Track your tax dollars
October 3, 2008: Kentuckians could have an "Open Door" into the state's financial transactions by January 2009.
Gov. Steve Beshear created an e-Transparency Task Force in June with the purpose of installing a "one-stop" information center for taxpayers on taxes, government contracts, salaries, election finance and investments.
"We're very excited about opening the shades and letting the light shine in," said Allen Eskridge, assistant secretary of state. Read the full article here.
Confidence in courts on trial
September 21, 2008: Agencies that control hundreds of millions of tax dollars should open their books to public scrutiny.
No one could seriously argue otherwise.
Yet the Kentucky judiciary claims a constitutional mandate to selectively withhold information about a 10-year, $880 million courthouse building program. Read the full editorial here.
Kentucky attorney general sides with Eastern Kentucky student newspaper in request to open campus police records
September 8, 2008: Editors of the Eastern Progress, student newspaper for Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, scored a victory for open records in an appeal to the Kentucky attorney general that challenged the university's redaction of information from campus police reports.
The Kentucky attorney general agreed with the Progress' argument that the university had overstepped the law in redacting or removing addresses and other personal information from campus police department reports obtained by the Progress through a Freedom of Information Act request. Read the full article here.
Transportation Cabinet holds conflict of interest report
August 30, 2008: The state Transportation Cabinet yesterday declined to release a report raising questions about possible conflicts of interest of two of its high-ranking officials who resigned last week.
The report is part of an ongoing investigation, and records of such investigations are not subject to release until the investigation is complete, according to a letter from the cabinet's Office of Legal Services. Read the full article here.
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