Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council ( ), a group dedicated to open government. The Board of Regents were forced to restart the process from scratch, urged by the Wisconsin State Journal to “learn from their mistakes.” That would be nice. Then that lone finalist backed out, in part due to the outcry over the process. The state university system conducted its search for a new president in a shroud of secrecy, until only one finalist was left. No Friend of Openness (“Nopee”): The UW System Tharp also had his attorney, Tom Kamenick, file a complaint identifying deficiencies in the village’s Open Meetings practices, and send a letter urging improvement, which Kamenick says it has pledged to do. In October, the village agreed to settle, providing more than 1,500 records and paying $7,500 in fees, costs and damages. Croix County over its failure to respond to more than 80 record requests made over a three-year period. This municipal judge sued his tiny village of Roberts in St. Whistleblower of the Year (“Whoopee”): Peter Tharp Meanwhile, the State Journal distinguished itself with Hamer’s persistent reporting on COVID-19 in the state’s prisons, including protracted efforts to procure relevant records and the development of courageous sources to reveal dangerous practices within the prison system. Beck checked the county’s list of absentee voters to confirm that Troupis was literally trying to disallow his own vote. Open Records Scoop of the Year (“Scoopee”): Tie: Molly Beck, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Emily Hamer, Wisconsin State Journalīeck broke the story that Jim Troupis, President Donald Trump’s lead election lawyer in Wisconsin, filed a list of names of Wisconsin residents he claimed had cast illegal absentee votes which included himself and his wife. (Too bad we’re not having an awards ceremony this year he could have come incognito.) This unnamed person, represented by attorney Tom Kamenick of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, successfully sued the Madison Metropolitan School District to enforce the ability of citizens to get records anonymously, as the Open Records Law explicitly allows. The county created a public dashboard of demographic information about cases, hospitalizations and deaths - data then used by Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters and other members of the public.Ĭitizen Openness Award (“Copee”): John Doe This article was originally published on some public entities embraced secrecy over COVID-19, this municipality was among the first in the nation to release racial and ethnic data linked to the pandemic. Washington Post: “In closing days, Trump and Biden push opposing pandemic strategies” - “President Trump pushed ahead Wednesday with a strategy for the closing days of the campaign that minimizes the threat from the coronavirus pandemic, misstates his record in confronting it and mocks Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s caution in campaigning amid a disease that has killed more than 225,000 Americans.” They’re terrified President Trump is somehow going to steal the election, says Pocan, a liberal Democrat from Madison, Wis.” TIME: “Why Fears of Post-Election Chaos Are Overblown” - “Representative Mark Pocan spends a lot of time lately trying to talk his constituents off the ledge. New York Times: “Supreme Court Allows Longer Deadlines for Absentee Ballots in Pennsylvania and North Carolina” - “In a pair of decisions welcomed by Democrats, the Supreme Court on Wednesday let election officials in two key battleground states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, accept absentee ballots for several days after Election Day.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Donald Trump hits western Wisconsin hoping to recapture 2016 support” - “At an outdoor rally at a race track, President Donald Trump declared Tuesday he was protecting America from “a left-wing mob” and predicted talk of the coronavirus pandemic would stop the day after next week’s election.”
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