Frank Blethen on the Future of Watchdog Journalism

Frank Blethen, the publisher of the Seattle Times, gave this speech to the Washington Coalition of Open Government. It was a great speech and discusses the future of watchdog journalism.

"When do we get to see the secret agreement the Seattle School District has reached with its teachers?"

Liv Finne at the Washington Policy Center wonders why he can't see the Seattle School District's contract with teachers.

UPDATED: Allied Law Group Named a U.S. News & World Report "Best Law Firm"

The sponsors of og-blog are very happy to announce that our firm has been named by U.S. & World Report in its 2010 “Best Law Firms” series. We ranked First Tier for the Seattle metropolitan area in these practice groups:

• · Media & First Amendment Law
• · Administrative / Regulatory Law
• · Government Relations Practice

Here is a link to our listing.

Here is a link to some background on the U.S. News ranking process.

Here is a blog piece in The Olympian about it.

UPDATE: The South Sound Business Examiner also wrote about the award.

Anthony Hemstad Wins Open Gov't Award

The Washington Coalition for Open Government presented Anthony Hemstad, an elected director of a King County hospital district, with their "Key Award." Congratulations.

Bell, CA Officials Arrested

Public records showed that Bell, CA officials were earning huge annual salaries, with one of almost $800,000. Now they've been arrested.

Dang those public records. See what kind of misery they lead to? The prisons would be less crowded if it weren't for the Public Records Act.

State Won't Tell Us Public Employee Salary Data

Karen Peterson of The (Tacoma) News Tribune writes this amazing piece. Wow. We can't find out how much government employees make.

Local Governments Will Try to Restrict Public Records in Next Legislative Session

The (Everett) Herald reports on Snohomish County's, and other local governments', attempts in the next legislative session to control "abusive requestors" by, among other things, charging for staff time to retrieve records.

New Sunshine Committee Appointments

Here are the new (and not-so-new) members of the Sunshine Committee.

Justice Sanders Wins Public Records Case Against State

Justice Richard Sanders won an appeal of a Public Records Act case. He filed a request to the Attorney General's Office and, according to the Supreme Court, did not receive all the records. He was awarded attorneys fees and a daily penalty. The court's opinion was unanimous.

UPDATED: Fun Forest Secrecy

The City of Seattle won't disclose proposals for the what they plan to do with the old Fun Forest site at the Seattle Center.

It's just publicly-owned property and public money for the project ... why involve the public?

UPDATE: The City Attorney's Office says the report can be kept secret.

Seattle Times Asks Supreme Court for Lakewood Cop Killer Records

The Associated Press has this piece on the efforts of The Seattle Times to obtain records relating to the person who is alleged to have killed four Lakewood police officers.

Initiative Signatures (Other Than R-71) Released

The Olympian reports that a Thurston County Superior Court ordered the release of the signatures on various Tim Eyman iniatives. The R-71 signatures are a different matter because the case on dislcosing them is still pending in a federal court.