Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council
A representative government is dependent on an informed electorate
Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (www.wisfoic.org), a nonprofit group dedicated to open government.
Do mosquitoes have HIPAA rights? You might have thought so if you read a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story last September reporting that the first West Nile virus-positive mosquitoes had been detected in Milwaukee County. City Health Department officials refused to reveal where the mosquitoes had been trapped. They gave two reasons: not wanting to alarm […]
Continue ReadingEvery so often a case comes along that reminds us how valuable Wisconsin’s open records laws and open meeting laws are to the concept of a free press. Just such a case is now pending before the Wisconsin Supreme Court — GPS Inc. v. the Town of St. Germain. GPS Inc., a contracting company, asked […]
Continue ReadingAgainst the backdrop of bitter partisan fighting over the state budget, there was a flagrant act of good government committed in Madison this political season. In a spirit of bipartisanship seldom seen these days, the Wisconsin Legislature passed a bill that will go along way toward restoring Wisconsin’s time-honored reputation for open, clean government. The […]
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