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March 30, 2018
Washington State
- North Olympic Legislators talk about public records legislation
- Kittitas County Clerk’s Office adds digital archives for Superior Court records
- Editorial: District 30 legislators deserve credit for stance on public records
- After public fury in Washington State, lawmakers rethink legislative transparency
- Opinion: Shenanigans abound at state Capitol this year
Outside Washington State
Laws, Legislation, and Policy
- Transparency bill on public official compensation signed into law – ID
- State senators advance bill to shield public power cost data from public disclosure – NE
- Effort to restore Texas’ laws governing public information begins next week – TX
- Kentucky government business on private devices would remain public under compromise bill – KY
- Bill in Kentucky Senate could keep doctor discipline secret – KY
- Editorial: Legislators whittle down sunshine law – FL
- The EPA says it wants research transparency. Scientists see an attack on science – USA
In The Courts
- Judge: City of Albuquerque must pay for breaking records law – NM
- Supreme Court: Is hiding income and destroying records obstruction? Maybe not – USA
- Portland mayor sued for records on Foster-Powell homeless shelter – OR
- LA Times sues county for withholding embarrassing documents – CA
Transparency & Withholding
- Long-proprietary Congressional Research Reports will now be made public – USA
- Editorial: Montanans have right to review state settlements – MT
- Opinion: Our Senate leader must have a secret. Why else is he trying to hide his text messages? – KY
- ‘Concerning’ self-destruct messaging app found on Metro police phones – TN
- Oregonian journalist wins national freedom of information award – OR
- Nonprofits on the frontlines: Redacted climate information and government transparency – USA
- Editorial: Transparency a necessity for Massachusetts state troopers – MA
Fees, Costs, and Burdensome Requests
- Democrat tried to get records on a potential Republican challenger. He got a bill for $245,000 – MA
- Casper City Council sets fees for public records requests – WY
- Public dollars to keep records from the public in convention complex lawsuit: Nearly $670,000 – IL
Privacy, Security, and Technology
- Towns scramble to keep sensitive data from online records – CT
- Facebook logs SMS texts and calls, users find as they delete accounts
- OPM’s IT systems still lacking nearly three years after data breaches – USA
- ICE used private Facebook data to find and track criminal suspect, internal emails show – USA
Records Management & Archives
- Lake County Recorder warns of scam involving deed, land records – OH
- Research clutter: A new app helps create order out of disorder
- Why the PDF is secretly the world’s most important file format
March 23, 2018
Washington State
- National journalism org names Washington lawmakers as runners-up for ‘Black Hole’ award
- 13th District lawmakers open up their emails
- Justice Dept refuses to release report on its examination of Spokane Police Department
- Tim Eyman files initiative to make Legislature subject to Public Records Act
- Blog: An intern in Olympia’s experience of SB6617
Outside Washington State
Laws, Legislation, and Policy
- House oversight panel advances records preservation, transparency bills – USA
- South Carolina law was aimed at dropping price of public records. But is it paying off? – SC
- Queensland bans ministers from using private email and message apps – International
- Legislators again consider making more police disciplinary records public – HI
- LAPD will make body camera videos public under new policy – CA
- Gov Snyder approves cybersecurity FOIA exemptions for government bodies – MI
- Opinion: Michigan’s FOIA laws are terrible; an update is sorely needed – MI
In The Courts
- Newspaper’s public record lawsuit against UNC goes to appeal, oral arguments – NC
- What’s in the emails? Justice Department wants to show AT&T internal communication in merger trial – USA
- Oklahoma Court removes some language in AG Pruitt FOIA ruling – OK
- Humane Society sues USDA for failing to release animal welfare records under sunshine law – USA
Transparency & Withholding
- Sunshine Week butts against an information tug of war in 2018
- From sex abuse to secret surveillance, FOIA requests that have helped uncover the truth – USA
- How transparent is FOIA? – USA
