Columbus police should open records in closed cases, lawyer tells Ohio Supreme Court

From The Columbus Dispatch The refusal of Columbus police to release records underlying closed criminal cases could keep the innocent in prison and the true killers walking the streets, the Ohio Supreme Court was told Wednesday.

Past court decisions on which Columbus police rely to deny records should be overturned because a 2010 change in criminal discovery rules gave defendants expanded access to records held by police and prosecutors, Columbus lawyer Fred Gittes argued.

Gittes represents Donald Caster, an Innocence Project lawyer who claims that police violated public-records laws by refusing to release records in the case of Adam Saleh, who was convicted of the 2005 murder of Julie Popovich, 20, of Reynoldsburg.

Columbus police refused to release the case file, arguing that court decisions forbid the release of records as long as defendants have potential appeals, which generally can be filed anytime. Defendants also must use discovery rules, rather than records laws, to obtain records in their cases.

The Innocence Project, private investigators, journalists and others have an interest in obtaining criminal case files, with their work sometimes freeing the wrongly convicted or identifying true perpetrators, Gittes said.

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More money for Kasich security but no detail on how it’s spent

From The Blade Ohio taxpayers’ tab for protecting Gov. John Kasich while he campaigns for president outside the state apparently played a role in Monday’s release of an additional $2.5 million for the Ohio Highway Patrol.

The Ohio Controlling Board, a largely legislative budgetary panel chaired by a Kasich appointee, unanimously agreed to release the money, but only after a Democratic lawmaker was denied details on specifically how much was related to the governor’s campaign for the presidential nomination.

The money was part of a broad request covering “ancillary expenses related to security and investigations.” One of the listed expenses is for “dignitary protection.”

The transfer of existing money for the fiscal year ending June 30 would prevent “cost-cutting measures,” according to the application from the Department of Public Safety.

The change increases the total appropriation for security and investigations within the highway patrol from $9.7 million to $12.2 million. Of the increase, $2.2 million is tied to payroll and $300,000 to supplies and maintenance.

“To ensure the safety and security, we do not discuss any of the resources that are used as part of the executive’s security detail,” said Maj. Marla Gatskill, commander of the highway patrol’s office of planning and analysis. “If we did so, it could potentially compromise the safety of any of the dignitaries that we are charged with protecting [under state law].”

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Dispatch editorial: Relinquish bodycam videos

Editorial by The Columbus Dispatch

Pressure on police departments to adopt the use of body cameras continues, but even as more departments adopt the technology, the rules governing its use and access to the video it records remain very uncertain.But at present, police officials across the state are free to write their own bodycam policies, and even though legal precedent dictates that such videos are public records, some departments have imposed new and unacceptable exceptions to openness.

For example, the Cincinnati Police Department's draft policy says that video of a police shooting is an open record, but video of a DUI stop can be released only with the consent of the county prosecutor.

Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters already is locked in a legal battle with the Cincinnati Enquirer and other local media over the fatal shooting of an unarmed motorist by a University of Cincinnati police officer in July. Immediately after the shooting, Deters refused to release video of the incident, claiming it was an investigatory record, one of the exceptions to the open-records law. He released the video only after deciding to press charges against the officer. The matter is now before the Ohio Supreme Court. The Enquirer and its allies argue that bodycam video is no different in essence than 911 calls and police incident reports, both of which are public records.

Meanwhile, House Bill 407 awaits action in the General Assembly. The bill sponsored by State Reps. Cheryl Grossman, R-Grove City, and Kevin Boyce, D-Columbus, would require any police department that uses bodycams to adopt a written policy about how they will be used and to train officers to comply with the policy.

While requiring a written policy is a valuable step, it does nothing to ensure public access to the videos, nor does it require any uniformity in policies from one department to the next.

Leaving the issue to be litigated case by case in the courts also is an unsatisfactory outcome, first because it is agonizingly slow and expensive, and because the result could very well be a murky hodge-podge of decisions that require even more litigation to clarify.

It would be far better for the legislature to act now, while the use of bodycams is in its infancy, to explicitly affirm in state law that bodycam videos are public records.

