Current Headlines

FOIA litigation fund awards.

In its first awards from the newly created Knight FOI Fund, the National Freedom of Information Coalition is helping citizens in Florida seek answers to important questions of FOI law, including the scope of public access to economic development documents in Sarasota and whether handwritten notes used by a government official during a public meeting are subject to disclosure. Read more about the fund.

Open government at the General Assembly

NBC-12 (Richmond) interview with VCOG's Megan Rhyne about open government issues in this year's General Assembly.

What we can learn from CHP applications

When Christopher Bryan Speight, accused of killing 8 people in Appomattox, sought a concealed weapons permit 15 years ago, he stated that he was "not quick to anger," and found "ways to get out of problems without force or violence." That letter, obtained by the Times-Virginian from the Appamatox County clerk and dated Feb. 2, 1995, was written as then 24-year-old Speight applied for a concealed weapons permit in Appomattox County 15 years ago.

Public employee salary information is public

The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Friday unanimously supported the state's Right-to-Know Law and ordered a private organization that represents public agencies to release its salary information

Ware's concealed weapon permit bill

A bill to block public access to concealed handgun records and applications has triggered a clash between the right to privacy and the right to know.

Closed-door health-care negotiations

VCOG's Megan Rhyne interviewed in WTVR-6 news piece about how health-care negotiations are not being broadcast on C-SPAN as once promised.

 

Knight Foundation awards grant for FOIA lawsuits

Media companies will get some financial help in filing Freedom of Information Lawsuits, according to the Knight Foundation.  Monday the foundation said it is giving $2 million to the National Freedom of Information Coalition over the next three years to pay court costs and fees for attorneys willing to take on pro bono cases that cash-strapped media companies might not otherwise pursue.

TJC's Josh Wheeler profiled

Josh Wheeler prefers to be thought of as part of the process — just one of the many people who have helped the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression carry out its mission. Wheeler is one of those people, but he’s also a catalyst for the center’s close connection with the region, said Robert M. O’Neil, the center’s executive director.

22 million Bush White House e-mails recovered

The White House has agreed to restore 94 days worth of e-mails that vanished during the Bush administration, liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announced Monday. Under a settlement, the Obama administration said it will rescue the missing e-mails from backup files, then send them to the National Archives and Records Administration. CREW sued the Bush White House after it learned potentially millions of e-mails from between March 2003 and October 2005 had disappeared.

Va. Beach jurors get names

Virginia Beach Circuit Court judges in the city are no longer automatically sealing jurors’ names in criminal cases, the Virginian-Pilot reports.  Chief Judge Frederick Lowe said  the court’s practice had ended after he and his colleagues read a state advisory committee’s proposed rule, published in October, specifying that sealing jurors’ names should take place “only upon a finding of good cause sufficient to warrant departure from the norm of open proceedings.”

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