- During Sunshine Week, senators cite issues with FOIA request backlog – USA
- Opinion: North Carolina legislature sets dark example for Sunshine Week – NC
- Texas open-government advocates look to 2019 to improve transparency – TX
- Editorial: The devil is in the details of government transparency – MN
- Failure to deliver: Local public agencies woefully inept regarding state public records law – CA
- How health and education journalists can turn privacy laws to their advantage
- Opinion: Transparency on federal employee bonuses isn’t a privilege, it’s a right – USA
- Open records Q and A: What to expect from a public agency
Privacy, Security, and Technology
- White House staffer was a ‘password idiot’, left email passwords on official stationery at bus stop – USA
- KC City Hall has a watch list for security purposes. But why is it a secret? – MO
- How Europe’s new privacy law will change the web, and more – International
- Facebook ignites debate over 3rd party access to user data: firm kept data that should have been destroyed
- ‘They’ll squash you like a bug’: how Silicon Valley keeps a lid on leakers
- Think “private” posts are private? In NY private” Facebook posts no longer protected from discovery – NY
- Why voice capture matters, and why it’s tripping up organizations
- Tech: Protect your data assets when disposing of old storage media
Records Management & Archives
- These cities can hardly wait to delete their email records – CA
- Preparing for the next wave of (electronic) government records – USA
- NARA: Success criteria for managing permanent electronic records – USA
- New email system will archive Montana lawmaker emails for 5 years – MT
- Dumpster diving researchers discover hospitals trashing personal health document without shredding – International
- Draft guiding principles for safe havens for archives at risk – International
- Case Study: Internal Pilot – Machine Learning and Records Management – International
- NARA: Roles and responsibilities for Records Management Programs – USA
March 16, 2018
Washington State
- Judge tags county with another $349,000 in Lindquist text-message case
- Opinion: Prosecutor, Port feel withering heat of judicial sunshine
- Editorial: Thanks, Governor, for paying attention to the outrage
- Opinion: Lawmakers wrong in effort to skirt state’s Public Records Act
- Editorial: Sunshine Week highlights the need for open records
Outside Washington State
Laws, Legislation, and Policy
- West Virginia Senate passes government spending transparency bill – WV
- City ordinance seeks to limit personnel time spent fulfilling information requests – TX
- Under new agreement, Baltimore Police officers must disclose misconduct allegations to prosecutors – MD
- State report suggests improvements for Right-to-Know Law – NY
- Two California public record laws: one for the Legislature and one for everyone else – CA
In The Courts
- Judge will review video from outside school shooting scene before ruling if public can see it – FL
- EPA and National Archives sued over Scott Pruitt’s record-keeping habits – USA
- Aiming for privacy, Monterey County courts go too far, limiting transparency – CA
- In transparency lawsuits, the University of Wisconsin ends up on the losing side – WI
Transparency & Withholding
- How open is your government? Find out with Muckrock interactive maps
- US sets new record for censoring, withholding government files – USA
- Sunshine Week: Promoting Transparency in Government
- Editorial: A promising choice for Oregon’s top records post – OR
- Q&A: Oregon’s new public records advocate talks transparency – OR
- Montgomery County No. 1 for public records citations, state auditor says – OH
- Navigating a sea of information: Knowing correct path to records can prevent drawn-out process – PA
- Denied, delayed and redacted: Our quest to get minutes of school board’s closed meetings – NC
- Opinion: A big part of a journalist’s value comes from the fight to uncover public records
- EFF awards the ‘Foilies’ to the government agencies with the worst transparency for 2018
- Opinion: FOIA is the speedometer, not the cop writing tickets – UT
- Local governments say ‘transparency is building trust – NC
Privacy, Security, and Technology
- Grand Teton Natl Park axes body cameras: issues with storage, time to download footage
- Detroit’s Amazon tax incentives remain ‘trade secret’ – MI
- Justice Department sets up one-stop shop for FOIA requests – USA
