9th Edition of the Carnival of Open Records

Welcome to the 9th edition of the Carnival of Open Records. Before we begin this edition, we’re pleased to note that a previous edition of the Carnival has been cited as the information source that led to the open records request heard ’round the country.

Without further ado:

Let’s start with a good blog post on that Texas e-mail situation: Governor’s office still gets it wrong on e-mail retention.

Up north in Pennsylvania, the bloggers at Pennsylvania Pundits are keeping on top of why it is not a good idea to exclude e-mail from open records legislation.

Dropping south again, Jean in Missouri asks a question that almost any FOIAer has wondered about: Do they even read the sunshine laws?

A fellow Missouri blogger says that officials don’t need more training–What Missouri needs is a law with teeth.

Jeffrey S. Solochek, the blogger at The Gradebook–it covers education in Florida–says patience is a vital component of open records requests.

The Gradebook isn’t the only person interested in using public records requests to learn more about grading policies.

Entropic Memes does some creative thinking about the pros and cons of FOIA fee waivers and performance incentives.

As we close out the Carnival, let’s head back to Texas, where Over the line, Smokey! says police have too much access to private energy customer accounts (i.e., your utility bills).

Robert Guest, the blogger at I Was The State follows up with another excellent post about police access to utility bills in Austin.

And finally, could life be better? The Private Investigators Association of Virginia now has a blog.

We hope you enjoyed this edition of The Carnival of Open Records.

We’re always looking for hosts for future editions, so consider signing up here.