GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA, Sept. 16, 2021 — Four “Heroes of the 50 States,” representing Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, will be inducted Sept. 30 into the National Freedom of Information Coalition’s State Open Government Hall of Fame, as the Class of 2021. The inductees have backgrounds in law, journalism, and academia. The 2021 inductees are: Barbara […]
Read More… from Four state heroes to be inducted into NFOIC’s Open Government Hall of Fame
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) – Most agencies receive few or no requests for records under Pennsylvania’s public access law and only a fraction of them are appealed, according to a report on law’s costs released Tuesday. A drastic revision of Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law was enacted a decade ago, leading to expanded access and a new set […]
Read More… from PA: Report finds most agencies field few open records requests
Londonderry Township has drawn the state Office of Open Records into its legal battle with a persistent Susquehanna River islander. In a petition filed with Dauphin County Court, township officials are seeking to overturn multiple OOR rulings requiring them to hand over information Glenn Harmon requested under Pennsylvania’s Right to Know Law. Londonderry leaders claim […]
Read More… from PA: Township pulls Office of Open Records into legal battle
The president tried to block a book’s publication. Philadelphia’s district attorney caught criticism for the secrecy surrounding controversial staff changes. New Jersey authorities banned a best-selling book on mass incarceration in two state prisons, prompting the state’s American Civil Liberties Union to intervene. And two Philly journalists recently had to sue to force city officials […]
Read More… from With move to expand open-records law pending, most Pa. agencies get few requests
It’s been nearly a decade since state lawmakers completely rewrote the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law, making fundamental changes to what had widely been considered among the nation’s weakest legislation on access to government records.
The revised law has made a vast amount of information available to the public, substantially increased the workload for state courts and produced a number of proposals to amend it.
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Read More… from PA: Open-records law continues to draw proposals for revision
With the public demanding greater access to police documents and videos, two cases in the Lehigh Valley area could help shape legal precedent about what records must be released.
A Northampton County judge will decide whether the public is entitled to see complaints filed by citizens against a police officer. That case stems from a Bethlehem resident's request for complaint and disciplinary records about a Bethlehem officer.
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Read More… from PA: Public wants police complaint records, videos
Pennsylvania has rolled out an interactive, open data portal where residents, researchers, media and app developers can easily access data sets from state agencies about mission-critical policies and programs.
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Five years ago, when a Bangor area man wanted copies of videos from his daughter's school bus so he could expose bullying, the state told him the recordings were off-limits to the public.
That might not be the case anymore. Continue…
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Read More… from Pennsylvania: School bus videos are public records, state says
Nestled firmly in a bill passed last week by the Pennsylvania Senate is a long list of reporting requirements that, if passed by the House and signed by the governor, would force the University of Pittsburgh and the three other state-related universities to disclose data ranging from minutes of meetings to ratios of course credits awarded to various types of students.
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Read More… from Bill to broaden state open records law passes PA Senate
There are a lot of problems with the latest attempt to update Pennsylvania’s Right to Know law, which the Senate unanimously passed on Wednesday. Fortunately, the House has a chance to fix the defects and make the open-records law stronger.
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Read More… from Editorial: Pennsylvania House must fix the Senate public records bill
