FOIA requester sues Caseyville seeking fees, costs and civil penalties

From Madison Record:

Belleville resident Bradley Van Hoose is suing the Village of Caseyville for attorney fees and costs associated with his fight to access copies of board meeting minutes, hotel meeting minutes, contracts, invoices and records related to the village's hotel fund.

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FOIA ombudsman’s letter irks senators, advocates

From Politico:

A letter from the federal government's Freedom of Information Act ombudsman has irritated key senators and openess advocates by failing to recommend any changes Congress could make to improve the law guaranteeing public access to federal records.

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EPIC files FOIA request seeking full FCC report on Google

From ZDNet:

Not happy with the redacted version of the FCC’s report on its Google Street View investigation, the Electronic Privacy Information Center Thursday filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to see the full 25-page document.

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Lunenburg clerk: No violation of Open Meeting Law

From SentinelandEnterprise.com:

Lunenburg Town Clerk Kathryn Herrick said Wednesday afternoon that all meetings for this week were posted by last Thursday night, and does not feel a violation of the state's Open Meeting Law was committed.

"I put all of the meetings up myself. I remember because I had someone stand there with me to hold up the glass," Herrick said Wednesday afternoon.

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Trustee alleges mayor violated Open Meetings Act

From TribLocal.com:

Lake Zurich Mayor Suzanne Branding has come under fire from Trustee Rich Sustich, who alleges she violated the Open Meetings Act. The complaint is the most recent event in a string of Lake Zurich officials being questioned for violating the law since 2009.

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Gov. Brown joked about legality of closed-door meeting, aide says

From LA Times:

Gov. Jerry Brown acknowledged there would be questions about whether his closed-door session with Los Angeles County supervisors last fall was in violation of the state’s open meetings law.

According to a transcript obtained by The Times, the governor said at one point, “Let's get our Brown Act cover story."

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Legislature moves toward tougher open records law

From Radio Iowa:

An effort to put more teeth in Iowa’s “sunshine” laws is on Governor Branstad’s “must-do” list for legislators. “We feel strongly that’s something that’s needed,” Branstad says. “We need an enforcement mechanism for the open meetings/open records law. They should not adjourn without doing that.”

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Fair Lawn Council opposes changes to Open Public Records Act

From NorthJersey.com:

The governing body opposed revisions to the Open Public Records Act (OPRA) and the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) over claims the legislation would make government "less effective."

An open government activist, however, contends that the borough has raised "non-issues" and "red herrings" in order to mislead the public.

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Media companies sue to open records in Zimmerman case

From Tallahassee.com:

A host of media companies, including Gannett Co. Inc., the parent company of the Tallahassee Democrat, and the Florida First Amendment Foundation, have joined forces in an attempt to unseal records in the high-profile George Zimmerman case in Sanford.

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House restores teeth to open-records bill

From Des Moines Register:

The Iowa House today approved a much-improved bill on transparency and open government than the one I wrote about in today’s column.  The legislation, which creates a board to review complaints and enforce Iowa’s Open Meetings and Records Law, made significant strides today.

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