skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, July 11, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Federal judge issues new nationwide block against Trump's order seeking to end birthright citizenship; TX flood Death toll at 121 as search continues for the missing; Hoosier businesses face fallout from tariff shake-up; Sick of moving, MN senior worries about losing federal rental aid; Second mobile unit for helping formerly incarcerated launches in NC.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

NOAA nominee says he supports cutting the agency's budget. Many question why Ukraine's weapons aid was paused. And farmers worry how the budget megabill will impact this year's Farm Bill.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Rural Americans brace for disproportionate impact of federal funding cuts to mental health, substance use programs, and new federal policies have farmers from Ohio to Minnesota struggling to grow healthier foods and create sustainable food production programs.

Should Politicians' Text Messages Be Secret?

play audio
Play

Wednesday, December 23, 2015   

MADISON, Wis. - Watchdog groups in Wisconsin are opposing a move to exempt the text messages of elected officials from the state's open records law.

The Republican leadership in the legislature says texts should not be subject to the law because they are "transitory communications," and therefore don't need to be archived as public record. Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, disagrees.

"This is a new concept that they invented, I think out of whole cloth, to try once again to keep the public from knowing the business of state government," says Heck. "And it's just utterly ridiculous and ought to be rejected out of hand."

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council agrees with Heck, saying text messages made by elected officials should be kept as part of the public record. Heck calls this the latest in a series of attacks on the Wisconsin Open Records Law of 1917. Wisconsin was the first state in the nation to pass such a law. The most recent revision of the landmark legislation came in 1981.

While text messaging wasn't around in '81, Heck and others say the intent of the law is quite clear.

"If you carve out an exception for text messages, then that's where many more communications would be made," says Heck. "Because government officials, if there's something they don't want people to know, they're going to try and find the area that's not covered under the open records law. So, this absolutely needs to be part and parcel of the existing state open records law."

According to Heck, people really need to pay attention to what he calls constant attempts to close state government to public scrutiny, and says concerned citizens should say something about it to their elected officials.

"We need to guard against these types of attacks on transparency," says Heck. "I don't think most people in Wisconsin know they're occurring, and if they did know, I'm sure most wouldn't support them."


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Close to half of all American whiskey, bourbon and rye is sold internationally, primarily to Canada, Mexico and the European Union. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Hoosier businesses across the state are feeling the ripple effects of rising tariffs and shifting trade policies, especially in farming, …


Social Issues

play sound

Some 15 community and faith-based organizations gathered again this week outside the Geo Group ICE detention facility in Aurora where longtime Denver …

Social Issues

play sound

By Garrett Bergquist for WISH-TV.Broadcast version by Joe Ulery for Indiana News Service reporting for the WISH-TV-Free Press Indiana-Public News Serv…


Students at the 2024 Arts Advocacy Day spent time networking and discussing policy issues affecting arts education. (Skye Morse-Hodgson/Snap Yourself)

Social Issues

play sound

More than 400 teen artists will gather this Saturday in Southern California to learn about equity in arts education. The 3rd annual Arts Advocacy Day …

Environment

play sound

New Mexico farmers finding it more difficult to grow historic crops are taking up conservation techniques to meet the challenge. Drought, water …

Places like rural Dutch Harbor, Alaska, rely heavily on diesel powered generators for a majority of their power production. (Adobe Stock)

Environment

play sound

Despite last-minute concessions in the Trump administration's budget, which removes alternative energy tax incentives, rural Alaska power providers …

Environment

play sound

"Don't go into the water" is a warning Illinoisans may want to heed. A 2024 study released this week found all state-border beaches on Lake Michigan …

Social Issues

play sound

The Trump administration has made it clear it will cut funding from schools continuing diversity, equity and inclusion programs and with record …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021