Open Government on Comedy Central
On Monday, March 9th's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert presented an editorial on an open government story from Tennessee. There, a Memphis newspaper has published an on-line database listing people with concealed weapons permits. Colbert satirically rails against on-line access to public records because of a claimed invasion of privacy. While Washington has similar database sites for information on public employees, such as for salary information, Washingtonians with concealed gun permits have an specific PRA exemption, RCW 42.56.240(4) & RCW 9.41.070 to protect certain privacy interests. Thanks to the Open Records blog for the lead.
