Posted in Open Records on Jun 29th, 2007 3 Comments »
In a press release his office issued this week, freshman Representative Mike Vereb (R-Montgomery) announced that one of his top priorities is to bring about a more transparent state government. Some excerpts:
• Over the past several weeks, the issue of government transparency and the public’s access to government records has come under fire. […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 28th, 2007 No Comments »
Deborah Howell exploded a few myths in a column on the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) last week in The Washington Post.
• This is primarily a Pennsylvania problem: “FOIA is 40 years old and has always had its problems. But getting documents has become harder as backlogs of requests have grown longer, and […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 27th, 2007 1 Comment »
When I first read about Paul Kattner’s request for public records from Hazleton Township, I was suspicious.
Kattner was a former township employee who freely admits that one reason he asked for the records was politics: “I was thinking about running (for township supervisor) in the primary,” Kattner told the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. “If I run, I […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 26th, 2007 No Comments »
One issue that keeps coming up – and rightly so – in any discussion of open-records reform is the protection of privacy and personal information. Too often, politicians imply that the real intent of the press to expose the private lives of people in a sensationalized effort to sell newspapers or gain viewers. Better, the […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 25th, 2007 2 Comments »
There continues to be a lot of positive coverage of the Reform Commission’s recommendations on open records reform, and of Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-Delaware)’s support for the “novel concept, and one not always embraced in Harrisburg, . . . that most public records are in fact open – not closed – to the […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 22nd, 2007 No Comments »
The Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition is doing some great things. The group was founded in 2005 by journalists, librarians, attorneys, educators and community group leaders from all parts of Pennsylvania and is dedicated to protecting the right of all citizens to obtain public information from local and state government officials. The […]
Posted in Open Records News on Jun 21st, 2007 No Comments »
The Delaware County Times wrote a great editorial entitled, “Wave of reforms rouses ‘slumbering giant’ “ that discusses the reforms on the table in Harrisburg. Open records reform tops their list.
Late last week, The Williamsport Sun-Gazette editorial gave their readers an update on “attempts to bring Pennsylvania’s onerous Open Records Act into the 21st […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 20th, 2007 No Comments »
• Restaurant Inspections
Chambersburg Borough Council – after a lobbying effort by some local restaurant owners – voted unanimously in late 2005 to keep the inspection reports private, saying the public only needs to know whether restaurants pass inspections. Restaurants open for business meet borough inspection criteria, they said.
But a growing number of people believe the […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 19th, 2007 No Comments »
First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Why did the framers include “freedom . . . […]
Posted in Open Records on Jun 18th, 2007 No Comments »
On June 10, The Patriot-News ran an editorial by Graham Spanier where he expounded on his beliefs that Penn State should be exempt from open records legislation.
Yesterday, the paper ran an editorial from PNA President Tim Williams in response. It’s a good read. Here’s my favorite nugget of info from Tim’s editorial: […]