Colin Donohue

From the Raleigh News and Observer (12/22/10): A Wake County judge's ruling Tuesday could make it easier for people to find out whether the N.C. Secretary of State is investigating a complaint about a lobbyist or sports agent. It also could allow the public to know whether any fines were levied if rules were violated.

From M2MPolitics.com (12/17/10): Former state Sen. David Hoyle was into his second term in the Senate when he took his first stand for open government.

From the Wilmington StarNews (12/26/10): North Carolina General Statute 132 allows the general public access to government documents – from town ordinances to e-mails between government officials.

Elon University Provost Steven House recently announced that School of Communications lecturer Randy Piland will serve as Elon's first Faculty Fellow for Technology beginning January 2011.

Elon alumna Rachel Cieri, a 2010 graduate who majored in journalism, placed 11th in the Hearst Journalism Awards Feature Writing competition.

Elon University journalism student Samantha Baranowski placed seventh in the Hearst Journalism Awards Program's Television Broadcast Features Competition I.

The Sunshine Center has received several inquiries about how citizens may take advantage of the procedure for mediating public records disputes that was enacted by the General Assembly in July. The legislation, which was intended to provide public records requesters and custodians with a process for resolving public records disputes short of litigation, became effective Oct. 1, but as of this writing it is not completely clear how the process will work and, more importantly, whether it will be effective.

Two Elon University Broadcast Journalism students were awarded scholarships from the Radio Television Digital News Association this month.

From the the Charlotte Observer (12/13/10): The sheriff's office in Lincoln County has apparently found a way around a new law that cracks open previously classified personnel records for government workers: Fired workers won't receive written notification.

From the Raleigh News and Observer (12/4/10): When news broke that UNC football players might have accepted benefits from agents, we requested any campus parking tickets given to 11 players. We wanted to see what they were driving.