News from Indiana
New Beta Version of Indiana General Assembly Website
The Indiana General Assembly website is receiving an update in 2023: We have some improvements in the works that we're excited for you to experience. Click here to try our new, faster beta site. We will be maintaining our current version of the site until the middle...
IndyStar: Hoosiers fear losing benefits, rights: A woman sued to save her Medicaid. HHC agency wants to bar such cases.
Magdaleno, Johnny, and Tony Cook. 2022. Hoosiers fear losing benefits, rights: A woman sued to save her medicaid. HHC agency wants to bar such cases. Indianapolis Star, Nov 04, 2022. (accessed January 9, 2023). Indiana and other states often try to cut or deny...
IndyStar sues 8 hospitals for records violations: Claim: Public spending on nursing homes obscured
Magdaleno, Johnny. 2022. IndyStar sues 8 hospitals for records violations: Claim: Public spending on nursing homes obscured. Indianapolis Star, Aug 10, 2022. (accessed August 11, 2022). Eight Indiana hospitals are violating state records laws by withholding...
News from ICOG
Hiding behind HIPAA
By Craig Lyons Residents in St. Joseph County can dine safely knowing that no one reported a single case of food-borne illness to the county the first four months of the year. But if there had been a complaint, the public would be able to see only part of the...
Public officials’ emails are public records
One of the key battlegrounds for public access to electronic records, in Indiana and around the country, involves email accounts of public officials. Journalists have found major revelations in officials’ emails, such as alleged misconduct by former State...
Video: ICOG, SPJ panel on digital transparency
Indiana Coalition for Open Government and the Indiana Professional Chapter of Society of Professional Journalists marked Sunshine Week 2015 with a symposium to discuss the state of open government data in Indiana. Titled "Digital Transparency in Government: What We...
All the News
Shading Sunshine: The Proliferation of Exemptions to State Open Records Laws
Cat Reid. 2023. Shading Sunshine: The Proliferation of Exemptions to State Open Records Laws. Duke Law Journal, Volume 73, Number 2. November 2023. Abstract State and local open records laws play a vital role in our democracy. They shed light on the darkest places,...
Route Fifty: Access to public records is ‘deteriorating terribly’
Katherine Barrett & Richard Greene. 2023. Access to public records is 'deteriorating terribly'. Route Fifty, October 31st, 2023. Back in May, at the recommendation of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state legislature made a change to its public records laws,...
CFOIC report: Colorado should bar public officials’ use of disappearing messaging apps for official business
Colorado should enact legislation like a 2021 Michigan statute that outlaws the use of disappearing messaging apps in state government, but the language should be broadened to affect all state and local officials, a law student’s report prepared for the Colorado...