National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

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New law in Michigan keeps FOIA requests cheap

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Last week, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law changes to the Freedom of Information Act. That’s the law that allows people to access government records — everything from how much the mayor makes to police reports to information on your local school district.

Any Freedom of Information Act request — or FIOA — comes with a cost. Whoever files the request has to pay for the time it takes the government agency to gather the information and the cost to get it to them.

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Opinion: When governments open their files, the public benefits

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IN EARLY December, President Obama announced a series of measures aimed at closing the gap between citizens and law enforcement. One of those measures was a plan to distribute $263 million in funding for agencies to purchase body cameras that can be used during police interactions with citizens.

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Coalition seeks more open state government

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Seventeen organizations that support open government in Virginia have formed a coalition to increase transparency in the General Assembly and foster greater citizen participation.

The coalition, called Transparency Virginia, wants legislators to give more advance notice of committee and subcommittee meetings and to record the votes when panels quietly kill bills.

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A new act in Springfield Illinois

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It’s show time again in Springfield, and the supporting cast is the same as last year — more than a hundred Democrats who maintain veto-proof majorities in the House and Senate.

But there’s a new star, Republican Governor Bruce Rauner, who enters stage left with a fresh script that promises to replace “business as usual” with fiscal and ethical reform.

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Changes to Michigan’s FOIA drops cost of public records

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Public records will become cheaper and easier to access under changes to Michigan's Freedom of Information Act.

Government agencies will not be allowed to charge more than 10 cents per page for copies of public records; they can face increased fines for delaying responses, and people seeking the records now can sue if they consider the fees to be exorbitant.

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Martin seeking to change FOIA autopsy rules

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Following a 2014 decision concerning the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) by the S.C. Supreme Court, exempting autopsy results from the information available to the public, Sen. Larry Martin is looking to change legislation.

Martin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will also be chair of a subcommittee that will be debating a change to the legislation of record, putting in place measures to insure “the public’s right to information,” albeit with some restrictions applied to protect the privacy of individuals.

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Opinion: Light shines brighter in Michigan

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Government transparency doesn't mean much if it is costly to obtain government information.

Michigan's Freedom of Information Act was marred by that obstacle. The law's intent — to make information accessible to the public — was undermined by the officials of government and other public organizations who demanded excessive fees to provide it.

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Editorial: state government: More transparency

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A good government is one that responds to the wishes of the public. But the public cannot know how responsive its government is when much of what government does lies outside public view. Hence the need for transparency, the handmaiden of accountability.

A new coalition, Transparency Virginia, has been formed to monitor and improve openness at the state level. It will focus on the sometimes overlooked mechanics: meeting notices, ensuring that all bills get heard, and the recording of votes in committees and subcommittees.

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Companies hijacking state’s Open Public Records Act for profit, municipal clerks say

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Visit a municipal clerk's office and you will likely hear griping about the Open Public Records Act.

"We hate OPRAs here," a Kearny clerk's office employee muttered to a reporter for The Jersey Journal picking up a request for a list of all town salaries.

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