In October, the Ohio Newspaper Association, the Ohio Association of Broadcasters and the Associated Press published an outline of what is needed. The media agencies called for legislation that explicitly declares bodycam video to be a public record and that establishes uniform statewide openness standards for all police agencies. In cases where portions of a video qualify as exempt from open-records law, the video should be redacted, not withheld entirely, and in the event that new exemptions are deemed necessary, they should be tailored as narrowly as possible. The proposal also calls for the law to provide citizens a means to petition a court for release, ideally without having to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit. Finally, the proposal calls for permanent logs of archived recordings that can be searched easily.

The point of using bodycams is to increase transparency and accountability for police in order to build public trust. If police withhold bodycam video or erect hurdles to access, these purposes are defeated. The recent civil unrest growing out of police shootings shows where that leads.

Butler County prosecutor loses in Enquirer legal fees case – again

From The Cincinnati Enquirer Butler County Prosecutor Mike Gmoser clearly does not want to have to pay attorneys who work for The Enquirer. But now he may have to.

The situation stems from the case of Michael Ray, who is in prison in connection with the death of his stepfather on Father’s Day in 2012.

The Butler County Sheriff's Office released an incoming 911 call from the day of the killing. But Gmoser denied The Enquirer’s request for the recording of an outgoing call a 911 dispatcher made, saying it would affect the suspect's right to a fair trial.

Ray, who has since been convicted of murder, told the dispatcher, “I’m a murderer, and you need to arrest me.”

He said he had stabbed his stepfather after the stepfather had found Ray drinking.

Gmoser later asked the judge assigned to the case to block the release of the recording, which the judge did.

The Ohio Supreme Court criticized Gmoser’s actions, saying it “only served to saddle The Enquirer with more litigation and more attorney fees.”

“Those tactics,” the Supreme Court’s opinion said, “do not demonstrate good faith by the prosecutor’s office.”

The Enquirer sued successfully, and the court ruled the prosecutor must pay $25,462.80 of taxpayers' money for The Enquirer's attorney fees.

Gmoser does not want to pay them. So he appealed, claiming the amount was excessive.

He lost, in a ruling handed down last week.

Now, The Enquirer is asking for more money in compensation for the additional litigation caused by the prosecutor's appeal.

Enquirer Attorney Jack Greiner said Gmoser's appeal was frivolous.

Gmoser did not return a message left by an Enquirer reporter seeking comment.

Ohio again top state for spending transparency

From The Columbus Dispatch Ohio has repeated as the top state for public spending transparency, according to an annual report today by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

“Following the Money 2016” ranked Ohio No. 1 for the second year in a row, largely as a result of OhioCheckbook.com, the online spending database hosted by state Treasurer Josh Mandel.

Ohio was one of four states to achieve a perfect 100-point score on the U.S. PIRG report, but was ranked first due to additional criteria. Also receiving perfect scores were Michigan, Indiana and Oregon. California, Alaska and Idaho received “F” grades and were at the bottom of transparency rankings.

U.S. PIRG based its ratings on the state websites and how easy, or difficult, it is for taxpayers to get detailed information on government spending.

Ohio got high marks for adding municipalities, other local government entities, and schools to the OhioCheckbook.com website. Of the 3,962 local government and schools in Ohio, about 650 have signed up for the online checkbook, Mandel said in a conference call this morning.

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Ohio's auditor gets legal OK to audit university foundations

From The Columbus Dispatch State Auditor Dave Yost has received legal approval to perform financial audits of Ohio college and university foundations, which raise and spend hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

A legal opinion from state Attorney General Mike DeWine, dated Wednesday, concluded that state law permits Yost to audit the foundations because, even though most of them are private, nonprofit corporations, they collect money on behalf of and distribute money to public colleges and universities

DeWine said in the opinion that the auditor has the right to audit the foundations because they are "established by the laws of this state for the exercise of a function of government, and are therefore, a public office."

Yost sought a legal opinion from DeWine after encountering objections from some state universities about whether their respective university foundations are subject to review by the auditor. Youngstown State, in particular, raised an objection and hired legal counsel to oppose the auditor.

"We decided it was best for all parties to seek clarity from the attorney general about the auditor’s ability to review the financial operations of university foundations," said Ben Marrison, Yost's communications director.

