Brechner News

Maine agencies can file for an "action for protection" against public records requesters, and a recent legislative change expanded the time they have to do it.

Brian Joseph, a freelance investigative reporter from Las Vegas, was named the Tampa Bay Times Kerlin Fellowship recipient by the Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Project, to earn his master’s degree tuition-free from the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications online program.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation hosted a webinar Aug. 11 to discuss solutions for improving the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and recapping the last term of the FOIA Advisory Committee. Topics included the use of artificial intelligence in FOIA, creating a specialized FOIA court to streamline litigation, increase…

Louisiana recently changed its open meetings law to say that “viva voce” voting – votes that are spoken aloud – are no longer required to conduct public business. Under the new requirement, a vote “that is displayed and recorded using electronic machines” will count as viva voce. According to the Shreveport-Bossier City Advocate, the law…

More and more states are considering laws that would require proactive posting of meeting minutes.

Earlier this year, Tennessee discussed a bill that would have made death penalty information more public. The bill died in committee, but circulated around the topic of drugs used for executions and whether their makers are confidential under the state's public records law.

The Journal of Civic Information is accepting applications for editor to take the journal to the next level. The quarterly peer-reviewed open-access journal (free to authors) was launched in August 2019 to showcase research in the public’s ability to acquire civic information required for self-government.

Nearly a dozen states have mulled legislation this year that would allow agencies to haul public record requesters into court if the requests are deemed disruptive, vexatious, malicious or overly broad.

Library checkout histories are private in basically all states, but New Hampshire recently debated going farther: should a patron’s status, whether they have an active library card or not, be exempted from public record? That was the proposal put forth by state representative Lisa Mazur, who was elected to the…

The Virginia state legislature recently commended the Virginia Coalition for Open Government in a joint resolution.

A bill making its way through the Louisiana legislature would exempt student athletes' compensation from public disclosure.

New Jersey is debating changing its public records law to prevent exploitative police body cam footage from being posted online.