Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Michael MolineJanuary 19, 2017

A state appeal court panel appeared skeptical Thursday of the Office of Insurance Regulation’s arguments that trade-secrets protections don’t exempt State Farm Florida from having to turn over business information for public scrutiny. The judges wondered whether the plain language of the trade-secret exemption in Florida’s public records law doesn’t protect the information at issue […]

Jim RosicaDecember 30, 2015

An open-government advocate is suing the Florida Department of Health, saying the agency is wrongfully withholding public records related to the state’s awarding of licenses to grow medical marijuana in the state. The case is about applications for the licenses, most pages of which — despite being posted on the department’s public website — have been blacked […]

Jim RosicaDecember 14, 2015

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The Tallahassee-based First Amendment Foundation, the state’s public records and open meetings watchdog, is considering a partnership with The Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg. Foundation President Barbara Petersen told FloridaPolitics.com the two groups are working on an agreement in which Poynter, a nonprofit journalism education organization, “will assume all of the Foundation’s administrative responsibilities.” That will include handling […]

Jim RosicaOctober 29, 2015

A Tampa lawmaker has filed a bill that would shield the identities of “witness(es) to a felony” from being released to the public. State Rep. Ed Narain, a first-term Democrat, submitted his bill (HB 475) on Thursday. The legislation creates an exemption from Florida public records law of witnesses’ “personal identifying information,” prohibiting its disclosure, including to […]

Jim RosicaOctober 26, 2015

A law that exempts photos, video or audio of a “killing of a person” from state public records law would become permanent under a bill filed Monday. The Senate’s Criminal Justice Committee introduced a proposed bill (SB 7022) to delete the part of the law providing for repeal of the public record exemption. The law says […]

A.G. GancarskiOctober 21, 2015

In a Wednesday evening memo, Jacksonville General Counsel Jason Gabriel took issue with City Council for a variety of deviations from best practices regarding text messages during the budget deliberations, and their slow responses to public records requests. Gabriel was explicit in contending that willful violations of Florida’s Sunshine and public records laws carry potential criminal […]

Tag: Florida’s Public Records Law

Court question’s insurance office’s claim to State Farm sales information

Health Department sued over medical marijuana records

First Amendment Foundation, Poynter Institute may team up

Bill would protect names of criminal witnesses

Law shielding “killing'” photos could become permanent

Jax general counsel smacks down City Council for budget night “Text-Ghazi”