The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Posts Tagged ‘public records’
The rise, fall and (possible) resurgence of FOIA audits
The rise, fall and (possible) resurgence of FOIA audits By Jordan P. Hickey, independent journalist On Aug. 23, 1999, just after 8 a.m., regional supervisors for the Arkansas Health Department started getting phone calls from county health officials. Not exactly the most breaking news of the day, but what set those calls apart was…
Read MoreFive finalists selected for 2024 Golden Padlock Award
Investigative Reporters and Editors has named its finalists for the 2024 Golden Padlock Award honoring the most secretive public agency or official in the U.S.
Read MoreNebraska Department of Environment & Energy wins 2023 Golden Padlock Award
A staunch commitment to blocking the release of internal emails about a growing public health risk has earned Nebraska Department of Environment & Energy the 2023 Golden Padlock Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors. The award honors the most secretive government agencies in the U.S. The agency originally quoted the Flatwater Free Press a fee…
Read MoreFour finalists selected for 10th annual Golden Padlock Award
Investigative Reporters and Editors has selected four finalists for the 2023 Golden Padlock Award honoring the most secretive public agency or official in the U.S.
Read MoreScott Pruitt wins 2017 Golden Padlock
Investigative Reporters and Editors has named Scott Pruitt, the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as the winner of its annual Golden Padlock Award recognizing the most secretive U.S. agency or individual. Pruitt was selected for this honor for steadfastly refusing to provide emails in the public interest and removing information…
Read MoreWill a new law really make Illinois’ FOIA stronger? Journalists there aren’t so sure
By Jackie Spinner, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on August 16, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. This summer, the Illinois Legislature stiffened the penalties that can be imposed on public bodies that refuse to comply with the state’s Freedom of Information Act. HB 4715, part of a two-bill package known as “Molly’s…
Read MoreThe public records process can be messy. Muckrock hopes to tidy it up.
By Chava Gourarie, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on July 14, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. The team behind Muckrock, a nonprofit that helps users navigate government records laws, launched a project today that aims to catalog all of the reasons state agencies give for rejecting public records requests. In doing so, they hope…
Read MoreHow one reporter’s scoop helped change Kansas’ open-records law
By Deron Lee, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on May 13, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. One day in late January 2015, Bryan Lowry of the Wichita Eagle was at a Mexican restaurant in Topeka, Kansas, when he received an email forwarded from a source. He immediately knew he was onto…
Read MoreHow two court rulings involving universities breathe new life into the right to know
By Jonathan Peters, CJR.org Editor’s Note: This article first ran on March 23, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. Sunshine Week brought some welcome news for transparency advocates this year: Two state courts ruled, in suits brought by news organizations, that freedom-of-information laws require private entities to disclose their records if they perform a…
Read MoreQuickly find SEC filings in a specific location using a new tool from Sqoop
If you’re tasked with covering business, you might want to check out a new feature from Sqoop. The document-mining site recently announced a new geographic search/location filter feature for SEC filings. That means that reporters can look for all SEC form types, or just a subset such as Form Ds or 8-Ks, in their state.…
Read More