May 3, 2021 - 10:54am
Photo credit: Abmurken
In March,
The Washington Post reported that University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank sought to move a conversation around the COVID-19 pandemic and students returning to campus in the fall to a private portal used by presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities. I would be delighted to share information, Blank responded in an email chain begun last August by University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel, but perhaps we can do this through the Big 10 portal, which will assure confidentiality?
Blank apologized after the story broke, but did not go so far as to say that she would provide responsive communications through the Big 10 portal to record requesters in the future.
UW-Madison administration, Republican legislators use digital dodges to violate open records law. By David Armiak - May 3rd, 2021 11:29 am //end headline wrapper ?>Files. (Pixabay License).
In March, The Washington Post reported that University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor
Rebecca Blank sought to move a conversation around the COVID-19 pandemic and students returning to campus in the fall to a private portal used by presidents and chancellors of the 14 Big Ten universities.
“I would be delighted to share information,” Blank responded in an email chain begun last August by University of Michigan President
Mark Schlissel, “but perhaps we can do this through the Big 10 portal, which will assure confidentiality?”
2
Aitkin County sheriffs arrest water protectors during a protest at the construction site of the Line 3 oil pipeline near Palisade, Minnesota. If it were Montana, the fines could soon be astronomical.
Photo: Kerem Yucel/AFP (Getty Images)
Republicans posture as the party of free speech. Except when it’s speech they don’t like.
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This week, the Montana legislature passed what is among the most, if not the most, extreme anti-pipeline protest laws in the country. Gov. Greg Gianforte, a man best known for assaulting a reporter and killing wolves, is expected to sign a bill into law that would criminalize protesting fossil fuel infrastructure. It would foist up to $150,000 in fines and 30 years in prison on individuals convicted of protest-related “vandalism” and $1.5 million in costs on any organizations charged as “conspirators.” Republicans legislators that have backed the bill have also singled out Indigenous-led protests as a reason for the bill, citing