Sunshine Week

FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2020, file photo, Hawaii Gov. David Ige speaks at a news conference at the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu. A year after the first coronavirus shutdowns, many U.S. states and cities are still struggling with a silent side effect: Public records have become harder to get. Ige, a Democrat, took the most sweeping action when he suspended the state’s entire open-records law in March 2020. Ige eased the suspension under pressure from open-government advocates. (AP Photo/Marco Garcia, File)

Hawaii adopts most extreme open records limits amid pandemic

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii has the lowest COVID-19 infection rate of any state in the nation. It’s also a pandemic standout for a more dubious reason: instituting the most extreme restrictions on the public’s access to official records.
 
FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2021 file photo, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks during a news conference in Oklahoma City. As the coronavirus swept across Oklahoma and the nation last spring, Gov. Kevin Stitt’s office was inundated with correspondence from frightened residents seeking stricter lockdowns to control the spread of the virus. At the same time, the governor was also weighing requests from dozens of business leaders asking him to make sure their businesses stayed open. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki File)

Documents show Oklahomans urged Stitt to impose lockdowns

 
FILE - In this Dec. 15, 2020 file photo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy speaks during a news conference after witnessing the first coronavirus vaccinations at University Hospital's COVID-19 vaccine clinic at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, N.J. While Murphy has pledged to be transparent throughout the coronavirus pandemic, his administration has denied or slowly responded to requests for records related to spending, communications and decision-making.(AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

COVID-19 leads to burst of info, but some data blocked in NJ

 
Keri Mitchell, executive editor of the Dallas Free Press, walks on Malcom X Blvd in south Dallas, Monday, March 8, 2021. Mitchell submitted records requests to the Dallas school district that took months to resolve because of the pandemic. The Dallas Independent School District suspended all records requests for seven months while its employees were working from home with laptop computers. "If we can't get timely responses to open-records requests, we can't get people actual answers," Mitchell said. "It just creates another barrier to the information people need to literally survive." (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Governments delay access to public records during pandemic

 
FILE - In this Feb. 10, 2021, file photo, Virginia Public Media techs, Roberta Fallon, left, and Phillip Newsome, right, monitor the video feeds during a Virginia House of Delegates Zoom Legislative session at the Capitol in Richmond, Va. A year after COVID-19 triggered government shutdowns and crowd limitations, more public bodies than ever are livestreaming their meetings for anyone to watch from a computer, television or smartphone. But in some cases, it's become harder for people to actually talk with their elected officials. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Pandemic redefines ‘public’ access to government meetings

 

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FILE - In this March 17, 2020, file photo, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem gives an update on the coronavirus in South Dakota, at the Sanford Center in Sioux Falls, S.D. Some of the nation's governors' offices routinely block access to public records to keep the public in the dark about key decisions involving the coronavirus pandemic. Noem's outspoken business-as-usual approach throughout the coronavirus pandemic has made her a darling of national conservatives and allowed her to hopscotch across the country as a fundraising force. (Abigail Dollins/The Argus Leader via AP, File)/The Argus Leader via AP)

Governors evade sunshine laws to keep records from public

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s outspoken business-as-usual approach throughout the coronavirus pandemic has made her a darling of national conservatives and allowed her to hopscotch across the country as a fundraising force.