Community group sues a Louisiana housing authority

The Housing Authority of New Orleans is being sued because it failed to provide records requested under the Louisiana Sunshine Law.

Former county commissioners may have destroyed records

Former county commissioners of Washington County, Georgia may have destroyed documents when they left office. A judge signed search warrants to search their homes to try to find the missing records and over 7,000 have been recovered so far.

Washington County, one of 159 counties in Georgia, has no website. Thus it bears the worst scarlet letter at Sunshine Review:

Court cases relevant to state sunshine laws

The section of WikiFOIA about court cases with an impact on state sunshine laws is undergoing an upgrade.

Want to help? The sunshine litigation project page describes the project and where you can help with it.

Pennsylvania Open Records Office busy in 2009

Pennsylvania’s sunshine law underwent a significant upgrade in 2008. The new law took effect on January 1, 2009. Part of the new law required that the state establish the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records.

It’s been a busy year for that new office, with at least two local governments choosing to appeal, rather than obey, its rulings. Most recently, York Township’s board of commissioners decided to appeal a recent ruling.

West Virginia counties failing at transparency

West Virginia Blue and the Charleston Gazette both picked up on Sunshine Review’s work on the degree of transparency of West Virginia county websites.

There are 55 counties in West Virginia.

• 27 of these counties have no website at all.
• None of the 55 counties provide any information whatsoever about the West Virginia Sunshine Law.