Summertime means most state legislatures have called it quits for the year, which means it's timely to assess where the public's right of access to meetings and records has advanced and where it has declined.Here are a few examples of newly enacted changes in state open-government laws that journalists should be aware of.
Tag: public records
Penn State’s silence on Clery report shows need for public records reform
Last week, the Department of Education issued its preliminary report, part of its investigation into whether Pennsylvania State University violated the Clery Act in its handling of allegations of sexual abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. It will likely be years, though, before the public learns what the department uncovered in its far-reaching review of campus safety practices at the school since 1998 — one of the largest and most high-profile investigations ever.The reason for the secrecy is two-fold. A federal law requires the Department of Education to maintain the confidentiality of any program reviews until the final program report is issued.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Wave of recent court rulings eases computer-assisted reporters’ access to government databases
Remember that iconic scene in "All the President's Men" where hours tick by at the Library of Congress as reporters Woodward and Bernstein flip through mounting piles of index cards, each one memorializing a book requested by the White House?Chances are if Post reporters need that same information today, it's kept in an Excel spreadsheet that can be sorted, searched and alphabetized in a matter of seconds.Electronic databases are making it possible for journalists to analyze and present information that previously would have overwhelmed the limits of human patience.
Are governments with stronger FOI laws also more corrupt? A new study challenges “good government” assumptions.
Does a well-enforced freedom-of-information law lead to more honest government?Intuition says "of course," but a newly released study by a University of Missouri researcher challenges that assumption.Doctoral student Edson C.
Proposal to impose state-level penalties for FERPA violations cut from final version of Arizona legislation
Arizona's governor has signed into law a bill that sets out steps to take for those who believe a school has “knowingly violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”The original version of the bill, introduced in the state Senate in February, would have allowed the state's Department of Education to withhold 10 percent of the school's monthly state aid if the problem was not fixed within 60 days.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Are college fundraisers exempt from open-records statutes? That’s a claim without foundation.
A public university system sets up a fundraising arm to collect donations, entirely staffed by public employees and operated out of a government office building.If you don't see how that fundraising unit can be exempt from the disclosure laws that apply to government agencies, you're not alone.Neither did the attorney general of North Dakota,Wayne Stenehjem, who told the North Dakota University System that the records of money collected and spent by the North Dakota University System Foundation are a matter of public record and must be disclosed on request.In a ruling issued June 25, Stenehjem explained that there is essentially no separation between the university system and the privately incorporated "foundation" that the university system established in 1991 as a vehicle for receiving donations.The analysis was pretty much of a no-brainer, since the foundation has no staff or offices of its own, is run by board members who overlap with the State Board of Higher Education, and exists almost exclusively for the purpose of providing a vehicle to reimburse university system officials for expenses beyond what state law allows.
IRE provides tipsheets from investigative journalists
For journalists looking to add depth to their stories, Investigative Reporters and Editors has provided a great compilation of presentations and tipsheets from presenters at their June 2013 conference. We’ve pulled a few of our favorites, but the whole treasure trove of information is available here.• A presentation by The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Coulter Jones and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times’ Jessica Savage guides journalists through finding and using data to strengthen stories “on any beat.”• NPR’s Margot Williams offers a list of resources that can help journalists find public records, information about non-profits and charities, archives and data.• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Kevin Crowe gives advice on looking into “chronic absenteeism” and school funding.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: A century-old murder mystery provokes a modern legal battle over access to medical records
A century ago, a crusading Connecticut newspaper editor helped bring to justice the murderous owner of an old-age home, relying on death certificates that showed boarders at the facility had a suspicious habit of dying from poison.The story of Amy Archer Gilligan -- who died in a state mental hospital in 1962, having been incarcerated 43 years for murder -- inspired the (exceedingly) dark comedy play and film, "Arsenic and Old Lace."And now, it has inspired something more: A sensible ruling that harmonizes state freedom-of-information law with federal health-care privacy law.Privacy laws are widely mis-cited to obstruct journalists' access to public records, and none more flagrantly so than HIPAA, the federal health care privacy statute.
Virginia Tech student newspaper won’t appeal dismissal in lawsuit seeking records about missing student
The case involving police records from a 1998 missing person investigation has been dismissed because the West Virginia State Police claim the records are part of an ongoing investigation.The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student newspaper, wanted to access the police investigation file in 2009 when reporter Caleb Fleming was writing a story about the 10th anniversary of former Virginia Tech student Robert Kovack's disappearance.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: “Privatized” government functions are putting the public’s records behind corporate barricades
Records created, held or used by state agencies are (with limited exceptions) supposed to be readily available for the public to inspect, and that includes the records of public schools and colleges.