The effort by the Republican duo to check for non-citizens has taken more political turns than a sizzling hot dog on a grill. But without transparency and sincerity on both ends of the political spectrum, it’s the public that gets burned.
Transparency can be time consuming and costly. But that doesn’t mean government should throw out FOIA requests for expediency—or for potentially darker motives.
The 7th Circuit’s decision to continue to block the law probably won’t stop the Legislature from passing a similar one in the future. But, at the very least, it will make such a proposal less objectionable to journalists and citizens who support public view of police actions.
Starting July 1, the state required many local government boards to start livestreaming their public meetings on the internet. That seems to put Indiana in rare air when it comes to government access and transparency.
Indiana is one of five states where the committee has established a Local Legal Initiative, a six-year-old program that is working to expand beyond the organization’s federal efforts and help keep state and local governments accountable.
A representative of the Texas company said he believes the debt will be discharged through bankruptcy.
Taking action without providing a meaningful explanation seems to be standard policy when it comes to Indiana’s public universities these days.
A former co-owner of CF Environmental Laboratory has filed a breach of contract lawsuit alleging the company defaulted on a settlement agreement that was supposed to compensate him for his 47% ownership stake.
The lawsuit alleges the Indianapolis office of Chicago-based Pepper Construction has failed to pay Indianapolis-based BMWC Constructors Inc. $1.59 million for site work it provided.
A preliminary injunction blocking the law should be allowed to stand because the law is too vague in describing what kind of behavior would be allowed to prompt the police to tell journalists or others to stay 25 feet away.
Robert W. Johnson has been a trial lawyer in Indiana for more than 30 years, and this spring he became president of the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association.
Jennifer Ruby, Indiana’s new public access counselor, said she’s not yet sure how the Legislature’s changes to rules regarding her office would be confining to her work.
What saved the day were a common-sense ruling and the preamble to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act, which calls for a broad interpretation of the law that favors disclosure.
The plan is not as sweeping as the one initially approved by the Indiana Senate on April 16. Still, the compromise measure would cut nine judicial posts in four counties and add 8 judicial jobs in four others.
There’s much more work to be done to assure transparency throughout the rest of state and local government.
As a service to our readers, The Indiana Lawyer will gradually post all Indiana judges’ disclosure forms online over the next several months.
Our job here at The Indiana Lawyer is to provide you with as much information as we can as quickly as we can—and to do it without embracing a political party or a point of view.
The need to protect an officer’s safety should be balanced against the rights of citizens and the media to document police work and bring attention to police abuses when they occur.
State Rep. Hal Slager is rightfully trying to close a loophole that stems from a complicated U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a federal public corruption case involving former Portage Mayor James Snyder.
The secrecy surrounding the return of death penalty executions in Indiana isn’t exactly doing much to bolster public confidence in what some consider to be an inhumane act.