Public officials

The Associated Press reports that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer may have lied to federal investigators about his role in the disclosure of a political rival's travel records.

As embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick fights to stay in power, members of his staff have undertaken an e-mail campaign to rail against the reporters who have written about his unscrupulous dealings.

Connecticut's Freedom of Information Commission ruled on Wednesday that state ethics officials broke the law when they refused to release documents requested by the Hartford Courant last year. 

Courant staff writer Jon Lender filed a complaint against officials for denying his request to receive information on Ben Bycel, then-ethics director, who was surrounded by questions about his controversial behavior.

Two records requests that The (Brockton, Mass.) Enterprise submitted to its city hall in honor of Sunshine Week didn’t turn up quite as bright as the paper had hoped.

City hall officials didn’t respond within the state law-mandated time frame of 10 days, and when they did finally turn over the information, some of it was almost entirely redacted.

A Missouri state representative said Tuesday that all public officials should be required to receive training about how to comply with the state’s public meetings and records law.

“Voters have the right to an open government,” said Rep. Jeff Roorda, who introduced HB 1440, and modeled it after similar legislation in Texas that took effect in 2006.

When it comes to one of the more bizarre FOIA b(6) redactions you'll ever see, a picture will speak much more effectively than words for this post:  have a look at the photo in this CNN.com article.

Following a judge's ruling Tuesday morning, Detroit citizens will now get to view more of the sordid details of their mayor's recent affair and the secret settlement deal reached with two of his former bodyguards that gave the men $8.4 million of city funds to walk away and keep quiet about it.

The Detroit Free Press' marvelous investigation into the veracity, or lack thereof, of testimony by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Chief of Staff Christine Beatty during a multi-million dollar whistleblower retaliation trial was all made possible due to Michigan's open records laws, and The Free Press' dogged pursuit under the law to obtain these public employee's text messages. 

In a strange development within an even stranger case, a Tennessee chancellor ruled that a tape featuring the "graphic fantasies" recorded by a former county judge should not be disclosed to the public, according to a report by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

West Virginia's Supreme Court agreed to hear the city of Charleston’s appeal of a case involving a newspaper's Freedom of Information Act request for police timesheets.