did Not Violate Sunshine Law In Execution Cases

MO: Local Special Report on Government Transparency finds Inconsistent Sunshine Request Results

Posted on

If your friend asks to borrow money, you may ask them, "What for?" Missouri's Sunshine Law is designed to make sure we, as taxpayers, know what our state and local entities are doing with our money.

Is the law being followed and enforced? In an ABC 17 News Special Report, Marissa Hollowed found your government may be shutting you out.

"They didn't want to turn these records over, so they wanted to make it as burdensome as they possibly could on us," Daniel Kolde told ABC 17 News in his St. Louis office.

[…]

Read More… from MO: Local Special Report on Government Transparency finds Inconsistent Sunshine Request Results

Public interest groups: Agencies must notify public before stripping online government data

Posted on

OpenTheGovernment.org and 68 other public interest groups published a letter demanding that the government issue advanced notice before removing information from government websites. The letter also reiterated the need to properly preserve and archive government websites before they are changed.

From the announcement: 

[…]

Read More… from Public interest groups: Agencies must notify public before stripping online government data