A bill to standardize fees for public records in Colorado was amended by lawmakers to cap charges for filling requests for information at four times the state minimum wage.
The Denver Post is right in urging passage of Rep. Joe Salazar’s House Bill 1193 to create a uniform statewide standard for “research and retrieval” fees permitted under the Colorado Open Records Act.
For now, journalists working for The Colorado Independent still won’t be given access to the floor of the Colorado House or Senate when the General Assembly is in session. But legislative leaders encouraged the online newspaper to ask again after the credentialing criteria have been “updated.”
Legislation to add requirements for school board executive sessions passed the Colorado House after a long, emotional attack by opponents who said it would undermine attorney-client relationships as well as education-reform efforts in some districts.
Lawmakers fighting a bill to add requirements for school board executive sessions argued during House debate that the measure would chill important attorney-client discussions.
The staff of The Colorado Independent features some of the state’s most accomplished journalists, including Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Mike Keefe and columnist Mike Littwin. Why can’t the online newspaper get press credentials from the Colorado General Assembly and the Colorado Capitol Press Association?
Hoping to curb identity theft, a committee of the state legislature advanced a bill that requires county clerks to redact the first five digits of a Social Security number on an electronic copy of a public document, if a person makes a request.
HB 14-1047, intended to stop Internet sites from charging people to remove booking photos, picked up support from Republican lawmakers as it moved to the Colorado Senate on a bipartisan 45-19 House vote.
A perception that some school boards are abusing executive sessions prompted committee passage of a bill in the state legislature aimed at giving the public more information to ascertain whether a closed-door meeting might violate Colorado’s Sunshine Law.
Despite First Amendment concerns, the Colorado House approved Rep. KC Becker’s bill to stop Internet sites from charging fees to take down booking photos.
