Into the vault

For journalists, keeping government operations open to scrutiny—and keeping public records public—is a year-round endeavor. But once a year, during Sunshine Week (March 15 to 21), Mountain Xpress joins thousands of publications across the country in making a special push to promote official transparency. A year ago, we marked this nationwide celebration of freedom of […]

Controvers­ies continue over URTV transparen­cy

While a recent release asserted that URTV follows open-meetings law, a video has surfaced with statements made by Executive Director Pat Garlinghouse at the public-access channel’s last board meeting that misrepresent that law, according a North Carolina Press Association attorney—and some board members claim they were not consulted in a press release that claimed to […]

Controvers­ies continue over URTV transparen­cy

While a recent release asserted that URTV follows open-meetings law, a video has surfaced with statements made by Executive Director Pat Garlinghouse at the public-access channel’s last board meeting that misrepresent that law, according a North Carolina Press Association attorney — and some board members say they were not consulted in a press release that claimed to speak on their behalf.

The Xpress Files

Spend 14 years in the newspaper business, as Xpress has, and the paper starts to pile up. Over time, our reporters have collected mountains of memos, reams of reports, and enough official studies to keep a paper shredder humming 24/7. And don’t even get us started about the megabytes of e-mail correspondence clogging our hard […]

Secrecy nation

Many critics have argued that secrecy, at the federal level, has skyrocketed during the Bush administration. But what, exactly, does that mean? And how can citizens gauge the degree of secrecy their government practices? One relatively new measuring stick designed to answer both questions is OpenTheGovernment.org, a broad, Web-based coalition of public-interest and professional organizations […]