An investigation by Mississippi Today and ProPublica found that people awaiting mental health treatment were jailed without criminal charges at least 2,000 times from 2019 to 2022, with some dying in custody. ProPublica filed more than 100 public records requests and reviewed lawsuits and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation reports on jail deaths.

U.S. inspectors recently uncovered new manufacturing problems at an Eli Lilly plant that has been under scrutiny by federal investigators, according to government records obtained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request.

According to the National Freedom Of Information Coalition (NFOIC), “audits have led to legislative reforms and the establishment of ombudsman positions to represent the public’s interests.” The basics of auditing is simple: Send the same FOI request to different government agencies, document how you followed up, and document the outcome. Here’s how [The Markup] coordinated this process with student reporters.

Attorneys for a Missouri man say they have filed a lawsuit against Jefferson Parish’s district attorney, who wants him to pay more than $18K for copies of investigation records related to his son’s death nearly seven years ago. The father has blasted the work of sheriff’s investigators, who he says fumbled their work from the very start.
The agency responded that it had more than 37,000 pages of records that would cost $18,535 to receive on paper or $5,560 in a digital format.

In Arkansas, Attorney General Tim Griffin has rejected for a fourth time a ballot initiative that seeks to enshrine the state's FOIA in the constitution. He cites a lack of definition over the terms "public record," "public meeting," "public notice," and "public process," KFSM reports.

Most requests filed under state FOIA are relatively narrow in scope, take 20 days or less to compile, and are usually provided to journalists and the public free-of-charge. But for roughly 20% of U.S. public-records requests a fee is charged. Some groups pointed to egregious examples where governments charged exorbitant fees for records, like one state agency in Georgia that estimated that one of its datasets would cost a newsroom $17 million.

This journal article examines government officials using privately owned communication portals to exchange messages, asserting that documents do not become public records if government agencies avoid taking possession of them. This may be defensible under the literal wording of some state public records statutes, but it is inconsistent with the good-government purposes of those laws.

While open government advocates rhapsodize about every judicial victory that advances the cause of public agency accountability, it is nearly impossible to overstate the importance of the Court of Appeals’ October 27 opinion in “Kentucky Open Government Coalition v Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources Commission.”

The ability of people to get records that are supposed to be made publicly available has been “deteriorating terribly,” according to David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida. A nonprofit organization called MuckRock has found that about 10 years ago such efforts were successful about half the time. Today, that’s down to about 18%.

When the Las Vegas Review-Journal investigated consumer complaints about the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, the agency responded to FOIA requests with an initial demand for $650,000. David Cuillier, director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project, said excessive copy fees are one of the most common barriers people have in accessing their government—only behind delays and arbitrary denials.

A 2017 change in the Massachusetts public records law has resulted in agencies paying out large sums after ignoring or rejecting public records requests. “It sends a message to the government agencies that they can't continue playing games with the public's right-to-know without any kind of consequence,” Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition

After two years of denying that detailed COVID-19 data relating to 2021 infections and vaccines existed, and then being forced by a court to turn it over, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health have agreed to a settlement that will require the state to disclose coronavirus data on its web site and pay attorney’s fees for attempting to circumvent state public records law.

The city of Detroit has a transparency problem. In a little more than a year, the city has either ignored Metro Times’ Freedom of Information Act requests or taken months to respond, despite a state law that requires records to be produced within three weeks.

Public records, accountability and transparency are nothing new to North Carolina's State Treasurer. No matter the political affiliation of those who hold the office, the duties are about access to information and data. It is no small matter that the current Treasurer Dale Folwell - a former Republican state legislator - took time this week to admonish his former colleagues for their subterfuge and secrecy.

Arkansas Citizens for Transparency on Wednesday (Oct. 11) unveiled an amendment draft that would ensconce the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) into the state constitution. The move follows Gov. Sarah Sanders’ attempt earlier this year to weaken the FOIA. The draft not only seeks to make the existing FOIA part of the constitution but would better define a public meeting and add harsher penalties for those who violate the law.

North Carolina’s Republican legislative majority, joined by a handful of Democrats, has decided that the state’s public records law shouldn’t apply to them. A supermajority of the General Assembly passed a sweeping legislative privilege Friday allowing lawmakers to keep secret any document made or received during their public service “in all instances.”

The Colorado county’s sheriff’s office recently mandated that a notarized form is required to obtain public records. But critics worry the new rule is an unprecedented and unlawful burden.

If you make public records requests in North Carolina, you are undoubtedly familiar with N.C. law which requires a public body to furnish responsive records “as promptly as possible.” You have also likely experienced firsthand that “as promptly as possible” can mean different things to the requester and to the public body records custodian. How did we end up with this wording, and what have our courts said about public bodies that delay, delay, delay? What can you do to push back?

A bipartisan bill would create a state ombudsperson to intervene when public records requests are denied. But an advocacy group is concerned that it will encourage state agencies to go to court. While previous bills failed, Assembly Bill 469 has passed unanimously through committees and the full Assembly.

(S)everal bills now in the legislative pipeline in Trenton would weaken OPRA, with proposals to let government officials cap the number and “scope” of requests people can make, bar people who are denied records from appealing to a judge right away, take more time to respond to requests, redact phone numbers, email addresses, and social media information from records, and exempt volunteer fire companies from OPRA.