Oklahoma

An Oklahoma appeals court on Friday affirmed a lower court’s decision to grant the media limited access to state agency records regarding foster parents in 14 counties.

The Oklahoma Department of Human Services (DHS) must provide names, birth dates and addresses of foster parents -- otherwise confidential information -- to the World Publishing Company and KOKI Fox 23 News for the sole purpose of determining whether foster parents are convicted felons.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court earlier this week nixed a proposed rule that would have severely limited personal information contained in court records in favor of one that allows, but does not require, the omission of basic identifying data.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the birth dates of public employees may not be released under the state's open records law after finding that the privacy interests of the employees outweigh the public interest in disclosure in Oklahoma Public Employees Assocation v. State of Oklahoma. The ruling affirms the lower court ruling, which was appealed by both parties.

An Oklahoma County district court judge found last week that state agency employee identification numbers are confidential, but held that agencies have the discretion to determine whether employee birth dates are matters of public record.

The Oklahoma Public Employees Association sued the state in March to prevent the release of state employee information that was requested by the Tulsa World and The Oklahoman, said Kevin Donelson, an attorney for the OPEA.

Oklahoma has made more than $65 million in the last five years selling its citizens' private information -- including birth dates of state employees that it has refused to release in response to public records requests, The Oklahoman and Tulsa World reported.

A group of Oklahoma state employees have asked a county judge to block state offices from releasing the birth dates of employees in response to a newspaper's public records request, The Oklahoman reported.

After a decade of public records litigation, Oklahoma's Department of Public Safety has finally released the information and paid $60,000 to cover the newspaper's legal fees, the Tulsa World reported.

An Oklahoma County judge will allow television stations to broadcast the murder trial of a pharmacist charged with killing a teenager who was allegedly attempting to rob his store.

District Judge Tammy Bass-LeSure decided to allow cameras in her courtroom for the trial of Jerome Ersland, 58, an Oklahoma City pharmacist, the Associated Press reported.