By Jim ZacharyÂ
Every year or two, state lawmakers introduce bills that threaten the publicâs right to know.
Why would anyone not want to require important public information to be published in the newspaper? Few people are naive enough to think that government officials will go beyond what they are required to do when it comes to providing public notices.
In the past, lawmakers in Georgia and across the country have introduced measures that would completely eliminate public notice requirements. Some of those measures would bury required pubic notices on government websites, where ordinary people would never see them.
Open government is good government or, at the very least, it is better government.
In order for government to be of, by and for the people, it must always be out in front of the people.
Government at all levels â local, state and federal â belongs to the governed not to the governing.
As has often been said, we are the government and the government is us.
All the business transacted by government and all the money collected and spent by government belongs to the public.
However, public oversight is only possible when government is open, transparent and accessible.
Nefarious deeds happen in the dark, behind closed doors.
Primary Content
Caption The standstill in jury trials has resulted in a backlog of thousands of cases that judges and attorneys fear will take years to catch up. Credit: John McCosh/Georgia Recorder (file photo)
Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Harold Melton said he’s planning to lift a year-long restriction Tuesday to allow jury trials to resume that have been on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The standstill has resulted in a backlog of thousands of cases that judges and attorneys fear will take years to catch up and leaves many Georgians facing criminal charges stuck in jail or in perpetual limbo waiting for their cases to get resolved.
CNN analysis: Georgia’s proposed weekend voting restrictions would strike at Black voters
Black Georgians disproportionately cast their ballots on the weekend days that Republican lawmakers want to eliminate as options in future elections, according to a CNN analysis of voting data from last November’s general election.
A measure moving swiftly through the Georgia legislature would reduce the number of weekend days available for in-person early voting and ban casting ballots on the final Sunday of the early voting period. Voting rights activists say the move attacks the “Souls to the Polls” programs that help drive turnout among Black churchgoers, a key Democratic constituency.