Open government

On Tuesday’s episode of Nevada Newsmakers, former university regent Howard Rosenberg was asked about recent criticism of Chancellor Dan Klaich. After a few comments in defense of the university chancellor, who has been under fire recently, Rosenberg turned to what he sees as the problem. “What really bothers me is …

… is the internet, of course.  OK, I’m going there. At the risk of being swallowed by the online universe and spit out the other end as a decrepit, hopelessly out of date, moldering relic of the newspaper past — all of which I am, by the way — I’m …

There’s more than meets the eye to this recent ruling by a federal judge that a police body-cam video in Las Vegas is, indeed, a public record. (Thanks to Vanessa  Spinazola at ACLU for bringing this ruling to my attention.) First, it’s good news to open-government advocates that the judge …

Now a judge knows what it’s like to try to pry records out of an uncooperative Nevada agency. I should say another judge, as U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen isn’t the first to confront the problem. We saw it in several rulings on the Reno Gazette-Journal’s lawsuit to get access …

I’m copying a story from the South Carolina Press Association’s newsletter this morning that traces The Post and Courier’s coverage of a video that exploded across the nation’s headlines. It touches on a number of issues, such as police body-cameras and victims’ rights, that are relevant in Nevada and nationwide. …

For police body-cam videos to do any good, they have to be seen by the public. That much seems obvious from the many examples floating around the internet, and the results seen by police departments that have started using them. But, as I’ve said before, there are plenty of issues …

I live in Carson City, which is neither urban nor rural. It is more than a town and less than a city. We have most of the conveniences of an urban area, but not a lot of choices. We can, of course, drive 20 minutes north to Reno. Or four …

Everything. Sorry, that’s not fair. The Nevada Department of Corrections did, in fact, provide an entire paragraph to the press on inmate Carlos Perez in November. Name. Age. Number. The fact that he was dead. The news release ends with this statement: “There is an ongoing investigation and no further …

Testimony on two bills requiring the use of body-cams by Nevada police departments showed how much of the devil is going to be in the details. One bill, AB162, comes from Assemblyman Harvey Munford. The other, SB111, from Sen. Aaron Ford would apply only to Clark and Washoe counties, but …

The Nevada League of Cities and Municipalities has doubled down on its attempt to make public records more expensive and less accessible in an amendment  proposed Wednesday during the first hearing on SB28. As I described earlier, the bill attempts to change fundamentally Nevada’s public records law by greatly expanding …