A Florida watchdog coalition, headed by the nonprofit group Integrity Florida, is scheduled to hold a news conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning to remind lawmakers of their promises to bring ethics reform and transparency to the Sunshine State’s government.
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Budget sleuthing, smoke and mirrors (Part 2) – The Fine Print
By Gary Fineout So the public and press have a hard time figuring out sometimes where items stashed in the $70-billion plus state budget came from originally. But there’s one person who legislators make sure to know where items in
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Groups call on lawmakers to pass ethics, open-government bills – Tallahassee Democrat
By Jeff Burlew Several government-watchdog groups are holding a news conference today to call on Florida lawmakers to pass stalled ethics and open-government bills. Representatives from the First Amendment Foundation, Integrity Florida, Common Cause Florida and Citizens Awareness Foundation will
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Come to Ohio and Cheat
In her story on Kent State University shredding documents to prevent the public from seeing how the Presidential Search Committee selected its new president, Akron Beacon Journal reporter Carol Biliczky may have come up with the ideal way for students
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The Brechner Center for Freedom of Information presents 28th Annual Brechner Award
The Ledger (Lakeland) has been named the winner of the 28th Annual Joseph L. Brechner Freedom of Information Award for its investigative series. The award-winning series highlights the difficulties reporters and citizens face when they try to exercise their fundamental
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Open government watchdog asks Scott to veto “warning shot” bill – The Tampa Tribune Fresh Squeezed Blog
James L. Rosica in Tallahassee Published: April 14, 2014 | Updated: April 14, 2014 at 05:25 PM An open government watchdog is asking Gov. Rick Scott to veto a bill that would change the state’s “stand your ground”
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Lawmakers ‘chipping away’ at state’s sunshine laws – The Tampa Tribune
BY JAMES L. ROSICA Tribune/Scripps Capital Bureau Published: April 14, 2014 | Updated: April 14, 2014 at 07:06 PM TALLAHASSEE — With two work weeks left in Florida’s legislative session, lawmakers have passed just one measure related to
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Editorial: Barriers to records
Florida lawmakers need to take a stand for open government, rather than allowing barriers to stand in the way of public records. They have a chance to do so by passing SB 1648. The measure would mark the most significant
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Meet the local paper that’s ‘raising hell’ to keep government open – Columbia Journalism Review
By Susannah Nesmith MIAMI, FL — The Jacksonville-based Florida Times Union is a rare outlier these days, a mid-sized regional paper willing to fight big open-government battles even as most media organizations cut back on the resources they devote to
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Senate Passes Legislation to Create Florida-Based Flood Insurance, Improve Ethics and Open Government Laws
The Florida Senate today passed several pieces of priority legislation including: Senate Bill 542, by Senator Jeff Brandes (R-St. Petersburg), which aims to increase the availability of private-market flood insurance options; Senate Bill 846, by Senator Jack Latvala (R-Clearwater), which
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