For advocates of government transparency, there’s a particularly delicious paragraph in a judge’s written decision upholding the lawsuit that this news group and its sister organization filed against the state Senate.
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Read More… from California: The people are victors in lawsuit against state Senate
What should the public know when an accident calls into question the safety of a rail system that moves 700,000 of the region’s residents every day? Does reliable information really need to take years?
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SPRINGFIELD — The Illinois Attorney General’s Office has finally determined that the now-dissolved Ford-Iroquois Public Health Department improperly denied a Freedom of Information Act request filed nearly two years ago by the Paxton Record.
The weekly newspaper based in Paxton, Ill., filed its FOIA request with the health department that served Ford and Iroquois counties on Sept. 25, 2013, almost a year before the bi-county agency was dissolved.
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Read More… from Illinois AG’s office sides with Paxton Record in FOIA complaint
Federal lawmakers are once again considering the first major changes to the Freedom of Information Act since 2007 after similar efforts stalled late last year.
John Gavin, a financial analyst based in Plymouth, is paying close attention to how the debate goes. That's because his business relies in large part on information gleaned from FOIA requests submitted to the SEC.
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Read More… from Freedom of Information Act: Why you should care about potential changes
Little Rock's Metropolitan Housing Alliance Executive Director Rodney Forte, who was charged in November with failing to comply with the Freedom of Information Act, was convicted Thursday of a Class C misdemeanor in the case.
Judge Alice Lightle read a written ruling, calling his behavior a “negligent violation of the Freedom of Information Act." She sentenced Forte to pay a $100 fine and $140 in court costs. A Class C misdemeanor is punishable by a maximum of 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500. Forte has 30 days to appeal to circuit court.
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Read More… from Arkansas: Housing director guilty of information-act violation
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2015 – Deputy Defense Secretary Bob Work today promised transparency in the Defense Department’s comprehensive review of its laboratory procedures, processes, and protocols associated with inactivating spore-forming anthrax.
Speaking with Pentagon reporters, Work emphasized that public safety is the department’s top concern, and he provided background on the DoD laboratories and their processes.
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Read More… from Work Pledges Transparency in DoD Laboratory Review
The Coalition Wednesday (3) wrote Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (also the other Members and the Mayor), asking that a section of the massive budget support bill for the coming year be dropped before the upcoming final vote for lack of any public input.
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As Treasurer of Ohio, I believe taxpayers have a right to know how their tax dollars are spent. All too often, we the people aren’t able to follow our money once we write a check to city hall, the state capital or Washington D.C.
The concept is simple. When government is big, the people are small. But when government is small, the people are big. As someone who sees his boss as the 11.5 million people of Ohio, I am all about power to the people.
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Read More… from Ohio State Treasurer: Empowering taxpayers to hold politicians accountable
MONTGOMERY – The Alabama House on Tuesday passed legislation to tighten the state law requiring city councils, county commissions and other governing bodies to meet in public.
The bill, which passed 91-4, would prohibit boards and committees from holding a series of meetings of a few members behind closed doors.
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Read More… from Alabama: Lawmakers seek to strengthen open meetings law
AUSTIN – A measure that would make private university police reports subject to Texas' open-government laws was one of a number of transparency measures approved by the Legislature this session.
Senate Bill 308, authored by Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, was filed in response to a student who was fatally shot by University of Incarnate Word police officers in San Antonio, and another incident at Rice University.
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Read More… from Texas: Open-government advocates cheer bills passed by Legislature
