The SEC is once again the champion. And we're not talking about Alabama's Monday night BCS victory.We're talking about the U.S.
Tag: Transparency Tuesday
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Resolve to FOIA your local security officers in 2012 — but leave your brass knuckles at the door
If you are studying to be a reporter or editor and haven't taken out freedom-of-information laws for a test drive, resolve to make 2012 the year that you do.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Dept. of Ed. data illuminates school system inequities
If you want a loaf of bread, you could grind your own wheat flour, milk your own cows, and harvest your own eggs -- or, you could visit a bakery and let a pro do it.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: If the public meeting seems staged, reporters should ask for tickets to the “rehearsal”
When I was a reporter in Florida covering that state's (now-defunct) Board of Regents, a remarkable statistical oddity dawned on me.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: A reminder that FERPA privacy of disciplinary records isn’t all-or-nothing
A New Jersey court ruling released this week reinforces the now-well-established point that the public is entitled to disclosure of records from schools -- even sensitive ones that schools would prefer to classify as confidential -- with minimal edits to remove student names where necessary.In K.L.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Some arresting journalism about bad guys with badges
German Bosque has been accused of stealing a car, possessing counterfeit money, sneaking into a woman's house, carrying a loaded gun through airport security and beating up several people.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Document trail reveals how ‘green energy’ left S.C. college in the red
The story of the University of South Carolina's attempts to turn wood chips into too-cheap-to-meter electricity reads like a chapter out of "The Worst-Case Scenario Handbook: Government Contracting Edition."According to detailed accounts published over the past two months in the Columbia, S.C., newspaper, The State:
- The construction of a $20 million biomass power plant got rolled into a pre-existing contract for electricity, without the competitive bids that would normally have been required for a building of that size.
- The plant was months late in powering up, in part because that sole-bidder construction company failed to apply for the necessary permits.
- It only worked about once every five days.
- Oh, and one time, it exploded.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Connecticut court case may be a ticket to greater secrecy for college athletic scandals
The formula for Coca-Cola. The recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken. The list of people buying tickets for Connecticut Huskies football games.The first two are legally protected trade secrets -- and third one will be, too, if the University of Connecticut gets its way.Connecticut's Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in December in a case testing whether public colleges may refuse to honor open-records requests for the identities of those buying tickets to sporting events.Ordinarily, any document in the possession of a public university must be disclosed on request, unless the university can point to a specific exemption that makes the document confidential.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: N.C. court ruling offers new leverage to obtain private colleges’ police records
Student journalists at private colleges may have a stronger argument for access to previously off-limits police reports from campus law enforcement, as a result of a recent North Carolina Supreme Court ruling.The case, State v.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: Public schools, private profit — charter school operators must obey state disclosure laws
Charter schools may operate in a public/private twilight zone when it comes to obeying state education regulations, but when it comes to open-records and open-meetings laws, these publicly funded entities must be publicly accountable, an Ohio judge's recent ruling reaffirms.In an October 2011 opinion, Ohio Common Pleas Judge John F.