Monthly Archives: October 2009

Do gov’t officials REALLY understand right-to-know?

When I read this Twitter post from the Virginia Coalition for Open Government‘s annual conference, I immediately thought of Pennsylvania local and state government (though in some cases it would be charitable to say they believe in open government). It … Continue reading

Posted in Pennsylvania Right to Know, Scott Blanchard | 2 Comments

Blacked-out phone records turn out to be costly. Pizza was involved.

A public official in Washington state produced his phone records as requested, but blacked out 49 calls. The requester was trying to find out if Jefferson County officials had made improper calls to a hearing examiner involved in a lawsuit … Continue reading

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If you’re a public official, your e-mails can be out there

Since we’ve been interested in public officials’ e-mails for a while here — thanks mostly to an ongoing issue in York Township — figured I’d pass this one along: According to the Boston Globe, as quoted on the blog “Death … Continue reading

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How to get federal court records online

The federal search warrant in the local human trafficking and slavery case is online at Full Disclosure’s Reading Room. (Also, here’s a link to reporter Ted Czech’s story about who’s fighting human trafficking and what they’re doing.) You can look … Continue reading

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Public records effort wins statewide recognition

The York Daily Record/Sunday News’ public records reporting efforts — including our Full Disclosure web site and this blog — won the 2009 Public Service Award from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, which was announced today. On its Web site, PNA … Continue reading

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A license to carry

A Lebanon County woman who drew national attention last year for carrying a loaded handgun to her child’s soccer game was shot dead Wednesday in what police are calling a murder suicide. Each year the state police put out a … Continue reading

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Bank bailouts and Anna Nicole Smith

You never know who you’ll meet when you start hanging with open records. Examples of open records stuff in the news right now: The Project on Government Oversight says in this blog post that an audit of the federal bank … Continue reading

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Update: 911 time-response log argument heads to court

Quick update: The York Daily Record/Sunday News’ effort to get 911 time-response logs from York County is headed to court Oct. 21. Background: The state’s new right-to-know law made time-response logs public, so that people could assess the performance of … Continue reading

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Poll: Public still likes newspaper watchdogs. Do you?

A Pew Research Center survey on attitudes toward the news media shows, the center says, that “most Americans continue to support the so-called ‘watchdog role’ for the press. In fact, the percentage of Americans saying that press criticism of political … Continue reading

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Schools and test-score numbers: All you can read

Education administrators love numbers. And I don’t mean 1+2=3. I mean NUMBERS. The drive to measure every possible kind of academic performance — as well as the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act — means that the state … Continue reading

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