I believe that an extremely important power every citizen should have guaranteed is to be informed. Those with food, diet, or nutritional issues can read the nutritional information on most all of the food we buy.
Those that wish to exercise their right to vote and vote responsibly should be informed by a free and open media as to what each candidate wishes to do and has done. There are arguments today on the accuracy and completeness of that media, but I do believe most would agree that the utopian goal would be an unbiased and informative media.
Failing that citizens should be able to seek information on what their government is doing or has done by information requests that the government should be compelled to provide. Which brings us to the article below.
So a new prosecuting attorney was elected to LaPorte County in 2023. As would be reasonable for ANY person in ANY position in either a government or private sector he sought his predecessors official emails (among other things) to catch up on pending cases. Naturally, the LaPorte County Commissioners refused to provide them. Wait...!?! WTF???
Now I don't care who loves him or hates him, I think we can all agree that for anyone to do their job they have to have access to the previous persons thoughts and strategy on how to best move forward. Even if he wants to change course he still needs to know what course the prior prosecutor was on - and why.
And yet...
apnews.com
(You can scroll to it under "Systems lack teeth")
This is beyond stupid. Can anyone from the LaPorte area shed any light on why I cannot presume the county commissioners are not complete d**kheads??? Please enlighten me. I wouldn't have believed this had I not read it.
To my thinking at this time without additional information I think the Indiana system should be changed to be parallel to Illinois, except that I would throw in the caveat that fines and penalties, if an unbiased court deemed appropriate, would come out of the impeding governmental official(s) own pocket(s).
Regards,
Doug
Those that wish to exercise their right to vote and vote responsibly should be informed by a free and open media as to what each candidate wishes to do and has done. There are arguments today on the accuracy and completeness of that media, but I do believe most would agree that the utopian goal would be an unbiased and informative media.
Failing that citizens should be able to seek information on what their government is doing or has done by information requests that the government should be compelled to provide. Which brings us to the article below.
So a new prosecuting attorney was elected to LaPorte County in 2023. As would be reasonable for ANY person in ANY position in either a government or private sector he sought his predecessors official emails (among other things) to catch up on pending cases. Naturally, the LaPorte County Commissioners refused to provide them. Wait...!?! WTF???
Now I don't care who loves him or hates him, I think we can all agree that for anyone to do their job they have to have access to the previous persons thoughts and strategy on how to best move forward. Even if he wants to change course he still needs to know what course the prior prosecutor was on - and why.
And yet...
Nationwide review finds patchwork, ‘broken’ systems for resolving open records disputes
A nationwide review of state procedures by The Associated Press and CNHI News reveals a patchwork of complicated systems for resolving open government disputes that often put the burden of enforcing transparency laws on private citizens.
apnews.com
(You can scroll to it under "Systems lack teeth")
This is beyond stupid. Can anyone from the LaPorte area shed any light on why I cannot presume the county commissioners are not complete d**kheads??? Please enlighten me. I wouldn't have believed this had I not read it.
To my thinking at this time without additional information I think the Indiana system should be changed to be parallel to Illinois, except that I would throw in the caveat that fines and penalties, if an unbiased court deemed appropriate, would come out of the impeding governmental official(s) own pocket(s).
Regards,
Doug
