The Vermont Senate and House Committees on Government Operations discussed last month a proposal to change the state's open meeting law, allowing more time to post documents online and banning penalties against some public bodies even if they intentionally violate the law. The bill, S.114, is the result of concerns by the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, which is lobbying for changes that would relax many of the state's current open meeting requirements. Before any changes are considered, however, it's important to acknowledge a few things. [More]

During Charlie Baker's bid for governor last year, I asked his campaign if Baker were elected would he, like his predecessor, Gov. Deval Patrick, make the claim that he's not covered by the Massachusetts public records law. "Charlie . . . will reexamine the practices regarding public records requests when elected," his communications director Tim Buckley told me. This just in: The reexamination has been completed. [More]

I am not exaggerating one iota when I say that failure to enact this remedial legislation will be one of the final nails in the coffin of open and transparent government in Connecticut - a state which originally was considered one of the enlightened pillars of good government, but more recently has earned a reputation as one that tolerates corruption and governmental misconduct. [More]

With all the flap about Hillary Clinton conducting state department business using her personal email account, I wanted to see if there are any related cases in my own backyard of Massachusetts. Sure enough, I found one. [More]

These rulings, according to a Boston Globe article, give "individual police chiefs and other officials the power to decide what to release or keep secret - even when the information relates to wrongdoing in their own departments." The rulings, in part, allowed Boston police to withhold the names of officers caught drunken driving and state police to withhold the arrest report of one of its officers. [More]

United under the banner of the Massachusetts Freedom of Information Alliance (MassFOIA), open-government groups urged the state legislature to quickly pass recently filed legislation intending to modernize and rationalize the Massachusetts public records law. Those groups include NEFAC, the ACLU of Massachusetts, Common Cause Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association, and the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts. [More]

The New England First Amendment Coalition joined 54 civil rights and media organizations to call for the reintroduction of the proposed federal Private Prison Information Act. The legislation requires federal prisons managed by private contractors to disclose the same information under the Freedom of Information Act as publicly managed prisons. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) introduced the legislation last year but it failed to garner enough support to become law. [More]

Subscribers will be receiving, or have already received, in the mail a voucher provided by The Boston Globe through its annual GRANT program. Seven-day newspaper subscribers will receive vouchers valued at $100 and all other subscribers will receive vouchers valued at $50. These vouchers can then be mailed back to The Boston Globe with the name of a non-profit. Those organizations with the highest amount of donations will be given free advertising in the newspaper. [More]