Yost said in a statement: “We are pleased, but not surprised, that the attorney general agrees that these funds — collected on behalf of universities to benefit universities — are public dollars and subject to the scrutiny of state auditors.”

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How is the government spending your money? Ohio's figured it out

From The Washington Examiner Ohio in 2014 launched a searchable database of the state's expenditures, allowing residents to browse how their money was being spent by both the state and participating local governments. Government watchdogs view it as a model for something that could be applied across the nation.

"It's a transparency initiative rooted in the concept of making the government small and the individual big," said Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel, who launched OhioCheckBook.com through his office.

The site, which allows users to search how government is spending money on things like food and travel, has been a hit in the state: Mandel notes that since its launch 16 months ago, 611 local governments and school districts in the state have volunteered to participate. From Dec. 2, 2014, to March 24, 2016, citizens had used the site to search through government expenditures exactly 488,937 times.

"In a simplified way, it's essentially QuickBooks for government," Mandel said.

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Bill would give private universities protection

From Dayton Daily News Private universities are pushing for protections from lawsuits stemming from a requirement that they now make records from their police forces available to the public.

State Rep. Kirk Schuring, R-Canton, has submitted a bill that would give private institutions such as the University of Dayton and Wittenberg University the same legal protections afforded to public colleges and universities.

“If you’re doing what the law requires you to do, there should be some protection for those who claim they were defamed or libeled,” Schuring said this week.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled last year that if private police departments operate with all of the powers of regular police — replete with badge, gun and arrest powers — they need to make incident, arrest and investigative reports available to the public.

Prior to that, police departments such as UD’s would release only scant details of reported crimes and full details only when someone was charged in court.

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Federal appeals court in Ohio says plea agreements should be open

From The Akron Beacon Journal A Cincinnati-based federal appeals court says plea agreements should be open records under the First Amendment unless there is some overriding interest in closing them.

A three-judge panel from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals makes that statement in a ruling affirming a man’s 2014 sentencing on cocaine distribution-related charges.

While upholding the sentences, the judges sent the case back to U.S. district court in Akron to address its order on allowing public access to the defendant’s plea agreement.

The opinion written by Judge Richard Allen Griffin stated that the public has a constitutional right to access plea agreements, and that they “play a central role in our criminal justice system.” He wrote that courts need to show that closure is essential for higher values and is narrowly tailored.

Democrats again target JobsOhio for transparency

From The Columbus Dispatch Democrats are making another run at reforming JobsOhio.

A pair of House Democrats today introduced a bill to bring more transparency to the operations of Republican Gov. John Kasich’s privatized economic development agency.

The “Ohio Jobs Guarantee” from Reps. Greta Johnson, of Akron, and Kent Smith, of Euclid, would authorize the state auditor to go over JobsOhio’s books and require the nonprofit to release more-detailed quarterly reports on job projects underwritten by grants and loans.

The replacement for the public Department of Development was exempted from public-records laws when it was created and Auditor Dave Yost, after auditing JobsOhio once, was barred by Republican lawmakers from examining its financials.

JobsOhio, which makes its cash from a long-term lease of the state’s liquor-sales operation, should be open to public examination and oversight, the lawmakers said. “JobsOhio doesn’t have to tell us anything. That’s bad economic policy and it’s just plain wrong,” Smith said in a statement.

JobsOhio reported bringing in a record number of jobs last year ( and awarding CEO John Minor Jr. a 38-percent raise to $455,000), but Democrats contend the number could be higher and better-paying.

“This is because a ‘private’ entity is making those decisions behind closed doors. From the direction of Gov. Kasich, the state legislature decided at its inception that JobsOhio should not be held accountable to our state’s taxpaying citizens. The time to correct this wrongdoing is long overdue,” Johnson said.

Kasich spokesman Joe Andrews held little back in response to the legislation, saying the governor was proud of JobsOhio and its record that has helped create more than 417,000 jobs during Kasich's tenure.

"While it’s clear these lawmakers want to play politics with improvements they can’t take credit for, they obviously have very short memories, forgetting that it was their party’s leaders who drove Ohio over the cliff and lost 350,000 jobs.  They have little room to criticize the tools Ohio has used to undo their damage," Andrews said.

