Colorado lawmakers in 2016 rejected an opportunity to bring the state’s open-records law into the 21st century.
They also decided that wage-law violations should remain “trade secrets” and that internal affairs files on judicial branch employees should remain confidential, which isn’t the case for other state government workers.
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Read More… from Open-government wins and losses in the 2016 Colorado legislative session
The Society of Professional Journalists and a host of other public-interest and media groups have weighed in on a high-profile public-records case now being considered by the California Supreme Court.
The lawsuit, appealed to the state high court by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was rejected by a state appeals court last year.
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Read More… from Journalism group seeks release of license-plate data in California
'Kansas officials' emails about public business on private accounts or devices will be subject to public disclosure starting in July under a bill Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law Wednesday.
The law closes a big loophole in the Kansas Open Records Act . That decades-old law generally requires government records to be accessible to the public, but it hasn't specifically applied to officials' private email accounts or communications with private cellphones.
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Read More… from Kansas officials’ private emails to be subject to disclosure
How’s Oregon’s public records law working for you?
A task force of the Oregon attorney general’s office wants to hear from residents who have used the state’s public records law to seek records from local or state government, whether large state agencies or small cities or school districts.
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Read More… from Task force on Oregon’s public records law will convene Monday at UO
With no discussion, a Senate committee late last week killed legislation that would have allowed the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment to disclose whether a company has cheated its workers.
HB 16-1347 had received bipartisan support in the House, passing unanimously in committee and 47-17 on the floor. But the Republican-controlled Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee defeated it Friday on a 5-4 partisan vote.
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Read More… from Colorado Senate committee kills measure to open records on wage-law violations
A federal law protecting driver's license data does not allow Wisconsin police departments to withhold driver information from accident reports, the Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.
But whether that law might require such redaction in other kinds of reports would depend on what function police are serving by releasing the records, and whether the information was obtained directly from department of motor vehicle records, or merely verified with that information.
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Read More… from Court rules for disclosure of Wisconsin accident reports
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office resolved more than 3,330 requests from the public for help in obtaining public records and public meeting information last year.
The information was released in the Public Access Bureau’s annual report this spring. The report documents compliance statewide with the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Open Meetings Act (OMA).
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The new inspector general at the Department of Veterans Affairs is hoping to quickly repair the office’s image after nearly two years of criticism for cursory investigations and secrecy.
Michael Missal, who began work last Monday, said he plans to reach out to veterans’ groups, Congress and others to let them know his door is open and he plans to be more transparent.
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Nearly 50 businesses, industry groups, civil society organizations and transparency advocates are calling on oversight committees in the House and Senate to advance a bill ensuring government data is open to the public by default.
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Read More… from Tech firms, advocates call for action on new open data bill
State law gives us a tool to hold our public servants accountable: the Tennessee Public Records Act.
Tennesseans have the fundamental right to explore what local and state governments are up to by simply requesting copies of an assortment of public records — everything from emails to investigative reports.
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Read More… from Editorial: High fees hold Tennessee public records access hostage
