National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

Author: NFOIC

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Posts by NFOIC

Herald-Standard (PA) awarded $120K in legal fees in open records case with state DOC

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In a “first-of-its kind” enforcement proceeding, the Herald-Standard was awarded nearly $120,000 in legal fees stemming from an open records fight with the state Department of Corrections. “Requester here advocated the public interest in a matter of public health affecting a captive population,” wrote Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson. In March, Simpson found that the […]

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CFOIC, NFOIC, news organizations file brief supporting The Colorado Independent’s SCOTUS petition

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A brief filed Thursday by the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and several news and journalism organizations asks the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a First Amendment records case, deemed “vital to Colorado journalism,” that was brought by The Colorado Independent. Prepared pro bono by attorney Gregg Leslie and the First Amendment Clinic at Arizona […]

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New Mexico attorney general decides against appealing records-law ruling

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Attorney General Hector Balderas seemed poised to appeal after a state court ruled against his office last month in a lawsuit over New Mexico’s open-records law. But amid mounting concerns from advocates of government transparency that he could undermine what they viewed as a big win for the public’s right to know, Balderas ruled out […]

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Ohio court official finds in favor of The Columbus Dispatch over Powell police in Zach Smith records case

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Powell police will provide The Dispatch with records of 2015 domestic-violence complaints against former Ohio State assistant football coach Zach Smith after a special master for the Ohio Court of Claims found Tuesday that the records were improperly withheld. Police Chief Gary Vest said the department doesn’t plan to appeal the findings in the 40-page […]

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Open government data is essential, but policies should not discourage public-private data partnerships

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The open government data movement came into its own with the Obama administration, at a time when governments—and society more broadly—was beginning to truly realize the value of government data, and open-standards were taking root as drivers of innovation.    The thrust of this movement was to identify all valuable Government data sets, and to require […]

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Beyond transparency: Why open data is good for local government

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When state and local agencies open their financial data, benefits accrue not just to citizens who can keep tabs on local spending, but also to governments themselves. Open data is “essentially a change in the packaging of information, not a change in the information itself,” said Dean Ritz, the senior director of IP and digital […]

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Judge rules Virginia’s judiciary not subject to FOIA

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A retired circuit court judge has ruled the Virginia Freedom of Information Act does not apply to the state’s judiciary, a ruling that could potentially hinder access to records of the judicial branch of government, like expense reports or phone bills. The Oct. 15 ruling by retired Judge William Alexander II came in a dispute […]

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Research: Cities can save time on records requests by doing open data right

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Adopting an open data policy significantly reduces the number of public record requests that cities receive compared to cities that lack an open data policy. This was the major finding of a study I set out to conduct earlier this summer, to understand the relationship between the growth of open data policies and longstanding freedom of information laws. […]

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Citizens Count on the Illinois Freedom of Information Act but Keep Getting Shut Out

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When Larry Young started requesting records from police, he just wanted to find out what had happened to his daughter, Molly. More than six years after the 21-year-old was found shot to death in her ex-boyfriend’s Carbondale apartment, Young is still fighting law enforcement agencies for records under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, or […]

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Why haven’t a majority of Amazon HQ2 finalists released their proposals?

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Ecommerce leader Amazon says it will announce its second headquarters by the end of the year. With less than three months to go, the big reveal could come any day now. As 2018 enters its final quarter, only eight of the 20 finalist cities have released their proposals publicly, and of those, three were heavily […]

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