JobsOhio spokesman Nicholas D'Angelo said: "JobsOhio’s finances, operations and practices are subject to rigorous oversight and review processes and JobsOhio is among the most transparent private companies in Ohio. JobsOhio is subject to an annual financial audit, which is completed by a nationally recognized accounting firm." The nonprofit also releases quarterly data and reports to the public, he said.

Ohio Supreme Court rules in Aultman medical records case

From The Beacon Journal The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that all documents Aultman Hospital generated in the care of a patient qualify as a medical record, a decision attorneys say will have statewide ramifications in the release of such information.

The state's high court issued the ruling Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by the daughter of a patient treated at the Canton hospital before he died. The case had been decided in Stark County Common Pleas Court before the 5th District Court of Appeals affirmed that ruling. In a 5-2 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court reversed the appeals decision that had limited the information to what was maintained by Aultman's medical records department.

A majority of the justices said the definition of a medical record is not limited to the information maintained by a hospital or other healthcare provider's medical records department. The ruling also said the physical location of where the data is stored does not determine if the information qualifies as a medical record.

The ruling and related state law pertains to medical records sought by a patient or his or her legal representative. The case is being sent back to the Stark County trial court.

"It has huge ramifications for patients' Right to Know throughout Ohio and prevents any hospital from concealing or artificially classifying medical records," said Lee Plakas of Canton, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff in the lawsuit brought against Aultman in 2012 in an effort to force the hospital to produce the complete medical record.

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Sunshine Week coverage in Ohio newspapers

Beacon Journal editorial: Be open about public records

From The Beacon Journal

The past week marked Sunshine Week, celebrating the public’s right to know. In Columbus, Dave Yost marked the occasion by reviewing the first year of a worthy program to give citizens greater access to public records. The state auditor’s Sunshine Audit initiative provides an avenue to resolve unfulfilled public records requests short of going to court.

What Yost rightly recognizes is that most citizens find filing a lawsuit an insurmountable barrier, the time and expense necessary to pry loose records too great. Ohioans now can file a complaint with the auditor’s office, which then examines the situation and issues a nonbinding determination. The auditor cannot levy a fine, but a determination by his office can provide an incentive to act. The determination can be used as evidence in court, where it is given a presumption of validity.

In the first year of the program, 16 complaints of records not being released were investigated, what Yost accurately termed a “small but significant success.” No doubt, as he suspects, there are more cases out there. As the program becomes better known, more are sure to surface. Of the 16 complaints, government entities were found to be compliant with the law eight times. Five released records after state auditors asked about them, and three were found not to have complied. No lawsuits have been filed.

Unfortunately, the Yost program almost was blocked before it got started. Cliff Rosenberger, the House speaker, and Ryan Smith, the chairman of the Finance Committee, said the initiative was out of bounds. The challenge to the authority of the auditor’s office was itself out of bounds. Checking compliance with public records law had been part of the state auditor’s job for decades.

No further challenges have been made, the auditor proving successful in fighting off the ill-founded threat to the independence of his office and the separation of powers in state government.

Mike DeWine also recognized Sunshine Week. The state attorney general released the 2016 edition of a manual for public records compliance, usually referred to as the Yellow Book. A substantial number of disputes over access to public records, he noted, arise because one of the parties doesn’t understand his or her obligations for either making or filling a public records request.

DeWine’s office also runs a mediation process, a step that must be taken by citizens blocked from access to local government records before contacting the auditor’s office. Complaints about state agencies go directly to the auditor.

The Yost program is a step in the right direction. In too many instances, the state legislature has weakened Ohio’s public records law. JobsOhio, an entire agency, has been exempted, a fight Yost lost. Such actions deprive citizens of information they need to make decisions in a democracy or about actions conducted by government in their name.

Yost: First year of Sunshine Audit Program a ‘small but significant success'; DeWine releases new Open Records Manual

From Gongwer In the Sunshine Audit initiative's first year, the state auditor's office investigated 16 complaints about public entities not releasing public records, Auditor Dave Yost announced Monday.

Launched last year during Sunshine Week, the program was designed to give citizens a way to appeal rejections of public record requests without having to go through a long legal process.

