Not all that long ago, a Florida state law told newspapers what they could publish.
A political candidate could have equal space in a newspaper to reply to criticism. It did not matter if the criticism was true and the reply was false. Equal time was the rule on TV. Florida thought it should apply to newspapers.
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Read More… from Knight Foundation: A news industry ‘less able’ to defend freedom
Despite the push for government dashboards and open data portals, much of the data we use at Reveal still must be obtained through public records requests.
Summary data on government websites often comes from more granular and detailed databases.
But asking for that data can be a challenge because of the technical issues you might face. The first time I requested data from a government agency, I had no idea where to begin. How would I get the appropriate dataset for my story? How could I avoid getting summary or aggregate data or data in PDFs?
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Read More… from Data diplomacy: Speak softly and carry a big FOIA
The D.C. Housing Authority commissioners have for many months met in secret before their regular meetings, without announcement or records, to discuss a range of topics required by law to be heard in open session.
These findings came to light in an opinion letter issued this week by the District transparency watchdog, Office of Open Government.
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Read More… from D.C. Open Government Office: Housing Authority must stop secret meetings
An Oklahoma bill to set up a new online portal for open records requests and expand the number of documents available on the state’s open data portal in the process is nearly ready to head to Gov. Mary Fallin’s desk.
Rep. Josh Cockroft and Sen. Nathan Dahm’s H.B. 3142 passed the Senate last week (after House lawmakers approved it in March), and on Monday, the bill headed back to the House so legislators can consider its amendments. Should they give it the green light, it will need only Fallin’s signature to become law.
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Read More… from Oklahoma bill to establish open records online portal nears governor’s desk
The log of public records requests that Vermont law requires the administration to keep up to date went more than a year without updating.
As of Tuesday morning, the Department of Information and Innovation had not updated a log of requests made under the Vermont Public Records Act since March 2015. Additionally, it appears the Shumlin administration never sent an annual report detailing such requests that was due Jan. 15.
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Read More… from Vermont falls behind on disclosure of public records requests
Virginia would not run afoul of federal law or violate death row inmates’ constitutional rights by passing a law allowing the state to obtain lethal injection drugs from secret sources, according to an opinion released late Tuesday by Attorney General Mark R. Herring.
In a 13-page document, Herring responded to a series of Republican and Democratic lawmakers’ questions about a pending death penalty bill that will be a major focus when the General Assembly reconvenes today to take up Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s vetoes and amendments.
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State and local leaders have been stunned by the fiasco in Flint, Michigan, where city officials switched the water source from Lake Huron to the Flint River in order to save money.
That hasty change caused older pipes to leach dangerous levels of lead that contaminated the local drinking water supply.
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Read More… from Lessons in transparency from Flint, Michigan
The Ohio Supreme Court is deciding whether police departments can shield the complete files of a long-closed criminal case until all chance of appeals are exhausted, usually because the defendant is dead.
A public records lawsuit contends that the position taken by the Columbus Police Department and backed by the local prosecutor is part of a trend around the state of agencies refusing to release such records.
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Read More… from Ohio Supreme Court to weigh in on public records debate
Nearly 95 percent of bills defeated in the Virginia House of Delegates this session went down without a recorded vote, according to a new analysis from the coalition Transparency Virginia.
That means the bills were killed for the year – through one of several procedural motions – without clerks taking note of who voted one way or another.
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Read More… from Unrecorded votes dominate bill deaths in Virginia House
The public has a right to government records in electronic format when seeking information under New Hampshire's Right-to-Know law, the state Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday.
The case stems from an appeal by Donna Green of Sandown, who has represented that town on the Timberlane Regional School Board since 2014, and had to sue the school district to gain access to salary information in electronic format.
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Read More… from New Hampshire Supreme Court: Public has right to electronic government information
