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The first of 13 videos taken of VCOG's presentation of Access Across America. All 13 parts can be found on VCOG's YouTube channel, and links to the videos, plus PDFs of the handouts will soon be available on VCOG's own website.

The Sunlight Foundation is circulating a sign-on letter in support of the Earmark Transparency Act. To add your name/organization, send inquiry to Lisa Rosenberg.

Dear Senator[Representative]: The undersigned organizations urge you to cosponsor S. 3335 [H.R. 5258] the Earmark Transparency Act introduced by Senators Coburn, Feingold, Gillibrand and McCain [Representatives Cassidy and Speier].  This landmark piece of legislation would require Congress to create an online, searchable database for all earmark requests.  By centralizing all earmark requests in a single…

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act and yeoman efforts by this newspaper — efforts that only a newspaper has the resources to undertake; you won’t read a similar in-depth report, the result of months of exhaustive effort, on a blog — Central Virginians know GRTC has some work to do improving its safety measures.…

View a video on VCOG’s YouTube channel on the proper responses to a FOIA request.

A BIG BIG BIG thank you to the NFOIC and the Knight Foundation for approving a grant for the Virginia Coalition for Open Government to continue upgrading and improving its website. The folks at Knight are consistently generous to we state open government coalitions, and the folks at NFOIC thoughtfully consider all applications and make…

Charlottesville police filed documents Wednesday in circuit court that detail the results of her search of UVA lacrosse player George Huguely’s apartment Monday afternoon. The court documents that list the items seized from Huguely’s apartment was obtained by The Daily Progress on Wednesday, but was sealed by court order after a story about the documents…

A citizen talked to the Hampton council during its most recent meeting, but the situation he encountered seems to be common: governing bodies that don’t engage the public during the public input parts of their meetings. There are exceptions, but generally neither council members nor staff respond. It can feel like an audience at Versailles,…

A how-to video on making a request under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.

“Underfoot, Out of Reach” Daniel Gilbert By Daniel Gilbert In October 2008, I wrote a story about an energy conglomerate making conspicuous payments to private entities in Southwest Virginia run by influential figures. A source read that story and suggested I probe the Virginia Gas and Oil Board, an obscure state panel that rubber-stamped whatever…

BHC reporter explains how he got the story about the mismanagement of natural gas royalty payments to the people of Southwest Virginia.

Privacy advocate BJ Ostergren will be in court tomorrow defending a ruling last year that enables her to publish records with the Social Security numbers of state officials on her Web site. Ostergren, of Hanover County, posted records with the Social Security numbers of 20 state officials on her Web site to pressure them into…

Check out our photos from the Sunshine Reception, March 11, at the Virginia General Assembly Building. Thanks to VCOG, the Va. FOIA Council, the Va. Press Association and the Va. Association of Broadcasters for their co-sponsorship of the event.

When Harrisonburg-area citizen David Briggman asked his local school board for employee salary data, the school handed it over, as required by law. Then, they sent a letter to all school district employees to let them know. Legal? Absolutely. Good policy? Absolutely not.

Friday in Warren County, a judge ruled that the Department of Social Services there did violate FOIA, but that the violations were “technical” and “minimal.” The judge did award some attorneys’ fees to the plaintiff. And earlier this week, a Prince William judge again rescheduled the hearing date on a FOIA case involving the county…

In its first awards from the newly created Knight FOI Fund, the National Freedom of Information Coalition is helping citizens in Florida seek answers to important questions of FOI law, including the scope of public access to economic development documents in Sarasota and whether handwritten notes used by a government official during a public meeting…

NBC-12 (Richmond) interview with VCOG's Megan Rhyne about open government issues in this year's General Assembly.

When Christopher Bryan Speight, accused of killing 8 people in Appomattox, sought a concealed weapons permit 15 years ago, he stated that he was “not quick to anger,” and found “ways to get out of problems without force or violence.” That letter, obtained by the Times-Virginian from the Appamatox County clerk and dated Feb. 2,…

The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Friday unanimously supported the state’s Right-to-Know Law and ordered a private organization that represents public agencies to release its salary information

A bill to block public access to concealed handgun records and applications has triggered a clash between the right to privacy and the right to know.

VCOG’s Megan Rhyne interviewed in WTVR-6 news piece about how health-care negotiations are not being broadcast on C-SPAN as once promised.  

Media companies will get some financial help in filing Freedom of Information Lawsuits, according to the Knight Foundation.  Monday the foundation said it is giving $2 million to the National Freedom of Information Coalition over the next three years to pay court costs and fees for attorneys willing to take on pro bono cases that…

Josh Wheeler prefers to be thought of as part of the process — just one of the many people who have helped the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression carry out its mission. Wheeler is one of those people, but he’s also a catalyst for the center’s close connection with the region,…

The White House has agreed to restore 94 days worth of e-mails that vanished during the Bush administration, liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington announced Monday. Under a settlement, the Obama administration said it will rescue the missing e-mails from backup files, then send them to the National Archives and Records…

Virginia Beach Circuit Court judges in the city are no longer automatically sealing jurors’ names in criminal cases, the Virginian-Pilot reports.  Chief Judge Frederick Lowe said  the court’s practice had ended after he and his colleagues read a state advisory committee’s proposed rule, published in October, specifying that sealing jurors’ names should take place “only…