From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Last week’s passage of a revised Georgia Sunshine Law now blocks political campaigns, marketers and almost anyone else from access to residents’ email addresses on file with local governments.
Georgia’s Open Records Law has for years exempted Neighborhood Watch and similar contact information dealing with property security. But just about everything else has been fair game.
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From Lancaster Online:
Lancaster County commissioners are scheduled to vote Wednesday on an updated right-to-know policy. The proposed policy varies only slightly from the current policy, but there are some changes and additions that formalize current practices not listed anywhere by the county, according to Crystal Clark, county solicitor.
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Read More… from Lancaster County’s right-to-know policy may change
From Concord Monitor:
In a column published in the Monitor yesterday, House Speaker Bill O'Brien and others argued that the vote to override the governor's veto of the House redistricting plan was conducted properly. He described the failure to publish the governor's veto message in the House Journal prior to the vote as a red herring and justified his tactical strategy of calling for a vote without notice to the public on the grounds of expediency.
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From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
State economic development incentives for large projects would remain secret until a company commits to a project or abandons negotiations, according to legislation that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday.
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Read More… from Open records exemption approved for economic development
From The Republic:
The city council of a northern Arkansas town does not have the right to ban video recordings of its public meetings, according to an opinion from the state attorney general.
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From Wall Street Journal:
Celebrating the potential of Arizona House Bill 2272 to promote high-paying, promising jobs in Arizona's Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) industries, the Public Policy Committee of the Arizona Technology Council applauded the Governor today for signing it into law.
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Read More… from Legislation to Revise Arizona’s Open Records Act
From SF Gate:
California, home of so much brilliance and innovation, should be ashamed that Texas and Kentucky lead the nation in using the tools of technology to make their government spending more transparent to their citizens. Even worse is that 35 other states scored higher than California in a recent analysis by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.
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Read More… from How California got D minus in government transparency
From Electronic Frontier Foundation:
New data from law enforcement agencies across the country has confirmed what EFF has long been afraid of: while police are routinely using cell phone location tracking information, only a handful of agencies are bothering to obtain search warrants.
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From Watchdog.org:
While other states are finding evidence of school test score manipulation, the Texas Education Agency has managed to quash open records requests that would allow the public to investigate such a thing in this state.
In two recent open records requests, the TEA has successfully argued that the information that would make an investigation possible is not a public record.
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Read More… from Records used in other states to uncover cheating on tests not open in Texas
