Public records

Utah state archivist Patricia Smith-Mansfield served the public well by standing up to pressure from former Gov. Mike Leavitt to pull from the public archives transcripts of "Early Morning Seminary" meetings involving the governor and his staff.

The position of public records ombudsman is rapidly becoming a regular feature of state open records laws.  Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Washington, Arizona and now Tennessee all have a state ombudsman with public records jurisdiction.   

The Associated Press takes a comprehensive look at former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's record on openness and finds some cause for concern. The story notes that unlike his predecessors, "under an unprecedented agreement that didn't become public until after he left office, Giuliani secreted out of City Hall the written, photographic and electronic record of his eight years in office -- more than 2,000 boxes."

Mel Gibson's booze-fueled, anti-Semitic outburst during his DUI arrest last August is old news, to be sure. But the Associated Press reported today that an internal investigation of the incident showed that Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department officials did their best to cover up some of the Academy Award winner's more bizarre and offensive comments during the arrest.

New York's highest court strongly bolstered the presumption of disclosure at it applies to the state's public records in a ruling overturning an appellate court's decision earlier this week.

After recently losing a Freedom of Information Act case related to the dispersal of Hurricane Katrina relief aid, the federal government has agreed to pay the News-Press and other Gannett-owned newspapers in Florida $105,000 in attorneys fees. 

Amazingly, even after six miners and three rescuers died in the Crandall Canyon mine out in Utah last August, one of the mine's owners has had the gall to suggest that records relating to the mine's operation should not be disclosed to the public.

As Robert Murray -- one of the mine's owners -- sees it, releasing such records would not serve the public interest to an extent that would outweigh the corresponding harm suffered by the mine's ownership.

U.S. Senate leaders put forth a new version of a bill Tuesday aimed at reforming the Freedom of Information Act with the goal of getting it signed by the President before the year's end.

The revised bill mandates the reimbursement of attorneys' fees under certain circumstances for successful FOIA requestors in a manner the bill's sponsors hope will satisfy House "pay-as-you-go" rules.  

A Seattle community group achieved a multi-layer victory, the Seattle Times reports, by securing the disclosure of e-mail messages from the state attorney general's office, collecting attorney's fees and clearing up concerns that the attorney general might have been involved in a settlement between the Times and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. 

During today's Des Moines Register-sponsored debate in Iowa, Hillary Clinton responded to a question about the secrecy that surrounded the development of the failed health care plan she oversaw as first lady. She pledged that things would be different this time around, adding: “I want to have an open and transparent government." This is what we like to hear. How about opening up your records from the Clinton archives to get the ball rolling in the right direction?