National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

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Proposed FOI ruling would force Stonington to release original operations report

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Stonington — Ten months after The Day filed an appeal, a state Freedom of Information officer has found that the town violated state law by refusing to release a consultant’s report on town operations to the newspaper. Hearing Officer Valicia Dee Harmon found that the town’s reasons for refusing to release the report, which it […]

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After shutting public out, DOT says future I-77 toll lane meetings will be open

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A week after holding a meeting behind closed doors, the N.C. Department of Transportation said Thursday that future meetings of a Interstate 77 working group will be open to the public. The state created the working group to explore ways to improve or kill a 50-year contract with a private company to build and manage […]

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Attorney: Ban on Text App Violates Missouri Governor’s Speech Rights

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JEFFERSON CITY — Ordering Gov. Eric Greitens and his staff to stop using an app that erases text messages would violate their free speech rights, attorneys for the governor argued in a brief filed Tuesday. Greitens and his senior government staff use an app on their personal phones called Confide that erases text messages after […]

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BEGA won’t reappoint OOG Director Hughes

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Statement: D.C. Open Government Coalition Condemns Decision to Decline to Reappoint Office of Open Government Director Today, the District’s Board of Ethics and Government Accountability (BEGA) voted to not reappoint Office of Open Government Director Traci Hughes to another term. It did not state the rational for this decision. Since 2013, Ms. Hughes has carried […]

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Editorial: Nebraska AG opinion a victory for open government

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Government functions best when it is transparent and allows citizens the most access to know how those whom they’ve elected to represent them are fulfilling that democratic duty. Open records laws are a critical means of doing so. Guaranteeing that certain documents and correspondence are public records, with some understandable exceptions, offers a level of […]

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Carr Vows to ‘Promote Transparent Government’ in Records Training Report

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Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr reported Wednesday on efforts to promote understanding of the state’s open meetings and open records law, saying his office has assisted 260 citizens in the past year with getting documents and answers from government. The attorney general said in a news release that many complaints his office has mediated between […]

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Judge should order governor to stop using ephemeral messaging app, lawyers say

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Two Missouri lawyers have sued the governor’s office over its use of Confide, an ephemeral messaging mobile app, which they say is in violation of state public records law. The two men are set to appear before a county judge on Friday to ask for a temporary restraining order that would bar current and future […]

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Georgia law does not mandate that all public records that could be exempt from disclosure be kept private, Reporters Committee argues

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On Monday, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and three media organizations submitted a friend-of-the-court brief to the Georgia Supreme Court urging it to reverse a decision by the Court of Appeals that would make it mandatory for state agencies to withhold any record that falls under an exemption to the Georgia Open […]

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NY top economic development official says regional council members’ finances ‘not public records’

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ALBANY — New York collects personal financial information from more than 200 people who recommend which economic development projects should receive state aid, but officials say the public should not be allowed to review that information. “These folks don’t have any statutory responsibility. They can’t actually enact anything based on their decision-making,’’ Howard Zemsky, the […]

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Report: 538 Public Records Exemptions in Tennessee Law

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A report shows there are 538 exemptions to Tennessee’s public records law, about six times as many as there were three decades ago. According to the state comptroller’s office, the Tennessee Public Records Act only had two statutory exceptions when it was enacted in 1957. By 1988, a legislative committee reported […]

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