The following column is being published in Nevada newspapers this week. By Barry Smith In an age when government leaks, classified e-mails and court orders to unlock phones seem to make the news daily, it’s worth remembering why we insist on open and transparent government. Sunshine Week is the annual …
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Only 11 months until the next session of the Nevada Legislature, which brings the stirrings of newly hatched ideas for legislation. One of the signs of the season was the first presentation to the directors of state agencies on what they should anticipate for their budgets — flat or a …
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A coalition of media groups today urged every U.S. Senator to support legislation that establishes a presumption of openness in law, encourages agencies to use public-friendly technology, and makes other changes to the way agencies respond to requests for information from the public. The Sunshine in Government Initiative (SGI) sent …
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It looks like new Las Vegas Review-Journal editor Keith Moyer can cross off one of the items on his to-do list: restoring the Associated Press, after a cost-cutting absence of more than a year. A tweet from AP reporter Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas says the match has been re-made. …
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By Mickey H. Osterreicher, Esq. National Press Photographers Association Amidst all the hysterical reports that the sky is falling or it’s literally raining drones, Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis recently introduced a thoughtful Micro Drone amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Act. The amendment would create a new “Micro UAS Classification” of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, …
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It’s right there in the fourth sentence of Nevada’s open-records statute. “The use of private entities in the provision of public services must not deprive members of the public access to inspect and copy books and records relating to the provision of those services.” I always have to go back …
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The best disinfectant. Let’s give credit where credit is due, as this is all about newspapers and journalism, where attribution is everything. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote it: “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; …
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The Nevada Press Association today joined the Public Notice Resource Center and 42 other organizations in urging the Environmental Protection Agency to continue notifying the public of important information through newspapers. PNRC filed comments asking EPA not to deprive the public of newspaper notices relating to the approval of permits …
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Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comfortable. Have an Oscar-winning movie made about it. That’s a journalism formula we’ve seldom seen since 1976, when All the President’s Men starring Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman caused a glut of students to seek J-school degrees and flood the market just as I was …
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Congratulations to our friends at the Reno Gazette-Journal for winning four awards in the Best of Gannett competition among the 92 newspapers in the company. Here’s a link to the RGJ’s story. Of particular note were a first place for public service reporting for a series on water usage, written …
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