Auditor Yost

"We didn't have a whole lot of takers," Mr. Yost said at a Statehouse news conference, calling the initiative's first year a "small but significant success."

The office investigated 16 complaints and declined to investigate one because it was too complex, he said in presenting the report on the program's first year. The office only audits complaints that are expected to take fewer than five work hours for staff.

"While I don't think that there's necessarily huge noncompliance, I know that there's more than the 17 cases that we have here in our first year," Mr. Yost said. "I would hope that folks who feel like they've been wrongly denied public records would avail themselves of the mediation process that's in the attorney general's office and our compliance work in the Auditor's office."

For cases involving local government entities, the complainants are first required to attempt themediation process through the attorney general's office. For those involving state agencies, the complaints start with the auditor's office.

The program stirred some controversy when it was introduced last year. Some legislators said they didn't believe the state auditor had the authority to look at public records compliance, and inserted language into the budget bill (HB 64) to try to stop the program. The language was later removed. (See Gongwer Ohio Report, April 20, 2015)

Mr. Yost said he didn't know of any current efforts to stop the program, but he wants to make sure citizens have a venue to appeal rejections before they reach the judicial system.

"Frankly, I'm glad to step aside if there's a proper mechanism to resolve this," he said. "The reason we did this is because right now, if you get stonewalled as a citizen on a public records request, the only thing you can do is go get a lawyer and go to court. If you're not independently wealthy and have plenty of time to burn, you're out of luck."

"If the legislature develops a non-litigious process that is simple and is open to the average Joe who is just trying to find out what his government is up to, that's great," he added.

Of the 16 complaints investigated, eight were found to be compliant with the law in rejecting the requests, five were initially noncompliant with the law but released the records properly after auditors asked about it, and three were found to be noncompliant.

The noncompliance in these audits will show up on future financial audits, but the finding doesn't come with a lot of teeth, Auditor Yost said. The findings can be used in court and are given a presumption of validity, but none of the cases have led to legal action so far.

Those found noncompliant were the Department of Agriculture, which failed to respond to the auditor's request for its position on the complaint, according to the auditor's office; the City of Beachwood, which was found noncompliant because some redactions of the mayor's calendar were unsupported by law; and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, which Auditor Yost said wrongly cited attorney-client privilege.

Attorney-client privilege can only be cited in certain situations, not just when there's a lawyer in the room, he said. It can only be cited when the attorney has created a work product or has given legal advice.

"One of the frustrations I've had with our first year here is that it's difficult to establish whether attorney-client privilege is valid or not," he said.

Citizens can submit complaints and learn more about Sunshine Audits online.

New Yellow Book: Attorney General Mike DeWine also marked Sunshine Week by releasing the 2016 edition of his office's manual regarding public records laws, commonly known as the "Yellow Book."

"A substantial number of public records disputes arise because one of the parties involved is not aware of their obligations when a request is made," Mr. DeWine said in a statement. "The 'Yellow Book' is published to help requesters understand their rights and for government agencies to understand their duties under Ohio's Sunshine Laws."

The AG's office also announced training sessions on public records across the state, which are also available as an online video course.

Biennial Open Government Survey results

From The NFOIC Happy Sunshine Week! Please see below the executive summary and findings of the fourth Biennial Open Government Survey. The biennial survey began in 2009 as a joint effort between NFOIC and the Media Law Resource Center. We are happy to have the members of the Investigative Reporters and Editors join for this recent survey. Thank you for taking time to contribute your responses and feel free to redistribute or post to your constituents. As you will see, there is still much to be done to remove the obstacles and the disturbing trends gleaned from this survey.

Web links:

Exec Summary: http://www.nfoic.org/2015-biennial-open-government-survey-results-troubling

Findings (.pptx file) http://www.nfoic.org/sites/default/files/NOG_2015a.pptx

Information and resources for Sunshine Week, March 13 to 19, 2016

Meme-Sunshine-white labelSunshine Week runs from March 13 to 19, 2016. ONA member papers are encouraged to publish news and opinion pieces about the importance of open government and freedom of information. To help our members, ONA has compiled the following information and resources related to Sunshine Week.

