UPDATED (3) Jefferson County Loses Public Records Case Over Commissioner's Phone Records

UPDATE 3: Whoa. A cartoon about a Public Records Act case? Yes. See it here.

The Port Townsend Leader writes this story on a court ruling against Jefferson County which was attempting to withhold the public-phone system records of a county commissioner.

NOTE: Allied Law Group's Greg Overstreet and David Norman represented the records requestor.

UPDATE 1: The Peninsula Daily News writes this story on the case. And, no, the Public Records Act does not contain a "pizza privacy" exemption from disclosure. See RCW 42.56.001 - .904.

UPDATE 2: Scott Wilson, editor and publisher of the the Port Townsend Leader, writes this brutal editorial pointing out the folly of the County's "pizza defense." Good reading.

Federal Reserve Gets to Keep Bailout Facts Secret

Why should people get to know how their money is being spent?

Signers of Anti-Gay Marriage Referendum Seek to Block Release of Their Names

The (Everett) Herald reports that some of those signing Referendum 71, which would prevent gay marriage in Washington, are going to federal court in an attempt to prevent the disclosure of the signers' names. The pro-gay marriage group who requested the signatures says it will post the signers' names on the Internet. The same thing happened in California with Prop. 8, where a map showed the addresses of all signers.

Public Records Show .... Gov't Employee Infiltrated Anti-War Group

The Olympian reports that a Ft. Lewis government employee apparently used an alias to join an Olympia-area anti-war group. How do we know this? A public records request.

Auditor Sonntag Wins Open Gov't Award

The (Tacoma) News Tribune reports that State Auditor Brian Sonntag has won the James Andersen award by the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

We have worked with Sonntag and know him to be the real deal when it comes to open government. Congratulations, Governor. (Under the constitutional line of succession when the Governor is absent, Sonntag was the governor for about three days around Christmas and technically is a former Governor so he retains the title of "Governor." He laughs when people call him that.)

UPDATED: Obama Follows (Bad) Bush Policy on Release of White House Visitor Logs

So much for "change" at least on open government.

UPDATE: OK, it looks like the Obama administration is backtracking and will, indeed, release the names of the health care executives who met with the President recently.