The State Bar of California has played lawyerly games with calls for transparency and accountability long enough. A recent report by the state auditor revealed disturbing patterns of excessive spending and inadequate discipline of wayward attorneys. The bar has shown that it simply cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
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Read More… from Editorial: Extend California sunshine laws to State Bar
In North Carolina, the Asheville Convention and Visitors Bureau is run on public money, yet details on how the bureau spends a large part of that cash is kept private.
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Read More… from Bonuses, salaries paid by lodging tax private in North Carolina city
After proposing to gut the state’s open records law in July, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and legislative leaders were bombarded with a bipartisan backlash and quickly did an about-face. They released a joint statement to the effect that all changes would be abandoned pending the findings of a study committee.
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Read More… from New emails reveal Wisconsin GOP weighing another attack on open records
Reports of stops and frisks by Charlottesville, Virginia, police officers will remain classified following a city circuit court ruling that concurred with city officials that the reports are criminal investigative files that are exempt from public disclosure.
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Read More… from Virginia’s stop-and-frisk records to remain exempt from public release
A mistake by Iowa defense lawyers enabled the release of an email suggesting the University of Iowa athletics department was determined to hire a female for assistant track coach over qualified male candidates.
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Due to a new Texas state law, Rice University Police Department will now be subject to open records requests for information on their policing activity, which includes correspondences, activity logs and other documents.
This requirement marks a continuation toward increased transparency by RUPD, following the introduction of body cameras to its officers in April. Continue…
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Read More… from New Texas state law subjects campus police to records requests
Free OPRA Forum in Flemington, New Jersey
Wednesday, Sept. 23 — 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The New Jersey Foundation for Open Government (NJFOG) will be hosting a free OPRA Forum on September 23 at 7 p.m. at the Historic Hunterdon County Court House, 75 Main Street, Flemington, NJ 08822. The site is best known for “The Trial of the Century,” the famous trial involving the 1932 kidnapping Colonel Lindbergh’s son.
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Read More… from [Press Release] N.J. Foundation for Open Government hosts open forum
The D.C. Open Government Coalition called on Mayor Muriel Bowser to rewrite her administration's proposed legislation and regulations governing public access to police body worn camera videos. Because of the importance of public access to the goals we share of transparency generally, and police accountability in particular, the coalition asks that you reconsider the plan, which does not include recommendations of the advisory group the City Council established to help draft public access rules.
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Read More… from EDITORIAL: Groups seek body cam rules rewrite
NFOIC FOI Fund helps settle open meetings lawsuit in Florida
September 10, 2015
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Read More… from NR – NFOIC FOI Fund helps settle open meetings lawsuit in Florida
Lawyers for Pennslyvania Gov. Tom Wolf this week tried to persuade the state Supreme Court that the governor was within his rights to undo the former governor's late-term appointment of a Republican legislative aide to head the state Office of Open Records.
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Read More… from Pennsylvania Supreme Court hears appeal on firing of open records office head
