Local governments in the St. Louis area could request radioactive waste testing from the state under a Missouri House bill that would appropriate money to a long-unfunded program. State Rep. Paula Brown, a Democrat from Hazelwood, noted that activists for years told the EPA the agency didn’t have a handle on where all of the radioactive waste was and urged further testing of the landfill. “Well, they have found it. It is awful…so this is an important bill.”

Simply put, Vermont’s public records law is intended to ensure that the public — and thereby reporters — have access to documents produced by state or local governments. It seems that some state agencies would want to turn the law on its head, using it as a shield to deny reporters timely access to what should be readily available public information.

Investigate Midwest attempted to obtain farmworker housing inspection records from all 50 states, but it was stymied. So far, the newsroom has obtained and analyzed thousands of inspections records from 19 states.

Requests for public documents, such as those that unearthed the shady sale of public land in Webster and over-inflated taxes in Nashua, could become pricey under a bill that cleared the House Thursday but will go before lawmakers again next week for reconsideration. The bill allows public bodies and agencies to charge up to $25 an hour for record searches that take longer than 10 hours. Under the existing right-to-know law, local and state bodies can charge for copying records but not record searches.

Wouldn’t Hillsborough County taxpayers like to know how much of their money the state is holding from an ill-fated transportation tax? We thought so, too — which is why I have been asking state agencies that question for weeks, to no avail. The figure is north of $569 million, but exactly how far north, they won’t tell me. Unfortunately, there’s a big difference in Florida between the open government laws and open government in practice.

An investigation by Mississippi Today and ProPublica found that people awaiting mental health treatment were jailed without criminal charges at least 2,000 times from 2019 to 2022, with some dying in custody. ProPublica filed more than 100 public records requests and reviewed lawsuits and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reports on jail deaths.

U.S. inspectors recently uncovered new manufacturing problems at an Eli Lilly plant that has been under scrutiny by federal investigators, according to government records obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request.

According to the National Freedom Of Information Coalition (NFOIC), “audits have led to legislative reforms and the establishment of ombudsman positions to represent the public’s interests.” The basics of auditing is simple: Send the same FOI request to different government agencies, document how you followed up, and document the outcome. Here’s how [The Markup] coordinated this process with student reporters.

Attorneys for a Missouri man say they have filed a lawsuit against Jefferson Parish’s district attorney, who wants him to pay more than $18K for copies of investigation records related to his son’s death nearly seven years ago. The father has blasted the work of sheriff’s investigators, who he says fumbled their work from the very start.
The agency responded that it had more than 37,000 pages of records that would cost $18,535 to receive on paper or $5,560 in a digital format.

In Arkansas, Attorney General Tim Griffin has rejected for a fourth time a ballot initiative that seeks to enshrine the state's FOIA in the constitution. He cites a lack of definition over the terms "public record," "public meeting," "public notice," and "public process," KFSM reports.

Most requests filed under state FOIA are relatively narrow in scope, take 20 days or less to compile, and are usually provided to journalists and the public free-of-charge. But for roughly 20% of U.S. public-records requests a fee is charged. Some groups pointed to egregious examples where governments charged exorbitant fees for records, like one state agency in Georgia that estimated that one of its datasets would cost a newsroom $17 million.

This journal article examines government officials using privately owned communication portals to exchange messages, asserting that documents do not become public records if government agencies avoid taking possession of them. This may be defensible under the literal wording of some state public records statutes, but it is inconsistent with the good-government purposes of those laws.

While open government advocates rhapsodize about every judicial victory that advances the cause of public agency accountability, it is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Court of Appeals’ October 27 opinion in “Kentucky Open Government Coalition v Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission.”

The ability of people to get records that are supposed to be made publicly available has been “deteriorating terribly,” according to David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida. A nonprofit organization called MuckRock has found that about 10 years ago such efforts were successful about half the time. Today, that’s down to about 18%.

When the Las Vegas Review-Journal investigated consumer complaints about the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, the agency responded to FOIA requests with an initial demand for $650,000. David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, said excessive copy fees are one of the most common barriers people have in accessing their government—only behind delays and arbitrary denials.

A 2017 change in the Massachusetts public records law has resulted in agencies paying out large sums after ignoring or rejecting public records requests. “It sends a message to the government agencies that they can't continue playing games with the public's right-to-know without any kind of consequence,” Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition

After two years of denying that detailed COVID-19 data relating to 2021 infections and vaccines existed, and then being forced by a court to turn it over, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health have agreed to a settlement that will require the state to disclose coronavirus data on its web site and pay attorney’s fees for attempting to circumvent state public records law.

The city of Detroit has a transparency problem. In a little more than a year, the city has either ignored Metro Times’ Freedom of Information Act requests or taken months to respond, despite a state law that requires records to be produced within three weeks.

Public records, accountability and transparency are nothing new to North Carolina's State Treasurer. No matter the political affiliation of those who hold the office, the duties are about access to information and data. It is no small matter that the current Treasurer Dale Folwell - a former Republican state legislator - took time this week to admonish his former colleagues for their subterfuge and secrecy.

Arkansas Citizens for Transparency on Wednesday (Oct. 11) unveiled an amendment draft that would ensconce the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into the state constitution. The move follows Gov. Sarah Sanders’ attempt earlier this year to weaken the FOIA. The draft not only seeks to make the existing FOIA part of the constitution but would better define a public meeting and add harsher penalties for those who violate the law.