Every Delaware school board will be required to record audio of meetings and post it online if the General Assembly passes a bill being considered in Dover.
Lawmakers who support the legislation and open-government advocates say recorded meetings are a way for citizens to better keep tabs on the actions of elected officials and stay updated on issues facing schools.
[…]
Read More… from Lawmakers want Delaware school board meetings recorded
Following this year's regular session of the West Virginia Legislature, there was plenty of debate about what lawmakers in Charleston did and did not do. Some saw legislation coming out of the newly Republican-controlled legislature as steps backward, while others argued that legislators pushed through badly needed bills.
[…]
Read More… from Editorial: New law promotes more open government
Spring in California brings grunion, swallows and renewed promises that this will be the Giants’ year — again. Maybe the Giants can establish even more of a legacy?
And, in politics, it brings out members of the state Assembly and Senate, talking up their agendas for the legislative season.
[…]
Read More… from California GOP bills offer hope for more open government
The president who came to office claiming he would have the most open and transparent presidency in history is now denying or slowing Freedom of Information Act requests for documents at an unprecedented rate.
In 1966, Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act, a law giving the public and journalists access to government documents in an effort to bring more transparency to our government. It is this law that Obama’s federal government is increasingly circumventing.
[…]
Read More… from FEDERAL GOVERNMENT INCREASINGLY SLOWING, DENYING RELEASE OF DOCUMENTS
Microsoft will issue an update to Office 365 to enhance support for the Open Document Format (ODF) championed by the government, allowing users to export files as ODF regardless of the format they were created in.
In a Microsoft blog post, Jesse Stanchak, Microsoft's community manager, revealed the update will arrive later this year having worked with the Government Digital Service (GDS) to understand its requirements.
[…]
Read More… from Microsoft promises Office 365 update for open document format
Financial regulators and the banking industry are raising concerns about bipartisan legislation that would expand the public's access to government documents, according to lawmakers.
Members of Congress have sought to clarify that their proposals to update the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) would not erode protections that prevent the public from obtaining sensitive banking information that regulators see as part of their supervision of the financial sector.
[…]
House Bill 315 and its companion in the Senate is a top legislative priority for the Tennessee School Boards Association. Before pulling the bill, McDaniel kept the idea of new public records fees alive by saying the Office of Open Records Counsel has agreed to conduct public hearings in conjunction with the Advisory Committee on Open Government this summer on the proposal, and make a recommendation on the bill by January 2016.
[…]
Read More… from Bill to allow new public records fees pulled from Tennessee House
Emails again. We should probably consider this a learning-curve era. Also, we should expect more major and minor scandals and political fights involving public officials and their emails. After all, email has only been around for 40 or so years and in common use for more than 20.
Someday a policy will be worked out that everyone understands.
[…]
Read More… from Editorial: Keep public records, even emails, open
The Freedom of Information Act is one of the crown jewels of the modern American republic. The law, which requires public access to most government documents and communications, has made it significantly easier for Americans and the journalists who inform them to hold government officials accountable.
In a day and age when government gets ever-bigger, FOIA protects Americans from being ruled in secret. Or at least, it does so when officials actually follow the law — which, unfortunately, they often do not.
[…]
Read More… from Editorial: Further reform of FOIA would be welcomed
The failure to share information with the public after a fatal electrical fire in a Metro tunnel dominated discussion at the annual D.C. Open Government Summit March 17.
Journalists, civic activists and D.C. government officials traded complaints and suggestions to make local government and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority more transparent. The Open Government Coalition sponsored the Sunshine Week event at the National Press Club.
[…]
Read More… from Metro’s secrecy highlight of D.C. Open Government Summit
