Mar 2010
Stadium Authority meeting criticized
Pittsburgh's Stadium Authority violated state
open-meeting rules when a majority of members
spoke privately by phone a day before the
authority's first public meeting this year, a
media law expert said Tuesday. Read
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Office of Open Records rules text messages from Wind Gap police chief's cell phone are public record
March 25, 2010 | Filed in: RTK request
stories | Open
records
The Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has
granted The Express-Times access to the Wind Gap
police chief's text messages in a ruling that a
government transparency watchdog group called
groundbreaking. Read
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Opinion: Clouding up Sunshine Law
The "good old boys (and girls)" in Harrisburg are
covering each other's butts again. We aren't
supposed to notice, because a House-passed bill
imposes higher fines for violating the
open-meetings "Sunshine Act." That's all we are
supposed to notice: Higher fines. But the House,
which is in bed with school directors and teacher
unions, tacked on a provision allowing secretive
closed meetings for "safety and security"
reasons.
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Opinion: Bill puts open meetings in peril
The devil is in the details and, if you're the
pessimistic type, you can find Lucifer's
fingerprints all over a small item in legislation
passed by the state House five days ago.
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Opinion: Open records still a work in progress
It’s a pretty good law. But having a good law and
having a universally good “open government”
attitude across the state are two different
things. Pennsylvania’s new “Right to Know Law”
took effect Jan. 1, 2009, more than a year ago.
Has it been successful? It depends whom you ask
and how you measure success when it comes to
citizens being able to keep track of what their
government is doing.
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Opinion: House passes damaging open meetings bill
The past few weeks have seen an increase in
activity at the Capitol that causes concern. We
were discouraged on March 10, when the full
House, reviewing a bill intended to strengthen
sanctions dished out (theoretically) for
violating the Sunshine Act, voted to insert a
‘safety and security’ exemption for going into
executive session, for school boards.
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Opinion: Citizens have duty to monitor government
Today marks the beginning of Sunshine Week, a
celebration of open government — and an
exhortation to demand it ceaselessly. Open
government is a core principle of our American
form of democracy. Government employees — both
elected officials and non-elected workers — are
directly accountable to the people. In a
citizens' government, citizens and the press are
the watchdogs, making sure officials remain
accountable to the people. Keeping access open to
officials and to public documents is essential if
citizens are to maintain their freedom.
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Pennsylvanians have better access to their government — but there's room to improve
March 14, 2010 | Filed in: Open
records | Right to Know
Law
It's been more than a year since Pennsylvania
enacted its new Right-to-Know law, but experts
say it's going to be years before it gets
perfected. Case law and trial-and-error still are
taking place across the state when citizens ask
for — and expect to receive — government records
they believe to be accessible to the public.
While officials familiar with the law admit there
is room to improve it, everyone agrees on one
thing — Pennsylvania is more open than it was
before the Right-to-Know changes.
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Opinion: Coroner rulings are a matter of public record
March 02, 2010 | Filed in: Opinion
| Lancaster
Co. | Coroner
records | Right to Know
Law | Open
records
Just over a year old, Pennsylvania's Right to
Know Law remains a work in progress. That fact is
clearly evident through a court case brought by
our colleagues at WGAL-TV. In what should be a
clear-cut situation, the television station has
been forced to go to the Commonwealth Court in an
effort to determine not if a record is public -
on that point everyone agrees - but when it
should be released.
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Ex-official: Show me the money
In light of recent accusations about undue
political influence in Montgomery County
government, a former county official has asked
the Board of Elections for details about the
commissioners’ campaign finance spending over the
past two years. Read
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