During Sunshine Week in March when attention nationwide was focused on government transparency, Gov. Scott Walker issued an executive order calling on state agencies to "go above and beyond requirements of the Public Records Law and promote easier, fairer and broader access to public records."
The director of state courts hasn't gotten the message.
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Republican lawmakers are pushing a bill that would allow them access to documents from closed John Doe investigations involving Gov. Scott Walker.
The bill would create a legislative committee with oversight of law enforcement, granting it subpoena power and the ability to access records from secret John Doe investigations once closed.
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After proposing to gut the state’s open records law in July, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and legislative leaders were bombarded with a bipartisan backlash and quickly did an about-face. They released a joint statement to the effect that all changes would be abandoned pending the findings of a study committee.
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Deep in the bowels of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed 2015-17 budget is language to exempt research done by the University of Wisconsin System from the state’s open records law, unless it is published or patented.
This blanket exemption would spare the UW from needing a good reason to deny access to these records, as current law requires. Instead, universities could categorically spurn inquiries from citizens, media and even lawmakers looking into controversial research, potential threats to public safety, conflicts of interest or how tax dollars are spent.
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