Posted in Citizen Stories on Jan 15th, 2008 No Comments »
Yesterday, we shared a letter from Michael Berry, an attorney with Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, L.L.P. in Philadelphia, about why 911 tapes should fall under the presumption of openness in Senate Bill 1.
Berry’s three main points — (1) that 911 tapes are a critical and powerful way for the public to assess the performance […]
Posted in Citizen Stories on Oct 28th, 2007 No Comments »
In Berlin, PA, The Johnstown Tribune-Democrat is trying to obtain a settlement agreement between Berlin’s former police chief and the borough council.
The Lebanon Daily News reports on the challenges facing genealogy researchers in PA.
The Tribune-Review reports that Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato wants to restrict the amount of information available […]
Posted in Citizen Stories, passopenrecords.org news on Sep 28th, 2007 No Comments »
PA Open Records Challenge submissions keep rolling in! They run the gamut from the good, the bad, and the ugly. We’ll start with the good. These are the participants’ stories in their own words.
On Tuesday, September 18, 2007, I went to the Lock Haven Police Department, located in […]
Posted in Citizen Stories, passopenrecords.org news on Sep 24th, 2007 No Comments »
Late last week, we recieved several stories from Lock Haven University students who have tried to obtain open records. Not all were successful, but a good portion of them did get the information they requested. A big thumbs-up to the students and to the local entities who complied with the law!
Here are […]
Posted in Citizen Stories on Sep 20th, 2007 No Comments »
We received the submission below from Bob Spurdle of Wayne, PA. His story is below, in his own words:
Per the rules, this is an example of governing bodies withholding requests for information. In this case it involves the Board of Commissioners and the School Administration of Radnor Township in Wayne, PA. It […]
Posted in Citizen Stories on Sep 11th, 2007 No Comments »
The following is a column by Mitch Olszak, the Editorial Page Editor of the New Castle News, and reprinted with his permission
State open records laws are put to the test
There¹s an open secret about open records in Pennsylvania.
Here it is: The commonwealth¹s right to know laws are among the weakest in the nation. Not only […]
Posted in Citizen Stories on Sep 7th, 2007 No Comments »
A Warren Times-Observer reporter, Eric Paddock, shared his paper’s struggle with the US Forest Service with us. While it’s not a tale of struggles with state government, I thought it would be nice to show readers of the blog an example of the struggles reporters face in obtaining what should be public records.
Here’s Eric’s […]
Posted in Citizen Stories on Sep 5th, 2007 No Comments »
Bob Baille of State College sent us his open records story:
On March 29, Governor Rendell announced that he had selected investment firm Morgan Stanley & Company to advise him about whether or not to privatize the Turnpike.
This sounded to me like a conflict of interest, because Morgan Stanley makes money from privatizing public assets like […]
Posted in Citizen Stories, Legislative Agenda, Open Records, passopenrecords.org news on Aug 21st, 2007 3 Comments »
To illustrate the problems Pennsylvania’s journalists and citizens face in obtaining public records, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, together with this blog, is holding the first-ever PA Open Records Challenge.
The competition begins in mid-August. Participants will be asked to attempt to obtain a document, such as a school superintendent’s contract or the amount […]
Posted in Citizen Stories on Jul 24th, 2007 No Comments »
We received another story from a reader, Albert Jacobs, regarding his concerns about his local school district. Albert has his own blog, Oley Concerned Citizens , which details residents’ concerns about the school district.
Thanks, Albert, for sending us your stories. If any of you out there have similar stories, please share them with […]