THE ISSUE
Today begins Sunshine Week, which highlights the fight for transparency in government and access to public information. Led by the News Leaders Association and organizations including the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association, Sunshine Week aims to increase public awareness of open-meetings and open-records laws like Pennsylvaniaâs Right-to-Know Law and Sunshine Act.
The restrictions and challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic didnât stop the work of journalists over the past year but did make it tougher.
Pandemic-related emergencies gave the Wolf administration, for instance, some cover for holding back information.
But journalists at LNP | LancasterOnline and The Caucus â an LNP Media Group watchdog publication focusing on state government â persisted in ensuring that taxpayers knew how government officials were acting and spending money on their behalf.
Eight months later, York County hasn t released all public information sought by York Dispatch
York Dispatch
A legal battle between The York Dispatch and York County for information that the state’s Office of Open Records has said is clearly a public record is now in its eighth month, with no end in sight.
And although the county released most of the requested information last month, there’s still information it refuses to make public specifically, the start and end dates of employment for all employees in the York County Prothonotary’s Office since January 2020.
“My docket covers the entire state of Pennsylvania, and I have right-to-know cases and court-access cases,” said Paula Knudsen Burke, local legal-initiative attorney for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “(This) case is perhaps the most offensive because the information that the newspaper is seeking is so basic.
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A taxpayer-funded legal counsel in Philadelphia whose job is to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation has consulted defendants charged with rape of a child, murder, and other violent crimes, according to records obtained by the conservative Immigration Reform Law Institute.
Philadelphia district attorney Larry Krasner appointed former immigration attorney Caleb Arnold to the new position of Immigration Counsel in early 2018 shortly after he took office. Krasner initially said Arnold would work to achieve immigration-neutral outcomes, which in practice means evaluating and modifying charges against illegal immigrants to ensure their conviction won’t result in their deportation.
Krasner, an avowed progressive, said in a press release announcing Arnold’s appointment that the Immigration Counsel would focus on cases involving “low-level offenders who pose no threat to public safety.”
Quakertown woman denied information on where Pennsylvania has put her kangaroo mcall.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mcall.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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After six years, the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records has a new executive director Liz Wagenseller, former chief of staff to ex-Auditor General Eugene DePasquale.
The agency was created in 2008 after Gov. Ed Rendell and the legislature greatly expanded the public’s access to government records. The office plays a critical role for journalists and citizens whose requests for these records are denied, they believe, unfairly.
Wagenseller will now serve as the chief arbiter of disputes related to state and local agencies, as well act as a conduit between government and the public to explain how the state’s Right-to-Know law works. Spotlight PA spoke with her about the role via email. Our interview was edited for grammar and clarity.