About a year ago, Simon Mehring came home from a high school journalism conference with an idea. Mehring, now a junior at Stoughton High School, had learned about an Illinois law that protects student media from censorship. He also found out that Wisconsin doesn’t have such a law.
On Oct. 9, 2023, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held a lively, 35-minute discussion on whether to allow the deletion of certain eviction records from Wisconsin’s online court records system.
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a nonpartisan group dedicated to open government.
As part of doing business, government agencies often maintain contact lists or distribution lists. These days those are typically email addresses, but they also can contain physical addresses or even phone numbers.
In recent years, public schools in Wisconsin and across the country have come under intense scrutiny.
In early April, I requested some records from the Madison Police Department regarding what it said was the sole disciplinary action taken against an MPD officer or employee in the first three months of this year.
When Madison Metropolitan School District communications director Tim LeMonds sued his employer in March to block release of a complaint against him, he claimed there would be grave repercussions if the public were allowed to see the allegations it contained.
A unanimous voice vote by the Wisconsin Senate on a piece of legislation is a rare occurrence. But that’s what happened on April 19, when state senators approved a bill to undo a decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court regarding public records.
Members of the state legislature's powerful budget committee often impede projects or programs they don't like by sidestepping state law in order to exercise a secretive "pocket veto," Wisconsin Watch recently revealed.
In his 2023-25 budget, Gov. Tony Evers is proposing to do away with this process when it comes to conservation and recreational projects paid for by stewardship funds. But GOP lawmakers have already vowed to rip up the document and start over, leaving little chance the Legislature will adopt Evers’ idea, Dee J. Hall writes in the most recent "Your Right to Know" column from the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.
For the 17th consecutive year, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council has named its annual Openness in Government Awards, or Opees, in honor of national Sunshine Week, March 12-18. Five winners and one loser were selected from among an uncommonly large number of nominations.
Honorees include a group of residents concerned about the impact of a local park redevelopment, a school board member who blew the whistle on his colleagues for being too secretive, and a longtime city official who has made a habit of accessibility.
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