National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

Tag: Sunshine laws

Editorial: Sunshine laws help answer big questions

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Is Wisconsin tough on doctors who make big mistakes, costing people their lives? No.

Is soil at the former Royster-Clark plant on Madison’s East Side still contaminated? Yes.

Was a Waupun prison guard suspended for making a lynching joke about President Barack Obama? Yes. '

Was a UW-Madison football player really acting in self-defense — as the athletic department contended — during a fight last fall at his off-campus residence? No. (He actually threw the first punch.)

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Learn about open government, Sunshine laws at New Jersey seminar

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The New Jersey Foundation for Open Government (NJFOG) is hosting a free educational seminar during National Sunshine Week (March 13-19), when the dialogue will be all about open government and “your right to know.”

The seminar will be held on Tuesday, March 15 from 7 to 9 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Belleville High School.

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Report: State-by-state access to consumer complaints

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As a nonprofit focused on educating and empowering consumers to protect themselves from false and deceptive advertising, truthinadvertising.org routinely files requests under the Freedom of Information Act with state and federal officials for consumer complaints lodged against companies it is investigating.

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EDITORIAL: Montana lawmakers need to strengthen sunshine laws

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Montana’s continued secrecy with information that should be released to the public is now threatening not only its citizens’ right to know, but also federal money intended to protect children.

As we’ve written in the past, many of the organizations that evaluate government transparency consistently rank Montana among the worst states in the nation. Continue…

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In Portsmouth, OH, Sunshine training routine among boards, city lacking

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With the revelation that most members of Portsmouth City Council have not taken Sunshine Laws training to understand the need for all things to be done in open sessions so the public can know what is going on, comes word that most local boards are operated by people who have had the training.
 
 

Knoxville (TN) launches training on sunshine laws

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Knoxville officials have begun offering training sessions for city board members after finding possible violations of the state’s sunshine laws.
 
The move stems from a public records request by the Knoxville News Sentinel (http://bit.ly/1ycCqPj) in relation to a proposed $9 million digital radio system being discussed by the Knox County E-911 Board of Directors. The newspaper reports the city gave it copies of emails that show some board members discussed the contract in private.
 

Editorial: Open government means just that

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One of the big misunderstandings about Missouriís Sunshine Law is that somehow this testimony to transparency is a tool reserved solely to advance the interests of the media. Journalists do turn to the law regularly to uncover documents and to discover what goes on behind closed doors. But you can bet lawmakers were thinking more broadly about the interests of the public when this landmark measure was introduced in the General Assembly as Senate Bill 1 in 1973. This, after all, was the year of the Watergate hearings.

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