Connecticut Supreme Court affirms teacher misconduct records are public
The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed Monday that records of alleged misconduct by teachers at public schools and universities in the state are public records subject to release under the Freedom of...
View ArticleCybersecurity bill would add secrecy to public records laws
A proposed law meant to encourage companies to share information about cyberthreats with the U.S. government includes measures that could significantly limit what details, if any, the public can...
View ArticleWisconsin DOJ handling open records requests faster, response time down from...
Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Justice say the agency is responding faster to open record requests. A DOJ news release Tuesday says the agency took an average of 20 days to close a request...
View ArticleD.C. Council to vote on public access to police video
D.C. police may get the first green light for the proposed body camera program when the D.C. Council takes up compromise legislation allowing public access and lifting many but not all restrictions....
View ArticleFirst Amendment Foundation announces new Hanna and Douglas Weiss Open...
Supported by a donation from Kenneth L. Weiss, Esq., the Hanna and Douglas Weiss Open Government Legal Fellowship is a one-semester fellowship for a law student interested in learning about Florida's...
View ArticleJudge forces Florida paper to unpublish information
A judge in Palm Beach County has ordered a Florida newspaper to unpublish material from its website, sparking an outraged response from media lawyers who say the order is a clear First Amendment...
View ArticlePlanned Parenthood shooting prompts a question: Why are court records sealed?
Immediately after last week's attack at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood clinic, many people wanted to know alleged shooter Robert Lewis Dear's motive. But law enforcement documents, including...
View ArticleSupreme Court takes up healthcare price transparency
Everyone from President Obama, to GOP presidential hopefuls, to people with high-deductible health insurance have said the more transparency in the pricing of healthcare, the better. But Wednesday,...
View ArticleSouth Carolina bill would change release of police dash cam videos
South Carolina's chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee wants a new system for making public police dash cam videos to prevent unnecessary delays. The bill by Sen. Larry Martin of Pickens would...
View ArticleLawmakers question public boards' openness and transparency
How transparent should a public university governing board be? Politicians in a number of states, who often say they’re responding to concerns from constituents, have been calling for appointed or...
View ArticleFBI now allows Freedom of Information Act requests to be made online
The FBI is now allowing Freedom of Information Act requests to be made online. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recently began beta testing of eFOIA, a new online system that allows the public to...
View ArticleStudent reporter gets $8,000 FOIA bill from school district
The Freedom Of Information Act is not free - a high school journalist submitted a FOIA request and got a bill for nearly $8,000. It was a tough lesson for budding journalist Chris Robbins who wasn't...
View ArticleTennessee school district to appeal judge's ruling
Sumner County Schools will go back to court to fight a judge's ruling that would force the board of education to accept records requests from the public by email and telephone. School board members...
View ArticleProposed 2016 bill would open records of nonprofits serving people with...
Prompted by the recent financial troubles of a nonprofit that serves people with disabilities, a state lawmaker plans 2016 legislation to open the records of all such agencies in Colorado that receive...
View ArticleIowa's judicial branch flunks transparency survey
Iowa’s Judicial Branch flunked a recent transparency and accountability study because of barriers to public access to information, a lack of legal requirements for judicial evaluations and concerns...
View ArticleNew Mexico library joins GPO program as all-digital member
The U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) has designated The Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), a land-grant institution of higher learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico, as the newest all-digital...
View ArticleMaryland hiring ombudsman for public records controversies
Wanted: Public records expert with a willingness to jump into fights between the news media and government officials. Maryland's attorney general is now hiring an ombudsman to mediate disputes over...
View ArticleArkansas AG: Electronic files considered ‘in storage’ under FOI law
In an advisory opinion last week, Attorney General Leslie Rutledge addressed a question about the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act that the attorney general’s office had never been asked before,...
View ArticleEditorial: What’s in a tax break? Washingtonians should know
Imagine if your employer refused to say what’s being deducted from your paycheck, or your bank declined to reveal what’s automatically withdrawn from your account. That’s the situation for...
View ArticleCritics slam FBI’s new app that demands ID
The FBI’s new data-requesting eFOIA app comes with controversial terms: The agency wants your ID in exchange for the information. Critics argue that the FBI collecting the requesters’ sensitive...
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