From Kansas City Star: More and more, the internal workings of Indiana government are being shown and the political pageantry stripped away in a reminder that the trappings of power are rarely trumpeted in news conferences, aired in campaign ads or otherwise pushed out to the public.
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Read More… from Inner workings of Indiana government rarely disclosed
From San Jose Mercury News: Six years after San Jose required its elected officials and key staff to post their public calendars online, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is poised to enact its own policy on Tuesday. But open-government advocates and even some supervisors say it's an essentially toothless policy proposal that needs to be rewritten.
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Read More… from Santa Clara County supervisors consider proposal to publish calendars online
From San Antonio Express: AUSTIN — As the dust settles on the 83rd Texas Legislature, open government advocates are applauding new laws they say leverage evolving technology to increase access and shine light on all levels of government for both residents and officials.
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Read More… from New laws clearly aimed at boosting government transparency in Texas
From Richmond Times-Dispatch: Hanover County’s supervisors asked for feedback on their proposal to loosen state regulations restricting private meetings of elected officials, and the reactions have been well shy of a warm welcome.
The Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution last month asking the Virginia General Assembly to change open government regulations to allow more elected officials to meet behind closed doors without notifying the public.
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Read More… from Hanover FOIA proposal gets cold reception from some organizations
From Des Moines Register: The Iowa Department of Public Safety now says it will not charge The Des Moines Register the overtime rate for an employee to gather data in response to a public records request.
The decision came a day after the newspaper filed three complaints with the Iowa Public Information Board over record costs and access issues involving the departments of Public Safety and Human Services.
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Read More… from Iowa Department of Public Safety reduces charge for public records
From Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas: Prominent Texas legislators urged Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas conference attendees Friday to remain vigilant in their open government and free speech advocacy.
Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, who received the organization’s inaugural Open Government Lawmaker of the Year Award, said he was raised in a family that valued free speech and noted that many elected officials support open government and First Amendment rights.
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Read More… from FOIFT awards inaugural Open Government Lawmaker of the Year Award
From Ohio Newspaper Association: The board of the Ohio Coalition for Open Government has voted to support appeals in two Cincinnati-area cases involving Enquirer Media.
One case involves access to 911 calls and the other involves a Hamilton County juvenile court judge who was found in contempt after barring a reporter from her courtroom and attempting to ban publication or broadcast of the alleged offenders’ name.
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Read More… from OCOG to support Enquirer in major open government cases
The Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR), the NFOIC member organization that co-hosted the 2013 FOI Summit in New Orleans, has won a national award for its new "Sunshine Headquarters" Web portal from the Governmental Research Association (GRA).
GRA is a national organization of individuals and groups who study and make recommendations on state and local policy issues. The award was presented during the annual GRA conference held last week in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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From NFOIC: A few state FOIA and local open government news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier in the week.
While you're at it, be sure to check out State FOIA Friday Archives.
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