Our political landscape is more polarized than ever and there seems to be little common ground for conservatives and progressives. Transparency — keeping the light on the people’s business — ought to be something everyone can agree on regardless of party affiliation. Instead, conservatives want to reveal the secrets of liberals and liberals want to […]
Read More… from OPINION: Transparency right for right and for left
Charlottesville officials are reviewing an administrative policy to standardize responses and charges for open records requests. In its current form, the proposed policy would charge requesters in 15-minute increments for time to assemble documents under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act after an employee spent 15 minutes on the requests. The charge would be based […]
Read More… from City considering policy on FOIA requests, costs
Minnesota’s judicial branch is pulling the plug on an ambitious software project that would have given the public remote online access to court records statewide. The project, approved in 2017 and scheduled to go live this past January, has been plagued by missed deadlines, frequent programming mistakes and security errors. Chief Justice Lorie Skjerven Gildea […]
Read More… from Minnesota courts hit reset on troubled online access system
LEADVILLE — After a week filled with pushback from water managers and users, especially on the Western Slope, the director of the Colorado Water Conservation Board has decided to hold upcoming workgroup meetings about a potential water-demand management effort in public and will no longer ask the workgroup volunteers to sign non-disclosure agreements or always meet behind […]
Read More… from Colorado water board changes course, will open up meetings to public
When The Wake Weekly requested public records from the town of Youngsville pertaining to recent personnel changes at the police department, the newspaper’s staff was shocked when the town asked for $70,000 to provide them. The request, made earlier this month, dropped dramatically on Friday — to an estimate of $15,000. But the situation between […]
Read More… from $15,000? $70,000? Free? NC town and newspaper spar over cost of public records.
ST. PAUL — Is the Minnesota Legislature serious about giving the public more insight into how lawmakers decide how to spend their tax money? State Rep. Gene Pelowski hopes so. The Winona Democrat is leading a House special committee while the Legislature is out of session to explore ways to make lawmakers’ work more transparent […]
Read More… from Are lawmakers serious about wanting more transparency?
A Paonia environmental activist who helped persuade state lawmakers to pass an anti-SLAPP law during this year’s legislative session won a Colorado Court of Appeals victory Thursday against the oil and gas company that sued him for libel. The appellate court affirmed a Delta District Court judge’s dismissal of the defamation suit against Pete Kolbenschlag […]
Read More… from Colorado Court of Appeals Rules for Environmental Activist in Defamation Suit
The South Dakota Unified Judicial System is piloting a program that will eventually allow the public access to court records from any computer. The public can now only view court records on computers at state courthouses during work hours from Monday to Friday, which means some people face long drives to access the records. (Read […]
Read More… from South Dakotans soon access court records from any computer
Open government proponents in Connecticut, citing major new barriers to access public records, are concerned that state and local politicians have weakened the Freedom of Information Act significantly over the last year. A billionaire’s donation with strings attached, union contracts that allow personnel information to be secret, and the use of a stipulation in the […]
ATLANTA — When he was mayor of Atlanta, Kasim Reed’s relationship with the news media was notoriously contentious. He was the kind of politician who punched back when he felt punched. He was well known for blocking reporters on Twitter, and his office regularly criticized journalists by name and issued news releases that vigorously pushed back against […]
