Cameras in the courtroom can be helpful in promoting trust and confidence in the judicial process.
Category: Opinion
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Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Ask lawmakers for the records they delete
If a legislator deletes an email, is it truly gone? Not necessarily.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Pull the plug on shadowy business courts
Anyone who doubts that secrecy in government breeds poor public policy should take a look at the Business Court Pilot Project launched by our Wisconsin Supreme Court.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Local news deserves a break today
In recent years, the news business in Wisconsin has seen a lot of bad news. Dozens of newspapers have closed. Revenues are way down. Staffs are being trimmed. And “vulture” hedge funds are circling, threatening to pick clean the bones of this once robust industry.
Posted inFlawed Forensics, Opinion
Opinion: Alaska’s children deserve better
A former Alaska CARES employee speaks out against the actions of Dr. Barbara Knox.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: How to obtain public records: A primer
When an employee at a government agency makes a purchase, that transaction is the public’s business. Whenever a permit or license is issued by a government authority, this is information you should be able to obtain.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Investigation records should be public
This article deals with the refusal of the Madison school district to release taxpayer-funded reports into allegations of misconduct.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Bill Lueders named to National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame
Bill Lueders was a young journalist at Madison’s Isthmus newspaper in the late 1980s when he learned the value of public records. Lueders wanted to see the complaints filed by citizens against the Madison police.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Fee recovery is key to transparency
Many states, including Wisconsin, have public records laws. But that doesn’t mean requesters always get the records they seek, or even that the laws are followed.
What provisions in a state’s laws are most associated with compliance?
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: Kewaunee County water study looks backward, not forward
News stories about a recent groundwater study are causing unfounded concerns about people getting sick from farming practices in Kewaunee County.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: Lawmakers seek to keep their misconduct secret
Staush Gruszynski, a former state Assembly representative from Green Bay, is the subject of an ongoing legal battle over records regarding his sexual harassment of a female staffer.
Posted inOpinion
Your Right to Know: No private email accounts for public business
Shockingly, in Wisconsin it’s perfectly legal for government officials to use their personal emails to do government work. Even though a government entity may have no ability to access personal accounts and even though it’s ridiculously easy to use personal emails to hide conversations from the public, these practices are still allowed.