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June 4, 2008 by
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Gov. Rick Perry is generally considered to be a friend of the transparency movement, but is working to shield his staff’s emails from public view by continuing a policy of deleting emails after 7 days. Open records advocates asked the Travis County district attorney to place an injunction on behalf of Wisconsin resident John Washburn, after he created a computer program to request all email traffic from Gov. Perry’s staff. Texas law states the records cannot be destroyed once they are requested.
that Perry has directed his staff to print and store all government-related emails, but Freedom of Information Foundation Texas director Joseph Larsen believe not all emails will be saved.
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The Travis County DA refused to halt the governor’s policy. Larsen has asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to take action on the matter.
The continuation of this policy confirms two things:
1. Gov. Perry feels his office is above the Texas Public Information Act, and
2. Workers are apparently spending government time on personal emails from the office, thereby wasting taxpayer dollars. (If they weren’t, the policy would be to print all emails, right?)
Governor Perry, please get back on the transparency bandwagon and preserve the right of citizens to find out what is happening in their government.
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June 4, 2008 by
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Drew Johnson, President of the , describes new “improvements” to the state’s Open Records Act in today’s Tennessean. Although the law demands citizen access to all state, county, and municipal records during all business hours, Johnson describes the of trying to view information.
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In the Tennessee legislature’s haphazard attempt to update the Open Records law, they specified a 7-day window for government to address information requests. However, they also piled on exemptions to the law, including exemptions for the legislature.
The question remains: What do TN legislators have to hide from their constituents?
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May 16, 2008 by
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The instituted the Sunshine Troublemaker of the Week (STOTW) Award in July 2007. This prestigious award goes to people who come under attack for filing open records requests.
This week’s STOTW Award winner is Kathy Barnes, a resident of Albertville, Alabama. Kathy had the audacity to request several records from Marshall County officials, including copies of citations issued by the county under its junk ordinance.
The blog has the story:
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Congratulations, Kathy Barnes- you are our weekly open records hero.
To see the 23 previous STOTW winners, go , and to nominate someone for the award, please go .