NC Open Government

From the Greenville Daily Reflector (7/22/10): A North Carolina judge says a state agency can withhold flirty text messages a former high-ranking Highway Patrol officer received from his assistant.

From the Wilkes Journal-Patriot (7/21/10): Officials of the North Wilkesboro Housing Authority (NWHA) have released salary information for both the current and past executive director as requested by the Wilkes Journal-Patriot. The board's attorney, however, maintains that the vote taken in a closed session on May 25 to terminate the contract of Keith Deveraux, the authority's former executive director, was permissible under state general statutes. The publishers of the Wilkes Journal-Patriot dispute that and contend that the closed session vote was in direct violation of state open meetings laws as set forth in the state general statutes.

From the Spring Hope Enterprise (7/20/10): Fighting for open government is a never-ending, often frustrating, and usually complicated battle especially when it comes to electronic records. North Carolina media, especially newspapers, have fought hard and courageously on behalf of average citizens to ensure that government records that have been accessible to the public in traditional formats, such as paper documents, don't disappear behind a wall of secrecy just because they are now in digital databases.

From the Greenville Daily Reflector (7/20/10): A North Carolina judge is considering if personal text messages a former high-ranking Highway Patrol officer recieved from his assistant are public records that must be released.

The North Carolina Open Government Coalition, a nonpartisan organization housed at Elon University that educates people about their rights and supports their efforts to gain access to government meetings and records, announced today it has raised an endowment to support its Sunshine Center.

From the Salisbury Post (7/18/10): The North Carolina Legislature made laudable headway in open government law as it closed out its annual session last week. The progress was not all it should have been, to be sure, but by North Carolina's mostly cloudy standards, it was a rare win for sunshine.

After seven years of working to insure that those who fight the lack of access to records and win can recover attorneys' fees, the provision was passed by both the House and Senate early Saturday morning and awaits the governor's signature. The new law also includes mediation provisions and better access to employee records.

From the Wilkes Journal-Patriot (7/12/10): The Wilkes Journal-Patriot, through its attorney, has formally protested a vote taken by the North Wilkesboro Housing Authority Board of Directors in closed session.