passopenrecords.org

We’re back up, now, and things seem to be running smoothly…

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As promised, here are a few of the hands-on stories we’ve received that would qualify as bad. As always, these are in the participants’ own words.
One student received the runaround…literally.
I was assigned to find out if I could access the contract of a county executive of Clinton County. I found out that there […]

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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 […]

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We recently received a comment that users couldn’t download our worksheet. I’m not sure what the glitch is, but in the meantime, I’ve pasted the Worksheet in text format below. (Click “more”)

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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 […]

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You read that right…PNA’s Teri Henning is going on the Bob Durgin show on Monday to talk about the recent controversy around the Open Records Challenge. Bob Durgin’s on vacation, so Matt Brouillette of the Commonwealth Foundation is hosting. It airs from 3-6 pm on WHP-580AM in Central PA, and if you can’t […]

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Hey - just a reminder that if you’re out there participating in the PA Open Records Challenge, we’d love to hear from you!

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…and not about the government’s opinion as to whether a request is “frivolous” or not.
I wrote this morning about the letter from the Pennsylvania Local Government Conference and PNA’s response.
The Pennsylvania Local Government Committee has also distributed a press release which reads, in part, “Right-to-Know requests always (emphasis mine) are […]

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The PA Local Government Conference recently sent a letter to Tim Williams, the Executive Director of the PA Newspaper Association, about our blog and the PA Open Records Challenge. The letter, which was also sent to all sponsors and co-sponsors of open legislation reads, in part:
“I am writing on behalf of all of […]

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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 […]

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