Emails again. We should probably consider this a learning-curve era. Also, we should expect more major and minor scandals and political fights involving public officials and their emails. After all, email has only been around for 40 or so years and in common use for more than 20.
Someday a policy will be worked out that everyone understands.
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Read More… from Editorial: Keep public records, even emails, open
Lawmakers stripped an education bill of major proposed changes to Indiana's open records laws on Thursday after concerns were raised about how the measure would impact all government agencies and not just schools.
The legislation aims to simplify school management by eliminating duplicate and obsolete reporting requirements that school administrators say are taking resources away from the classroom. But the legislation also included a provision that would allow government agencies to charge a fee for information that takes longer than two hours to gather.
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Read More… from Public record search fee removed from Ind. bill
The Senate Health and Welfare Committee gave the green light to the once-dead Insure Tennessee proposal Wednesday.
High praise to those senators who made this significant victory happen. It showed leadership for the citizens of the state of Tennessee.
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Read More… from Celebrate Insure Tennessee and public records victories
The Freedom of Information Act is one of the crown jewels of the modern American republic. The law, which requires public access to most government documents and communications, has made it significantly easier for Americans and the journalists who inform them to hold government officials accountable.
In a day and age when government gets ever-bigger, FOIA protects Americans from being ruled in secret. Or at least, it does so when officials actually follow the law — which, unfortunately, they often do not.
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Read More… from Editorial: Further reform of FOIA would be welcomed
Citizens United filed its fourth lawsuit against the State Department on Thursday, this time seeking documents related to the agency's Office of Inspector General during former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's tenure.
In the suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the conservative advocacy group complains that the State Department has not responded to two of its Freedom of Information Act requests in more than six months, beyond acknowledging receiving them. The statutory requirement is 20 business days.
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Read More… from Citizens United files new lawsuit seeking State Department watchdog documents
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, recently sought out information from seven universities pertaining to the funding of professors who allegedly stood in opposition to the “consensus” on climate change and had testified before Congress about climate change.
Grijalva requested information regarding the source of their research grants, as well as copies of the scientists’ financial disclosure forms.
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Read More… from Congressman Grijalva investigates climate change skeptics, gets hit with FOIA
Perceived weaknesses in South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act consistently are exploited by government agencies or public officials. Citizens in South Carolina for decades have had to fight efforts to limit their ability to know what state or local governments are doing in the public’s name.
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For democracy to work, citizens need to know what their government is up to. Hillary Clinton hid her emails as secretary of state from her citizen bosses. She wanted us to know only what she wanted us to know. Scott Walker hid his emails as Milwaukee County executive, too.
Could both of these presidential candidates have achieved their goals without breaking the rules? It appears so. They broke the rules anyway.
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Read More… from Public access ensures transparent, accountable government
As former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clintonís use of a personal email account has recently come under scrutiny, Charlottesville Tomorrow has evaluated the email practices of Charlottesvilleís City Council and the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors.
Two of the 11 elected officials on these bodies advertise personal email addresses on their government website, and neither locality has made it a practice to routinely archive communications from personal email accounts.
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Read More… from Local government officials make use of private email systems
The kerfuffle over the email policy of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton continues to fester. Critics call her use of a private server for official business a contemptuous slap against transparency, while defenders say she is not alone in shielding business-related emails from the public.
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Read More… from Editorial – It’s the law: Public records are public
