To assess the DOA’s performance, the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism analyzed the nearly 200 records requests the agency received in the first six months of 2012. The analysis found the DOA took an average of 24 days to provide records or denials.

By Mike Juley
 
A ruling last year by the Wisconsin Supreme Court involving the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel became the focus of attention Feb. 27, when a state Assembly committee held a public hearing on a bill, AB 26, that would drastically increase the cost of obtaining public records.
The bill, if approved, would let custodians of public [...]

U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman, the chief author of Wisconsin’s Open Records Law and a strong advocate of the Open Meetings Law, has been named the 2013 recipient of the Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog Award.

Award-winning investigative journalist and University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate Lea Thompson will deliver the keynote address at the third annual Wisconsin Watchdog Awards on April 24.

Public officials sometimes resist sharing the information that forms the path for their actions with citizens and taxpayers. But it’s not “their” business, it’s the public’s business. The public has every right to know the details of government operations.

Nominations are being sought for the Distinguished Wisconsin Watchdog Award, presented annually to recognize an individual’s extraordinary contributions to open government or investigative journalism in Wisconsin.

By Dee J. Hall
Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin’s Open Records Law asserts the public’s right to the “greatest possible information regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of those officers and employees who represent them.”
But the law’s reach has been tested in recent years by electronic communications that are easily sent — and just as [...]

The office of Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has revised its comprehensive Public Records Compliance Outline to reflect recent court rulings that have clarified previously murky areas of the law.