SUNSHINE WEEK

Miami Herald recognizes DeForest in public records recap

Lawmakers across the country are stepping up efforts to shield the information of public employees such as police, elected officials, and judges from being disclosed.

— (AP) — Following threats and attacks on public officials, state lawmakers across the U.S. have stepped up efforts to shield personal information from being publicly disclosed about judges, police, elected officeholders and various public employees. That's led to a split assessment of government openness during Sunshine Week, an annual recognition of public information laws that began Sunday and runs through Saturday. The movement to shield the home addresses of judges provides one good example. The policy also could include an option to shield information for other public officials facing threats, he said. “It's something that I could have never even attempted if public records were not connecting public officials and their addresses,” Gil said.

Attorney General Ashley Moody has vowed to “safeguard Florida’s pioneering Government-in-the-Sunshine laws.”

Sunshine Week is the collective national effort to keep government doors to the public open, and its roots began in Florida.

The day after the 2021 inauguration, Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut took to Twitter to declare: "Biden is making transparency cool again." This was a...