Mississippi legislature passes two important Sunshine bills hat head to Governor for his consideration.
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. read more ...
Testimony: Reinvigorating freedom of information for the digital age
Among the journalism experts testifying before the U.S. Senate last week was David Cuillier, head of the UA journalism school and president of the Society of Professional Journalists, who spoke about the importance of open government and freedom of i ...
Transparency lags for NC lawmakers, advocates say
Despite widespread interest, efforts to make the North Carolina Legislature more transparent through better audio and video coverage have failed, panelists at an open government forum said on Monday. Lawmakers conduct much of their work debating bi ...
Blog: Despite promises, Obama’s open government record found wanting
An Associated Press study Monday found that, despite promises of openness and transparency, the Obama administration is not proving itself to be the most transparent administration ever. “More often than ever,” the study found, “t ...
Open government forecast: Cloudy for Sunshine Week
The 2014 Legislature had several opportunities to make state government more open and accessible to the public. Sadly, it passed on most of them. State lawmakers could have set an example for their congressional colleagues by approving a modest bil ...
Open-government regulations gain strength
In February, the Gloversville mayor and Common Council spent nearly 90 minutes behind closed doors in a meeting a state official later said appeared to violate the state's Open Meetings Law. In January, members of the new Montgomery County Legislature met privately with U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer in apparent violation of the law. Also in January, the Johnstown Board of Education declined to immediately provide the public with details about administrative raises. A state official said the information should have been provided. read more ...
Zansberg: A call to citizens to hold governments accountable
Two court rulings last week speak loudly about the power of public information in a democracy ...
Between the lines
From The Durango Herald: Prying documents loose from city of Durango officials sometimes can include a battle of wills, fees and a lawyer on speed dial. City Clerk Amy Phillips recently reminded department heads that they aren’t allowed to release any documents to the public unless citizens submit a written open-records request, which provides no guarantee residents will get the information they’re entitled to have, including some documents released routinely by La Plata County and the state of Colorado. Fighting for access can sometimes invite an irritable response. “They’re more than welcome to answer any questions,” Phillips said of city ...
Week focuses on letting the sun shine on government, public records
From The Gazette (Colorado Springs): It might have seemed like a small thing this month when The Gazette corrected private gun sale background check numbers from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, but as is often the case in journalism, there's a story behind the story. Questions arose in early February about the accuracy of numbers released by the CBI showing that since a law went into effect in July requiring background checks on private gun sales more than 6,000 of those private checks had been conducted. The CBI refused to answer those questions directly. Without Colorado's Open Records Act (CORA) ...
Week focuses on letting the sun shine on government, public records
Monday is the start of Sunshine Week, a celebration of laws across the nation that open records and meetings to the public, laws that let the sun shine on the shadowy parts of government ...
