Public Records Show ... Seattle Spent $2,900,000 on Sonics Legal Fees

After the P-I made a public records request, the City of Seattle disclosed that they spent $2,900,000 on legal fees in their fight to keep the Sonics in Seattle. The City settled with the Sonics for what many called the worst settlement in history.

Indiana Courts Apply Public Records Act to Themselves

The Indiana Supreme Court held that their state's version of the Public Records Act applies to the courts.

This story was sent by a regularly reader who works for the Axis Law Group.

$228,905 Public Records Penalty Against Town of 440

The City of Mesa played games for years with a public records requestor and now must pay $228,905 in penalties to the requestor. (The requestor's attorneys fees are not included; that will be even more.) The City has a population of 440 and an annual budget of $344,808.

The City could have followed the law or it could have settled early on. But aggressively fighting the requestor (with the City's taxpayer-funded attorneys) seemed like a better idea.

Injured Bicyclist Sues State to Get Bike Accident Data

The P-I reports that an injured bicyclist has sued the Washington State Patrol to obtain information about how many others have been injured on the same bridge.

NJ Governor Tries to Use Executive Privilege to Shield Emails

The Governor of New Jersey is trying to use executive privilege to prevent the disclosure of emails about some very interesting things.

Tip of the hat to a regular og-blog reader (who we're normally suing) for sending us this story.

Public Records Show ... School District Spent $140,000 on Student Newspaper Investigation

The (Everett) Herald reports: "The Everett School District has spent more than $140,000 investigating an underground high school newspaper and the teacher who disobeyed orders in support of the student journalists." The District allegedly put the teacher under surveillance.

How do we know that $140,000 was diverted from education to pay lawyers to defend an Orwellian school district? You guessed it: "according to heavily redacted billing records provided to The Herald under a public records request."