Hennepin County violated state open records laws by failing to comply promptly with a request for information on the sheriff’s use of biometric technology, the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled in a case tracked by government watchdogs, law enforcement and the media. In August 2015, open government crusader Tony Webster requested information about Sheriff Rich […]
Read More… from Minnesota Supreme Court: Hennepin County illegally kept records from public
Exceptions to government transparency are growing in Minnesota as lobbyists for local officials, law enforcement and businesses gain exemptions under the state's public records law.
The number of secrecy provisions in Minnesota's public records law has risen to at least 660, the Star Tribune reported Sunday in a story kicking off Sunshine Week, an annual nationwide celebration of access to public information.
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Read More… from Exceptions growing to government transparency in Minnesota
Peggy Scott held up a bankers box that can hold about 2,750 sheets of paper. Then she held up a small 512-gigabyte flash drive that costs about $20 and holds nearly 10,000 pages of documents, and a picture of a 5 terabyte external hard drive, which costs about $120.
“Government agencies used to have to stores these [boxes] in basements and rent out spaces,” Scott said. “[The hard drive] would hold half the print collection of the Library of Congress.”
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Getting your hands on government information in the state of Minnesota is not always as easy as it may sound. In fact in some cases it may be impossible.
A KARE 11 investigation found the state categorizes information as private that can be easily accessed in other states. From online court records to complaints against teachers or doctors. Continue…
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