News

Coroners’ inconsistent reports muddle efforts to understand shooting deaths

CU News Corps reporters found details of shooting deaths among hundreds of public records kept by county coroners. The records provided valuable context to the total number of gun deaths, and could help shape a better understanding of why so many people die every year from gunshot wounds ...

AFBF pushing for EPA to stop privacy abuse

The Environmental Protection Agency’s public release of farmers’ and ranchers’ personal information violates basic tenets of federal law, the American Farm Bureau Federation told a Minnesota federal court late Friday. read more ...

New York Press Club blasts Gov. Christie’s blacklist tactic

The New York Press Club is publicly criticizing Gov. Chris Christie and his staff for blacklisting New Jersey Watchdog. The journalists’ organization “expresses its outrage over the Christie administration’s apparent ‘blacklis ...

Editorial: Transparency on Government Spending Fails By An Astonishing $619 Billion

Seven years ago, the Office of Management and Budget launched USASpending.gov to let the public easily track how their tax dollars were spent on contracts, grants, loans and other spending. It was supposed to be a big win for open government. Except ...

Open Government Group Demands Public Records Regarding Albuquerque Schools Chief Investigation

The New Mexico Foundation for Open Government, FOG, today filed an Inspection of Public Records Act request asking for the investigation report prepared for the Albuquerque Public School Board about former Superintendent Winston Brooks. Last Friday, ...

Utah Scores High for Government Data Transparency

A new study puts the Beehive State near the top when it comes to making government data accessible. The Center for Data Innovation gave Utah a score of 8, which is the highest possible, for its open data policies. From Roll Call: "Here’s why the report thinks having both a detailed open data policy and open data portals that provide data in machine-readable formats and through a single location are important: read more ...

Editorial: Illinois Pays app another step toward more transparency

One of the ways to improve government is to make it easier for taxpayers to see how money flows through the system. It's often called transparency. The office of Illinois Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka has taken another step in that direction in announcing a new mobile application called Illinois Pays. The app is free and can be downloaded at the Apple and Google Play stores. read more ...

Responder action documents in Aurora theater shooting to be released

In what should be considered a small victory for open records advocates in Colorado, a judge has decided it would be permissible for the City of Aurora to release parts of an after-action review of the emergency response to the 2012 theater shooting that left 12 dead and 70 injured ...

Editorial: Think twice before sending

Let’s put it this way: We know the temptation exceeds the sirens in Greek legends for municipal politicians to, er, share thoughts by email rather more than they should ...

Editorial: Transparency

From The Durango Herald:  Unless the discussion involves nuclear launch codes or some other sensitive element of national security, secrecy is the enemy of good government. That is true of the federal government, at the state level and most especially in local affairs. And there is no reason that principle should not also extend to schools. Colorado voters will have a chance to reinforce that point this fall with a ballot measure that would require school board negotiations with teachers’ unions be conducted in open meetings. That public schools spending the public’s money should do business in public only makes ...