Save the date for this year's Sunshine Day to be held at Elon University.

• Sunshine Day 2012 Registration Form

The North Carolina Open Government Coalition is looking to award its Open Government Hero Award this year.

From Raleigh Public Record (1/25/12): A Raleigh City Council committee gave its stamp of approval to a resolution that could make public city data easier to access and change the way the city buys software.

• Committee Passes 'Open Source City' Resolution

From the Greensboro News and Record (1/25/12): City Councilwoman Trudy Wade stood at the short end of an 8-1 vote last week. One of her colleagues even suggested she ought to give up her seat because of her opinion.

• Editorial: Closing the door

From the Asheville Citizen-Times (1/24/12): The Asheville Citizen-Times filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Sheriff Rick Davis, the Henderson County Board of Commissioners and the county's insurance carrier in an effort to force them to release details of a settlement involving the sheriff and a female employee.

• Asheville Citizen-Times sues Henderson County, sheriff to disclose settlement details

From the Asheville Citizen-Times (1/24/12): The Town of Black Mountain Board of Aldermen will meet at 2 p.m. Friday in a "special call meeting" that may address some recent missteps and an ongoing dispute between elected officials and former town manager, Marcy Onieal.

• Details emerge regarding dispute

From the Sanford Herald (1/24/12): The Lee County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved at its meeting Monday for County Attorney Dale Talbert to spend one month fine-tuning the public records policy that the board amended Nov. 14.

• Commissioners: Public records policy will be fine-tuned

From the Winston-Salem Journal (1/16/12): When the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board agrees to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle a lawsuit, it does so in closed session.

• Lawsuit settlements by Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools' recorded in little-known second set of meeting minutes

From the Raleigh News and Observer (1/14/12): It may get more expensive to ask for public records from the Wake County school system.

• Public records request may cost more

From the Rhino Times (1/12/12): Two themes that are likely to continue during the administration of Mayor Robbie Perkins were displayed in the past week.

• New council goes back to old ways

From the Fayetteville Observer (11/19/11): Changes to a Lee County policy violate the state's public records law, according to a legal adviser to the N.C. Press Association.

• Open Access: Lee County policy changes may violate state records law

From the Gaston Gazette (11/17/11): CaroMont Health says it did not break state law in naming a new president and CEO this week because Monday's vote was not the last step in the process.

• CaroMont: Board acted legally

From the Gaston Gazette (11/15/11): CaroMont Health's board of directors broke state law Monday when it voted behind closed doors to hire a new chief executive officer.

• CaroMont defies open meetings law in hiring CEO

From the Daily Tar Heel (11/8/11): The prolonged battle concerning ownership of Rex Healthcare has put the UNC Health Care system under scrutiny — but now the system is asking that the same scrutiny be applied to its competitor.

• WakeMed to comply with UNC Health Care’s public records request

From the Greenville Daily Reflector (11/3/11): A system that operates in full view of the public it serves should be considered the only acceptable form of government. Anything less — officials who operate in secrecy behind closed doors or who try to keep information out of citizens' hands — violates North Carolina law, but also compromises a relationship that depends entirely on the consent of the governed.

• Editorial: Open government only system

From the Salisbury Post (10/30/11): Unless you do some digging and have an understanding boss, it can be tough to contact Salisbury City Council members or see them in action.

• Meeting time, lack of contact information on website limit accessibility to City Council members

From the Beaufort Observer (10/29/11): The N. C. Baptist Hospital has dropped its suit against Joseph Vincoli. Ordinarily that would not be big news, at least not outside Forsyth County. But it is big news. Here's why.

• Baptist Hospital settles Whistleblower case, revealing a major scandal in our State

From the Charlotte Observer (10/26/11): The Charlotte Observer, The (Raleigh) News and Observer and six other N.C. media organizations have requested the University of North Carolina to formally demand that the NCAA make public Friday's hearing on nine alleged major violations committed by the UNC football program.

• Media request access to UNC’s NCAA hearing

From WFAE 90.7 (9/30/11): UNC-Chapel Hill celebrated its third annual First Amendment Day this week. As the name implies, it was a chance for the university to address the importance of the First Amendment and public records law.

• UNC-Chapel Hill Resistant To Public Records Requests

From the Charlotte Observer (9/21/11): Documents released to the public Tuesday in connection with the NCAA's investigation of the University of North Carolina shed light on some of the impermissible benefits received by football players at the school.

• UNC shares papers related to NCAA probe

From the Greensboro News and Record (8/26/11): The University of North Carolina will welcome media attention when Tom Ross is inaugurated as system president Oct. 6.

• UNC gatherings should be public

From the Southern Pines Pilot (8/24/11): Sometimes it's no fun conducting the public's business while that pesky entity known as the public is breathing down your neck.

• Meeting Privately Is Not an Option

From the Wilmington StarNews (8/23/11): Last year, Durham encountered a disturbing problem that would eventually have statewide ramifications: Witnesses to major crimes were calling 911 just to hang up.

• New law shielding 911callers raises debate

From the Raleigh News and Observer (8/19/11): In justifying recent private meetings of the new University of North Carolina system Board of Governors, the system's counsel conveniently rationalizes a closed-door meeting by saying ... it wasn't a meeting. No, system vice president Laura Luger said, a gathering of the board in Chapel Hill that was not open to the public was "outside the scope of an official meeting by all of its parameters."

• Social secrecy

From the Charlotte Observer (8/18/11): A gathering last week of the UNC Board of Governors was not open to the public, and notice of the event was not provided to the news media ahead of time - raising questions about whether the gathering violated the state's open meetings law.

• New UNC board has secretive get-together

From the Beaufort Observer (8/17/11): Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and a host of other political leaders learned the hard way: The coverup is often worse than the crime.

• Sheriff's driving "incident" covered-up

From the Raleigh News and Observer (8/14/11): Those 911 calls the public hears on TV and the Internet will begin to sound a little different.

• 911 tapes to be altered to distort voices

From the Raleigh News and Observer (8/6/11): "Because of the unfairly speculative and one-sided coverage of UNC's recent football issues," wrote one UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, "I will not read your paper or visit your website again."

• Drescher: N&O hits hard but fair

From the Greensboro News and Record (8/3/11): The American Civil Liberties Union in North Carolina is joining in a coast-to-coast effort to determine how often local law enforcement agencies use cell phones to track people.

• N.C.'s ACLU asks police how they use cell phone data

From the Warren Record (8/2/11): Once again, Lake Gaston resident June Gibbs is having trouble getting public records, and an attorney says the county is violating state laws that help ensure the government conducts the people's business out in the open.

• County violating public records law