A Republican leader of the Mississippi House says the Legislature operates more transparently now than ever. But a longtime Democratic senator says the Legislature falls short of even its own past practices of conducting public business out in the open. House Speaker Pro Tempore Greg Snowden of Meridian and Sen. Hob Bryan of Amory presented […]
Read More… from Analysis: Mississippi Legislative transparency a matter of perspective
Legislation that would prohibit politicians from using their campaign finance funds for personal use was signed into law by Gov. Phil Bryant Tuesday in his state Capitol office.
When the 2017 session began in January, the bill was labeled as a priority by both House Speaker Philip Gunn and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who presides over the Senate.
Efforts were made to pass similar legislation during the 2016 session, but it was killed in the House. Mississippi was one of a handful of states where politicians could spend their campaign finance funds on personal items.
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Read More… from Mississippi Outlaws Personal Use of Campaign Funds
The Mississippi Supreme Court will consider a dispute over public access to records from a state agency.
The dispute started in late 2012, when the Sun Herald requested records from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.
After the newspaper made its request, state Auditor Stacey Pickering subpoenaed the same documents and took possession of them. Pickering's staff said the records were part of an investigative file and could not be released.
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Read More… from Mississippi high court to consider public records dispute
The legislative rationale behind Senate Bill 2237 presumes falsely that the business of taking an inmate’s life as punishment for a capital crime should be easy, quiet, free from confrontation or protest, and hidden as much as possible from public view or scrutiny.
That rationale is incredibly flawed.
This legislation presumes that how the state implements our harshest punishment for the most heinous crimes should be a secret ceremony conducted behind closed doors and without any accountability to the taxpayers.
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Read More… from Executions aren’t supposed to be easy, quiet or hidden
Mississippi politicians are required to regularly file campaign finance reports, and those reports, posted online by the secretary of state, are supposed to show the public details of the money they took in and spent.
But often, none of the above is the case.
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Read More… from Transparency key to campaign finance reform in Mississippi
Beneath the soaring dome of Mississippi’s Capitol building, lights shine on a small bust of a blindfolded woman meant to portray “blind justice.” But she could just as easily represent the 3 million citizens of this deeply conservative Southern state, where transparency and accountability often seem like little more than abstract notions.
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Read More… from Transparency in Mississippi an abstract notion
In a huge step forward for transparency in the city of Jackson, Miss., Mayor Tony Yarber has today signed an executive order that will create an open data policy and establish a powerful commitment to government openness.
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Read More… from Jackson, Miss., becomes first What Works city to sign executive order on open data
Some concepts are just hard to grasp. Other ideas are easier to absorb. Or at least, they should be. It is apparent after Tuesday's city council meeting our elected leaders struggle to understand a fundamental aspect of the democratic process — the idea of open government.
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Read More… from Our View: Columbus (MS) city council strikes another blow against open government
The Legislature has passed two very important bills on to Gov. Phil Bryant for his consideration. Both Senate Bill 2507 and House Bill 928 make significant improvements to Mississippi's so-called "Sunshine laws." They're known that way because of their purpose to increase transparency in government.
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Carl Sagan was best known, and appropriately so, as a planetary scientist with a gift for explaining the workings of the universe to those of us who are nonscientists. In his book, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark," he proved he knows us very well:
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Read More… from Now more than ever, citizens must take command of their right to know
