Altria, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies formerly known as the Philip Morris Companies, spent far more than any other interest group lobbying state lawmakers between 2006 and 2012, according to lobbyist reports filed with the State Ethics Commission. Altria Client Services, the subsidiary handling lobbying, litigation, and other aspects of the tobacco company’s [...]
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In a unanimous decision criticized by open government advocates, the U.S. Supreme Court this week said a Virginia law blocking non-residents from using the state’s freedom of information law does not violate the constitution. The decision in the case of McBurney v. Young, as well as other case documents (including various supporting briefs by transparency [...]
Tags: Freedom of Information
There’s probably going to be a lot of competition for this honor! COLUMBIA, MISSOURI – Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. is launching a new award – dubbed the Golden Padlock – recognizing the most secretive publicly-funded agency or person in the United States. It is calling on journalists and the public for worthy nominees. “This [...]
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I finally got around to following-up on my post last month concerning the failure to use details from arbitration proceedings involving public employee unions in reporting on state and county wage increases (“Public again left to guess about arbitrators’ decisions“). In my Hawaii Monitor column in Civil Beat this week, I dug through the arbitrators’ [...]
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The question of whether public officials violate the sunshine law when sending text messages about public business, sometimes during public meetings, was considered here back in 2011 (“Text messages and sunshine“). I decided to take another look at how this issue has developed. The issue seems to be getting a lot of play in Florida. [...]
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The State Senate appears to have sidestepped the question of whether a bill digest should be made public by abandoning its scheduled completion and distribution altogether. “A bill digest was not created and distributed to the members of the Senate for this past caucus,” Senate President Donna Kim said in a telephone message received earlier [...]
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No, I have not received a copy of the Senate’s bill digest, and the issue of whether it is subject to the state’s public records law seems to have divided those who commented on my prior post (“Document request tests Senate transparency“). Contrary to some who commented, I think there is very good reason to [...]
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“Transparency” has been a big buzz word for the new leadership in the State Senate, so several days ago I emailed Senate President Donna Mercado Kim to request a copy of the digest prepared for the majority caucus on pending 3rd reading bills. The caucus is scheduled to meet beginning this morning to review the [...]
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