Minnesota transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from Minnesota.
Medical school conflicted over disclosures
December 28, 2008: The disclosure of financial relationships between doctors and drug and medical device companies has become an issue of fevered debate.
That debate hasn't escaped the University of Minnesota's medical school, which is wrestling with a proposed new policy governing those relationships -- and the embarrassing revelation that Dr. Leo Furcht, co-chairman of the task force crafting the new rules, was disciplined for a violating the U's current policies. Read the full article here.
Appointees' information is private?
August 12, 2008: We discovered an (another!) alarming little loophole in the state's open records law this week when we requested the letters sent in by the applicants for Noah Cashman's open council seat.
Turns out that if an individual is an applicant to an appointed seat in local government, much less information is made public about them, according to an amendment to the state open records law, made this year. Read the full article here.
Supreme Court case behind Pawlenty's information policy is a 'legal antique'
July 11, 2008: When he’s looking to justify deleting his emails, Gov. Tim Pawlenty tastes run to the retro. The 40-year-old Minnesota Supreme Court case that the governor cites to support his position is a “legal antique,” says a local communications attorney. But that doesn’t mean it’s illegal for government officials to maintain scant public records. And email in particular, in wide use for a decade, is only now drawing the attention of lawmakers. Meanwhile, rules on what data is public and what must be kept aren’t in sync: One law lets officials decide to delete what another law says the public has the right to see. Read the full article here.
