DEP challenges records ruling

The state's new Office of Open Records has been open four months and already it has received 278 requests for help in resolving disputes over what constitutes a government record. So far, the office has issued decisions in 75 of those disputes involving such entities as fire companies, school districts, parking authorities and two dozen state agencies. Three of those decisions were appealed to county courts. One recent decision could become one of the first court tests of the revised Right to Know Law and could be of interest to anyone who doesn't want to travel far to review government records. Read More...

Pennsylvania has first test over access to records

In one of the first tests of a new Pennsylvania law intended to make state records more readily available to the public, the State Department of Environmental Protection was ordered on Tuesday to copy and mail out documents to people who request them, rather than force people to come to its offices in Harrisburg. Read More...