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A judge decided to hold a Racine, Wisconsin, alderwoman in contempt of court for speaking to news outlets about his decision to seal her open records lawsuit. Records of the proceeding are inaccessible, but Sandy Weidner told The Associated Press on Thursday that Racine County Circuit Judge Eugene Gasiorkiewicz found her in contempt during a hearing Wednesday. The judge warned her that he would fine her $1,000 a day for every day she talks about the case going forward. “I got a tongue-lashing, that’s for sure,” Weidner said in a telephone interview. “I knew I would be considered in contempt. I think the sanctions are fair. It is serious to defy a judge’s order,” she said. Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, called Gasiorkiewicz’s contempt finding “an extraordinary development in an already extraordinary case.”
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Channel 2 Action News have agreed to drop their claims against the city of Atlanta for what the media organizations described as “systemic violations” of the Georgia Open Records Act, according to an agreement reached this week. Under the agreement, the city will work with the news outlets over the next 90 days in drafting a comprehensive policy that will govern how the city responds to public records requests. The standards contained in the new policy will go a few steps further than what is currently in the Georgia Open Records Act, according to the agreement.
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over the years, a number of requesters, researchers, and members of the public have asked whether we think who the requester is impacts how requests are handled. Under the law, every requester should be treated the same, but we’ve seen a number of cases where different requesters get different answers (and prices, and response times) for largely identical requests. So we decided to analyze our data to see if one factor – predicted ethnicity based on name – swayed how requests were handled.
MuckRock
The Metro Office of Inspector General (OIG) is gearing up for more investigations of the long-troubled transit agency as it seeks more independence from Metro officials, who are launching a $500 million, multiyear repair project. ployees over the last 18 months, increasing his staff to 36 members, including 12 investigators, 13 auditors, three deputy inspector generals and one forensic analyst. Three other staffers serve in the OIG’s newly-created Office of Inspections, Evaluations and Special Projects.
The Washington Times
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“The standards contained in the new policy will go a few steps further than what is currently in the Georgia Open Records Act.”
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