- What’s new in Civic Tech: U.S. Justice Department launches new FOIA.gov site
- Befuddled by BYOD? Sedona Conference has a new eDiscovery Best Practices
Records Management & Archives
- Embedded Archivist: Capturing common ground
- The quest for a universal translator for old, obsolete computer files
- Maine agency botched unemployment system rollout, destroyed records – ME
- Digitizing County records ‘a big job,’ recorder says – MO
- Digitization of public records helping Ithaca improve efficiency, save money – NY
March 9, 2018
Washington State
- Governor vetoes controversial public records bill after negotiating with lawmakers, media
- Attorney General’s Office updates PRA Model Rules
- How They Voted: Lawmakers choose not to override veto of public records bill
- Edmonds legislators hear feedback on public records bill
- A behind the scenes look at the late-night veto of the public records bill
- Outrage erupts over Washington lawmakers’ public records law
- Blog: Our State Legislators are SO sorry for voting for that legislative secrecy bill…
- Four observations from the legislature’s transparency misstep
Outside Washington State
Laws, Legislation, and Policy
- Legislature OKs exempting cybersecurity info from FOIA – MI
- Are sexual harassment records public? One law, many interpretations – KY
- Shhh! Board of Police OKs new (secret) drug policy for police department hiring – CT
In The Courts
Transparency & Withholding
- City seeks to limit personnel time spent fulfilling information requests – TX
- Sexual harassment could stop special treatment for some lawmakers’ records – CA
- Letter from BBC staff demanding pay transparency – International
- Editorial: Public utilities should make records public – NE
- Transparency takes hit with governor’s actions – NM
Privacy, Security, and Technology
- Technology can help solve the government transparency problem
- When to report a cyberattack? For companies, that’s still a dilemma
- Mental Floss: How to send an email (in 1984)
- 3 years after data breach, OPM still struggling to modernize IT – USA
Records Management & Archives
- Training: WA State Archives announces updated training offerings
- Training: Great Northwest ARMA Region Conference (April 5-6, 2018)
- County Courthouse going paperless in move to 21st century – IL
- Feds snag $100K deal from defunct firm accused of leaving HIPAA records in dumpster
- From creation to elimination, FERC maps its data for better protection
- Mayor says field dumping records don’t exist, were ‘lost or destroyed’ – NY
- Tending Your garden: Why information governance should be an ongoing process
March 2, 2018
Washington State
- Here’s what you need to know about the Public Records Act bill
- Legislature quickly passes bill exempting itself from much of state Public Records Act
- WA Legislature passes public records exemption bill
- Legislators ask Governor to veto public records vote by Legislature
- How does being exempt from public disclosure help WA lawmakers do their jobs?
- Crosscut: I paid a price on public records law. And I hope Inslee holds lawmakers accountable, too
- ‘The fast-fast-fast-track’: Lawmakers rushed secrecy plan to beat deadlines
- Democrats using new majority to erode Public Records Act
- Transparency advocates rebuke open records rollbacks in Washington state
- Are legislators telling the truth about the controversial public records bill they just passed? Not so much
Outside Washington State
Laws, Legislation, and Policy
- WV Senate advances bills to make public information less public (employee wages, mining permits) – WV
- Opinion: Senator’s disingenuous bill won’t save you money, but it will cost transparency – CO
In The Courts
- EPA and National Archives Sued Over Scott Pruitt’s Record-Keeping Habits – USA
- Supreme Court to hear oral argument in case over records seized from home of Sandy Hook killer – CT
- SC Supreme Court case promises to transform open records laws (tax-funded, private non-profit group) – SC
Transparency & Withholding
- Business Insider: These are the 20 least corrupt countries on earth – International
- Governor won’t say how often he’s at WV Capitol; denies FOIA request – WV
- How corporations suppress disclosure of public records about themselves
- Despite transparency pledge, mayor’s office denies information, records related to affair – TN
Privacy, Security, and Technology
Records Management & Archives