From The Denver Post:  By Alicia Caldwell Denver Post Editorial Writer Politics can be a strange filter. That's really the only explanation for how otherwise rational people at the state Capitol could view a pending good-government bill as some sort of attack on democracy. I'm talking about a measure that would require local school boards to fully record their closed-door executive sessions, including matters of attorney-client privilege. This doesn't mean the material will ever see the light of day. But the conversations are preserved should legitimate legal questions be raised as to whether school board members talked about issues that ...

Connecticut is one of 41 states to earn a failing grade from health advocates for lacking public information about the quality of care provided by doctors. "Consumers should be able to find out if their local primary care physician is delivering good quality care without having to go through hoops," said Francois de Brantes, executive director of the Health Care Incentives Improvement Institute in Newtown, which published the report. "Connecticut has no public reporting of physician quality." read more ...

From The Denver Post: A federal judge has initially rejected a plea from High Times and Westword magazines to block state rules that prevent recreational marijuana businesses from advertising in most publications. But Chief U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger said she would let the magazines amend their lawsuit to keep the case alive. Colorado rules for recreational marijuana businesses prohibit the shops from advertising in publications unless the publication "has reliable evidence that no more than 30 percent of the publication's readership is reasonably expected to be under the age of 21." Medical-marijuana businesses do not face such restrictions. High ...

It's not often that the Interior Department calls, and so when caller ID indicated it was someone in the department calling, I answered the phone. The funny thing about that call, though, was it was going on six years late in coming. The caller worked in the Office of Inspector General's Freedom of Information Office. Back in November 2009, you see, the Traveler had filed a Freedom of Information Act request into how the National Park Service handled an investigation into alleged embezzlement from the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site. read more ...

More than two centuries ago, the likes of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe established the cornerstones of this great commonwealth and the United States. They built this commonwealth and nation understanding a fundamental principle ...

Since it was launched last year, The Telegraph’s Open Government Project has often highlighted the difficulty of getting access to government records, but this week, we want to acknowledge public servants in Nashua who went the extra mile to br ...

Last time we checked in with Garrett Dunwoody, San Mateo County’s Open Data Manager, we talked about cybersecurity as it relates to open data for Cybersecurity Month. We also went over the definitions of open data and open government. Since the ...

In the aftermath of a political scandal that rocked the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a New York state senator has introduced a bill that would subject the agency to freedom of information law requests from the public. read more ...

From The Denver Post:  We have been strong supporters of tough rules around recreational marijuana to keep the industry on a short leash and in check. But rules written last year by the Colorado Department of Revenue's Marijuana Enforcement Division for retail marijuana advertising are unconstitutional and have been ripe for a court challenge, which came last week when the publishers of High Times and Westword filed suit in federal court. Under the published rules approved in September, marijuana advertising is prohibited in almost every medium that has an audience of at least 30 percent minors. That means no ads ...

From The Denver Post: A controversial pact between the state and a private firm hired to manage and collect tolls along U.S. 36 between Denver and Boulder was released to a skeptical public Friday afternoon. One provision says that if the state governing board overseeing the contract's provisions is involved in a legal dispute, the contract cannot be signed. That opens the door for the legislature to review all of the details of the pact, said Ken Beitel, a leading critic of the agreement and advisory board chair of the Drive SunShine Institute. He is calling for a 60-day review ...