News

County Prosecutor Looking To Arrest Housing Official After Agency Demands $16,000 To Fulfill FOIA Request

This may be about 60% stunt and 40% forceful nudge, but I'm still behind it 100%. For far too long, public officials have treated Freedom of Information laws as an annoyance... at best. In many cases, information designated as eligible for freedom has to be pried out of officials' hands using lawsuits, needlessly-protracted appeals processes or crowd-sourced tenacity. read more ...

Tenacious G

San Diego's top attorney continues his mission to discredit the authenticity of advocacy group San Diegans for Open Government. Last week, the city attorney's office issued a handful of subpoenas to several group members, ostensibly to poke holes in the nonprofit and thus gain an advantage in their lawsuit that challenges Business Improvement Districts. read more ...

Coalition to honor Washington State Sen. Fain

The Washington Coalition for Open Government will present its 2014 Ballard/Thompson Award to Senate Majority Floor Leader Joe Fain (R-Auburn, 47th District) on Jan. 26 in Olympia. The award honors a state legislator who demonstrated outstanding ded ...

Recall election set for remaining Pueblo councilor accused of Sunshine Law violation

A recall election has been set for one of three Pueblo city council members accused of making policy in email discussions with a county official ...

Battle over information request in Wallingford continues

The chairwoman of the town’s Public Celebrations Committee and the vice president of Wallingford Center Inc. said they believe their groups are separate entities and disputed the claim that WCI has taken on Celebrations Committee tasks and is s ...

Protecting Freedom of the Press in Ferguson from the FAA

New information obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request indicates that a flight ban in Ferguson, Mo., may have been intended to stop press coverage rather than just protect local law enforcement. read more ...

New Oil & Gas Industry Intel Network Circumvents FOIA law

Now the public has no way of finding out what kind of information is being circulated among network members or with the federal government What if the private sector banded together to create its own intelligence sharing networks exempt from FOIA l ...

Port of Vancouver, Tesoro-Savage meeting raises questions

The Port of Vancouver, already facing one lawsuit accusing it of violating Washington's open public meetings law, has left the public in the dark more than once in landing one of the largest financial deals in its history, an investigation by The Columbian has found. read more ...

Opinion: Are we slaves to government secrecy?

Tuesday, the people of St. Augustine elected Nancy Shaver as Mayor, empowered by a decade of disclosures about our flawed city government. read more ...

Bob Horton: Do the people’s business in front of the people

After most municipal elections, newly elected officials and returning incumbents are invited to a forum at Town Hall about public meeting protocol and the Freedom of Information Act. And while it is often said that showing up is half the job, in th ...