Open government

A bill draft from Nevada’s attorney general may propose stiffer penalties for public officials who violate the state’s open-meeting law. During a meeting Wednesday, the attorney general’s Open Meeting Law Task Force — of which I am a member — looked at several possible changes to the law, including raising …

by Barry Smith In one case, a city council paused its meeting for a three-minute recess and huddled in private before the mayor announced, “We’ve got this figured out.” In another, the board’s policy on public comments advised its members “not to respond to even the most ridiculous statements.” And …

In case you’re keeping score, First Amendment and open-government advocates this week had  a couple of successes, took a continuing loss and will look forward to another significant contest next week. One of the wins came in the Nevada Supreme Court, which said a district court judge was wrong to …

Comstock residents made a strong argument to the Nevada Supreme Court on Tuesday for access to public records contained on officials’ private cell phones. The case dates back more than four years, when the Comstock Residents Association asked for copies of communications between Lyon County officials and Comstock Mining Inc. …

  Nevada state Sen. Nicole Cannizzaro sponsored legislation in the 2017 session for the New Voices project, and journalism professor Patrick File rallied support that helped lead to its passage. In doing so, they have ensured the protection of free press and free speech rights in Nevada schools for students, …

In Gov. Brian Sandoval’s explanation of why he vetoed SB384, which would have specified some open records for the Public Employees Retirement System while closing others, he accurately hit on key points we had argued in our opposition to the bill. “SB384 has merit,” the governor wrote. “Protecting public employees …