Sunshine Week toolkit

Sunshine week information from the National Freedom of Information Coalition

  • NFOIC has posted a Sunshine Week web page and a page on related affiliate SW events on the web site. In addition, NFOIC worked closely with the AP and journalist David Lieb on this year’s reporting package feature, “Statehouse Secrecy”, with an expected publication date March 14, 2016.

Sunshine Week meme

The Colorado Press Association has created a new advertising meme promoting Sunshine Week and is allowing ONA member papers to use this ad both in print and online. Papers can easily drop their logo into the ad, which is available as a PDF download or by downloading the JPEG image above. To see what the ad looks like with a newspaper logo, download this PDF.

 

Media coalition calls on Senate to enact FOIA reforms

From The NAA A coalition composed of newspaper, media and journalist organizations to promote transparency in government, The Sunshine in Government Initiative, of which NAA is a member, sent a letter to Senators ahead of national Sunshine Week, which is set for March 13-19, 2016. The letter asks the Senators to support FOIA reforms (in the form of the FOIA Improvement Act, S. 337) that would enhance government transparency and accountability. The 50th anniversary of FOIA is July 4, 2016.

The press release is below and also available at: http://sunshineingovernment.org/wordpress/2016/03/08/press-release-media-coalition-asks-every-senator-to-support-foia-reform-ahead-of-2016-sunshine-week/

The letter is available at: http://sunshineingovernment.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/SGI-letter-to-sponsors-S337-March2016.pdf

It took a FOIA lawsuit to uncover how the Obama administration killed FOIA reform

From VICE News The Obama administration has long called itself the most transparent administration in history. But newly released Department of Justice (DOJ) documents show that the White House has actually worked aggressively behind the scenes to scuttle congressional reforms designed to give the public better access to information possessed by the federal government.

The documents were obtained by the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports journalism in the public interest, which in turn shared them exclusively with VICE News. They were obtained using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) — the same law Congress was attempting to reform. The group sued the DOJ last December after its FOIA requests went unanswered for more than a year.

The documents confirm longstanding suspicions about the administration's meddling, and lay bare for the first time how it worked to undermine FOIA reform bills that received overwhelming bipartisan support and were unanimously passed by both the House and Senate in 2014 — yet were never put up for a final vote.

Moreover, a separate set of documents obtained by VICE News in response to a nearly two-year-old FOIA request provides new insight into how the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also tried to disrupt Congress's FOIA reform efforts, which would have required those agencies to be far more transparent when responding to records requests.

The disclosures surface days before Sunshine Week, an annual celebration of open government, and a renewed effort by the House and Senate to improve the FOIA by enacting the very same reforms contained in the earlier House and Senate bills — the seventh attempt in at least 10 years by lawmakers to amend the transparency law. But the administration is again working to derail the legislation, according to congressional staffers.

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With Sunshine Week approaching, test your First Amendment knowledge

From The Kentucky Press Association You probably haven’t given much thought, yet, to Sunshine Week, the time we set aside to show how important open government and Freedom of Information is. But it is coming up — March 13-19.

And it all centers around the First Amendment. So to get you ready for Sunshine Week 2016, here’s a little test of your First Amendment knowledge, found on the SchoolJournalism.org website. Give it a try or test your fellow workers http://www.splc.org/page/first-amendment-quiz

Sunshine Week is a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants include news media, civic groups, libraries, nonprofits, schools and others interested in the public’s right to know. In 2015, Sunshine Week celebrated 10 years of success in promoting greater government transparency, in both actual practice and in general awareness of its importance. Hosted by the American Society of News Editors and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, http://sunshineweek.org provides participants with myriad resources in the Toolkit section, including the newly created list of open-government questions that journalists can ask federal candidates. Op-eds, editorial cartoons and Sunshine Week logos are also part of the toolkit. The website also features FOI story ideas and Sunshine Week past work, as well as a list of participants and a calendar of events. ASNE launched Sunshine Week in 2005 as a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information. Participants have included print, broadcast and digital media outlets; government officials at all levels; schools and universities; nonprofit and civic organizations; libraries and archivists; and individuals interested in the public’s right to know. Since 2012, ASNE has partnered with the Reporters Committee to oversee the national coordination of resources and provide support for participants.