Without open meetings and accessible records, we’d all be in the dark. BY AMINDA MARQUES GONZALEZ AMARQUES@MIAMIHERALD.COM We simply couldn’t tell the stories readers count on us to report without Florida’s public records and open meetings laws, among the strongest in the country. Our journalists rely on these laws daily, whether attending a municipal meeting…
Read more
Posted: March 8, 2012 | Tags: Sunshine Week Next week is Sunshine Week, designed to bring attention to the merits and benefits of having an open government. The main sponsors of the week are the American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In some ways, it is bittersweet to have…
Read more
ASSOCIATED PRESS WIRE REPORT Thursday, March 8, 2012 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s next governor and other statewide-elected officials will have to preserve and make public any documents and e-mails they send between their election and the time they are officially sworn into office. The Florida Legislature has unanimously passed a bill that was sparked by…
Read more
BY GARY FINEOUT ASSOCIATED PRESS TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s next governor and other statewide elected officials will have to preserve and make public any documents and emails they send between their election and the time they are officially sworn into office. The Florida Legislature has unanimously passed a bill that was sparked by the embarrassing deletion…
Read more
By William Mattox Weather patterns in the Florida Panhandle have not changed much since last March. Nevertheless, the citizens of Jackson County have benefitted from a significant increase in “sunshine” over the last year. That’s because their local officials have made “proactive disclosure” of county government activities a higher priority. As a result, Jackson County…
Read more
Open records help ensure an open political process Trying to separate the unvarnished truth from the spin that is filling the airwaves during this presidential election season? Perhaps it’s time to become proactive and undertake your own search for the facts about the respective candidates’ stands on the issues that are important to you. That…
Read more
We were each astounded when our City Attorney, approached us during the course of our service as mayors of the nearby cities of Lake Helen and Sanford and advised us that the courts had ruled that, although the Sunshine Law requires that meetings be open to the public, the Law does not give the public…
Read more
BY FRANK FERNANDEZ, STAFF WRITER March 1, 2012 1:00 AM Jamesine Fischer heard a “thud” while driving, walked over to a bleeding woman sprawled near the Palm Coast road and turned her head so she could breathe easier — yet it was still nearly 12 hours before she reported being involved in an accident. Those…
Read more
A proposed state law that would have given Florida senators and representatives immunity from testifying or providing documents in civil lawsuits is dead — for now. House leaders put the brakes on the legislation this past Monday after protests from the League of Women Voters, the First Amendment Foundation and newspaper editors, to name a…
Read more
By David Damron, Orlando Sentinel 3:42 p.m. EST, February 22, 2012 Activists are upset that the grassy courtyard outside the main Orange County Administration building might not be completely open to the public. When Occupy Orlando members met outside the downtown building Sunday, security guards ordered them off the plaza to sidewalks nearby. Former Democratic…
Read more