Disheartening news for open government advocates this morning as the Standard-Examiner reports that Utah "Legislators have approved changes to the law covering access to government records in what some call record time."
House Bill 477, sponsored by Rep. John Dougall, R-American Fork, and Sen. Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, was approved, 21-7, by the Senate following almost an hour of debate Friday.Read the full SE story here:
The Salt Lake Tribune reports on this legislative travesty too:
And don't miss this morning's scathing editorial, wherein the SLTrib editorial board correctly proclaims that "[t]he last line of defense against a brazen assault on the people of Utah and their right to knowledgeably participate in their own government now lies in the office of Gov. Gary Herbert":
For some possible insight into Governor Herbert's involvement with this bill (and his possible propensity [even symbolically] to wield his veto pen), Check out Chris Vanocur's 3/3/11 ABC 4 text/video report:
And for those readers who are curious about how our local Weber County Senate delegation voted on this legislative step toward Big Government Tyranny, we've checked yesterday's Senate vote tally, and
"Butt outta government and mind your own damned business."That's it for now, O Gentle Ones.
For archival consistency, we'll accordingly propose that you confine your comments on HB477 to this thread; and to kickstart the discussion we've moved several earlier relevant reader comments to the lower (current) comments section.
Update 3/5/11 8:49 a.m.: Beneath this morning's above-linked SE article we find this helpful reader comment and link:
"Make sure you all ask the Governor to VETO this bill":A quick email to the Governor can't hurt; might help, or so it seems to us.
• Comments: E-mail the Governor
Have at it, O Gentle Ones.
