MADISON – Lawmakers are meeting behind closed doors Tuesday and they — and the public — don’t know why. In what is likely an unprecedented move, the Legislature’s finance committee is gathering in a session closed to the public to discuss a case brought to them by Attorney General Josh Kaul — a meeting Democrats say is […]
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Sometimes local elected officials complain that cities and counties are required to comply with Sunshine Law mandates from the state but the General Assembly exempts itself from those same requirements. Oddly, most of those officials are not suggesting that the General Assembly should adhere to the same level of transparency. Rather, they think local governments […]
Read More… from Editorial: JIM ZACHARY: Open government, better government
Ginger McCall, Oregon’s public records advocate, recently asked a variety of state and local government agencies to share information regarding the public records requests they received in 2018. While she got a reasonably good response — more than 70% of agencies asked for information actually sent that information to McCall’s office — it’s clear there’s work […]
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News Release For Immediate Release – August 16, 2019 Contact: Daniel Bevarly, Executive Director National Freedom of Information Coalition dbevarly@nfoic.org 352-294-7082 State and local public institutions are epicenters for open government and freedom of information (FOI) challenges occurring across the nation. Government transparency is a hallmark of our democracy and journalists, organizations and residents rely on their states’ […]
Read More… from Missouri and Rhode Island open government groups join NFOIC
Since the city of New Orleans opened its Real-Time Crime Monitoring Center in late 2017 — putting dozens, and eventually hundreds, of surveillance cameras online across the city monitoring street corners 24 hours a day — city officials have repeatedly dismissed civil rights advocates’ concerns about privacy and law enforcement abuse. “If you’re in public, […]
DENVER — Last month, the Denver Police Department joined dozens of other agencies around Colorado and across the country when it encrypted its radios, blocking the public from being able to listen in on all communications. In the past, agencies only encrypted tactical channels used to relay strategic information to officers and others. However, as […]
Transparency. Accountability. These are essential to maintaining any free, elected government. Reviewing public records is one of the most effective ways to ensure your local government is functioning properly. Through public records, an everyday citizen (or a newspaper reporter) can uncover a plethora of wrongdoings — misappropriation, cronyism, and any number of illegal actions. In […]
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PORTSMOUTH City officials say they’re being attacked regularly by internet fraudsters, and to guard their workplace, they want to make it harder for potential offenders to access public information. But government watchdogs, alarmed by Portsmouth’s efforts, say doing so would only make it harder for Virginians to hold public agencies accountable. On Tuesday night, the […]
PROVIDENCE — A freedom-of-information coalition in Rhode Island is raising red flags over the “blanket” secrecy Attorney General Peter Neronha promised the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence in a “memorandum of understanding” aimed at gaining access to diocesan records dating back to 1950 of alleged child sex abuse by clergy. “Troubling precedent,″ wrote Linda Lotridge Levin, the retired […]
Ever wonder who owns the empty house at the end of the block? Or whether the water in your child’s school has been tested for lead – and what those results are? Or whether your neighbor has ever been cited for not keeping up his property? The answers to these questions are found in records […]
Read More… from How to use the Michigan Freedom of Information Act
