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