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Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council

Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council

A representative government is dependent on an informed electorate

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Category: 2011 Columns

Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the FOIC.

December: Walker has mixed record on openness

December 9, 2011January 23, 2018By Mark Pitsch

Earlier this year, after Gov. Scott Walker was sued for the release of the thousands of emails he received at the height of the Capitol union protests, he posted a message on his web page: “Please know that any communications may be subject to release under Wisconsin’s public records law and that our policy is […]

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November: End lawmakers’ ability to purge records

November 2, 2011January 24, 2018By Bill Lueders

No one deserves more credit for forging Wisconsin’s traditions of open government than the state Legislature.   From passing the nation’s first public records law in 1849, one year after Wisconsin became a state, to the last major update of our Open Records and Open Meetings Laws in the early 1980s, the Legislature has been […]

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October: Photojournalist’s arrest is troubling

October 10, 2011January 24, 2018By Michelle Vetterkind

  On Sept. 19, Clinton Fillinger was arrested while doing his job — perhaps because he was doing it. The 68-year-old veteran photojournalist, employed by Milwaukee’s WITI Fox6, was filming a house fire from behind yellow police tape. A Milwaukee police sergeant approached and ordered Fillinger to move back, “all the way back.” Fillinger’s video […]

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September: Contacts with lawmakers should be public

September 12, 2011January 24, 2018WisFOIC

Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, is an insurance agent who sponsored an auto insurance bill in January, one of the first bills to pass the new Legislature. His opponents pegged him as the insurance industry’s best friend; Nygren said he was following the will of the people, many of whom had told him their auto insurance […]

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August: Redistricting should be more transparent

August 2, 2011January 24, 2018WisFOIC

Every ten years, legislative and congressional district boundaries are redrawn to account for population shifts reflected in the U.S. Census. It’s an important process, one that merits months of public deliberation and scrutiny. But that’s not what happens in Wisconsin. Our state’s redistricting process is handled almost completely out of public view by the party […]

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July: Legislature should be subject to Open Meetings Law

July 5, 2011January 24, 2018WisFOIC

Wisconsin has a long and proud history of open government. We have a strong Open Meetings Law which has served Wisconsin citizens well. That law, which requires public notice at least 24 hours before public meetings, applies to your library board, school board and city council – but it does not apply to the Wisconsin […]

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June: Judge gives meetings law vital support

June 3, 2011January 24, 2018WisFOIC

No matter how people feel about the changes to Wisconsin’s collective bargaining laws passed by the Legislature in March  — and then voided on May 26 by Judge Maryann Sumi — Wisconsin residents should take heart in Judge Sumi’s decision. She declared the state’s Open Meetings Law means something. “This case is the exemplar of […]

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May: Lawmakers shouldn’t meet in secret

May 13, 2011January 24, 2018By Dee J. Hall

When 14 Democratic state senators from Wisconsin fled to Illinois in February to avoid voting on Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial anti-collective bargaining bill, a constituent complained to Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen about the secret meetings the senators were having far from the Capitol, with no public notice. Van Hollen’s office told the disgruntled taxpayer […]

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April: Open meetings case presents tough issues

April 15, 2011January 24, 2018By Bob Dreps

The key question in the ongoing legal tussle over Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill comes down to this: “Must the Legislature comply with the state’s Open Meetings Law?” At first glance, the answer might seem obvious, since the Legislature itself pledged to comply when it passed the law in 1975. Here’s the exact language: […]

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March: In Madison’s memory, let the sunshine in

March 11, 2011January 23, 2018By Mark Pitsch

In 1836, with a vision for the city that would become Wisconsin’s capital, James Doty proposed that it be named after the man known as the “father of the Constitution,” who had died that year. James Madison, the fourth U.S. president, is one of the most lasting and relevant of our Founding Fathers. A signer […]

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March: Opee Awards toast open government

March 11, 2011January 24, 2018By Bill Lueders

Sunshine Week, a national celebration of the ideal (if not always the practice) of openness in government, was launched in 2005 and is already a tradition. This year it’s set for March 13-19. In connection with this event, the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council is giving its fifth annual “Opee” Awards to those who’ve made […]

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February: Keep electronic communications open

February 4, 2011January 24, 2018By Christa Westerberg

Wisconsin’s open records and open meetings laws are decades old, passed long before the Internet was even a twinkle in Al Gore’s eye. While the state’s open records law explicitly includes electronic records, it falls short of providing clear guidance in every situation. And that creates problems in an age where the Internet and e-mail are […]

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Recent Posts

  • March: Opees awards honor and chastise
  • February: Public still paying for fraud probe records fights
  • January: Here’s to a more transparent 2023
  • December: Prehn records fight seeks accountability
  • November: Don’t pay too much for that photocopy!

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4 years ago
Wisconsin Supreme Court punts on John Doe records fight

It will be up to a Brown County circuit court judge to decide the fate of thousands of pages of evidence collected during the probe.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court is punting for now on an ongoing fight over records collected during the now-closed secret investigation into Gov. Scott Walker and Republican

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