Asking you to care about a boring thing

[Danika | The Colorado Sun]

Fight for your access to public records

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View in browser “Public records” tend to inspire a picture of a filing cabinet gathering dust. But when you look at what public records do for you, it hits differently.  Public records help you buy a home with more confidence, find the best schools for your kids and keep an eye on local government. Strong laws around public records have been tied to cleaner drinking water, safer restaurants and lower taxes. Public records were the reason The Sun discovered that 10 counties in Colorado have no licensed child care for infants. They helped us, along with our partners at 9News, uncover that hospitals were suing thousands of patients per year under a different name. They were integral to our investigation on HOAs foreclosing of homes, leading Colorado to change the law. Join the fight for transparency with a donation That dusty filing cabinet keeps our democracy running, and your life is better for it. Yet recently, the government has been putting a lock on it. More than 3,000 pages have been removed from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website. Same with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Record requests are regularly being denied or offered for comically expensive fees. (We just got one for $219,000.) The federal government has taken down datasets on rising hunger, maternal and infant mortality, the state of public schools and incidents of law enforcement misconduct.  But so far the outrage has been limited to the academics, scientists, journalists and those who regularly use government data for their jobs. So this Sunshine Week, I’m asking you to care about something that sounds boring: documents. But more specifically, the better life you get by having access to them.  Get a bit outraged. Demand more of your elected officials. And support independent media that fights for government transparency. Fight for transparency I want to live in a world where we always have access to public records that improve our lives. Help us  make that a reality. Best, Danika Worthington Membership Manager To unsubscribe from emails related to Colorado Sun membership, click here. To access your preferences, click here. The Colorado Sun, 2101 Arapahoe St., Denver, CO 80205, United States