HARRISBURG -- Jennifer Hara, a mother of four who drives a school bus, worries about bills pending before the General Assembly that would make it harder to access government records at a time when many Pennsylvanians are challenging gas drilling. "Any degradation of the Right to Know laws would hurt efforts to get more information on Marcellus shale," said Hara of Enola, during a recent gathering about property owners' rights on the huge natural gas formation in Pennsylvania.

A Senate-passed bill would allow governments to charge people for reviewing records, even if they do not request copies. The Senate bill allows local governments to charge up to half of the 25-cents per page copying fee for records people request but do not copy.
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"The Need for Transparency in Government and Knowing Your Rights," a seminar on Pennsylvania's new right-to-know law, will be presented at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Shickshinny firehouse. Read More…

Donor records relating to scholarships and a signature East Stroudsburg University building must be made available to the Pocono Record, a state court ruled Monday in the most recent turn in a 15-month-long legal battle. In a precedent-setting decision, the Commonwealth Court ruled 7-0 to uphold the substance of a previous ruling by the state's open records agency. Read More…

For more than 50 years, Pennsylvania's public agencies could deny residents access to public records without explaining why residents couldn't have access. The state's new Right to Know law, enacted Jan. 1, 2009, puts the burden on agencies to prove why records are exempt.

At a Tuesday night forum at Northampton Community College's Tannersville campus, the public got a better sense of this new law. The forum was sponsored by the Pocono Record and NCC. Read More…