News

IRS approves MiCOG as tax-exempt organization

From Michigan Coalition for Open Government: The Michigan Coalition for Open Government is proud to announce our new tax-exempt status. We received notification on June 3, 2013, from the Small Business Clinic at Michigan State University&rsqu ...

NSA collecting phone records of millions of Verizon customers daily

From Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian: The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April. read more ...

Newtown officials ordered to provide 911 calls to public records panel for review

From Washington Post: A state Freedom of Information commission on Monday ordered Newtown officials to provide it with 911 calls from the day of the shooting inside Sandy Hook Elementary School as it considers an appeal for their release by The ...

INDOT memo strips public info, but new IEDC rules open doors

From Republic.com: By one stroke this year, Indiana lawmakers and the new governor vastly improved the public's ability to find out how the show is run here at the Statehouse, while in another, top managers at the Indiana Department of Transportation quietly clamped down on what's available. read more ...

Bill aims to loosen Jacksonville’s open meetings law

From Jacksonville.com: Six years after Jacksonville tightened its open-government rules over meetings violations involving City Council members, the city’s ethics director is championing an effort to loosen some requirements she argues ar ...

Oklahoma appeals court rules dash-cam videos are public records

From Tulsa World: Reversing a decision by a Rogers County judge, the state Court of Civil Appeals ruled Friday that a dash-cam video made by the Claremore Police Department in 2011 does constitute a public record under the Oklahoma Open Records ...

llinois Press Association opposes public records exemption in concealed carry bill

From pjstar.com: The Illinois Press Association has come out in opposition to concealed-carry legislation the General Assembly approved last week on the grounds that a newly created licensing review board’s exemption from the Freedom of I ...

Newtown officials ordered to provide 911 calls to public records panel for review

From The Republic: HARTFORD, Connecticut — A state Freedom of Information commission on Monday ordered Newtown officials to provide it with 911 calls from the day of the shooting inside Sandy Hook Elementary School as it considers an appeal for their release by The Associated Press. read more ...

Sarah Karon: Voucher schools should be more open

From Wisconsin State Journal: Back in 1990, when Milwaukee launched the nation’s first publicly funded voucher program, participating schools could enroll no more than 49 percent voucher students. These schools were considered private, because the majority of their students paid private tuition. [...] read more ...

Conn. bill would keep some Newtown records private

From The Leaf Chronicle: HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A plan by Connecticut officials to withhold some Newtown school shooting records from the public would be another blow to government transparency, which has taken hits in other states in recent years, advocates for freedom of information laws say. read more ...