Current Headlines

This year’s theme was elections, candidates and open government, though articles and editorials on other topics are also available.

Information — retrieved and revealed by residents, not muckraking reporters or government-watchdog agencies — can lead to change.

Creation of the Freedom of Information Advisory Council was one of the highlights of my legislative career.

FOIA compliance is the right thing to do

Local governments have mixed record on FOIA requestsBy HARRY MINIUM, The Virginian-Pilot NORFOLK, Dec. 30, 2006 – A man walked into the Prince Edward County sheriff’s office not long ago and asked to see the county’s crime log _ a list of crimes committed the past weekend.As a Virginia resident, who might want information about…

Culpeper County Board of Supervisors violated Virginia’s open-meeting law; insurance to cover fees ordered by Va. Supreme Court

Blame the House Republicans

Idea is to help citizens who want public records

Winners include the Virginia Beach FOI Office

The court unanimously reversed a Circuit Court decision that denied attorney fees and upheld a secret discussion of a school construction project.

Virginia’s FOIA has a similar state-resident provision, not yet tested in the court.

A complete compendium of information on every state’s open records and open meetings laws.

Return to story Few localities archive e-mails July 16, 2006 12:50 am   By EMILY BATTLE When elected officials use e-mail to talk about government business, they’re creating public documents that have to be saved and made accessible to the public just like paper records. Since few localities in the area have established systems for archiving…

Courts, councils and cops work for the citizens and it’s their taxes that are paying for the work. That’s why citizens should know how that money is being spent and how decisions are made.

Sometimes public officials don’t want to share information to which the public has a right. That’s when we employ the Freedom of Information Act. (Gordon Hickey, Richmond Times-Dispatch)

Sunshine Sunday editorial, Richmond Times-Dispatch

A little spring sunshine after a long winter can do wonders for the mind, body and spirit. It is energizing and restorative.A different sort of “sunshine” imparts similar uplifting effects to governmental bodies ? state, federal and local. This is the sunshine generated by the Freedom of Information Act, which turns 40 this year. Its…

Sunshine Week column by Frosty Landon

Virginia has enacted more than 30 changes to its Freedom of Information Act since 9/11

Analysis: States steadily restricting infoBy ROBERT TANNERAP NATIONAL WRITERStates have steadily limited the public’s access to government information since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a new Associated Press analysis of laws in all 50 states has found. Legislatures have passed more than 1,000 laws changing access to information, approving more than twice as many…

Citizen used FOIA to reveal $18,000 charter flight

The curtain of secrecy that Virginia International Terminals has drawn over its operations, keeping from the public information about how it runs port operations, will be pulled aside if the General Assembly passes legislation put before it by a Hampton Roads delegate.