We in the news business are a competitive bunch, so we don't always share well with others in the business. But we do agree on the value of open government, so this week -- Sunshine Week -- we shared a lot.
Our series, "Keeping Secrets," written by investigative reporter Dan Kane, examined the ways that North Carolina trails most other states in making personnel records a secret. In part one, Dan exposed how the personnel law protects information about employees who go bad. Part two examined how it's nearly impossible to find out the political connections that get some state employees their jobs. And part three showed the silliest part of the law: a state employee's salary history isn't considered public record.
In celebration of Sunshine Week, when folks from all walks of life celebrate the value of open records and meetings, we did something unusual with these stories: We distributed them statewide through the Sunshine Center at Elon University for other news outlets to publish at the same time we did.
And some did publish them. I don't have a complete list, but among the media that used Dan's work were: The Charlotte Observer, The Sun Journal in New Bern, The Salisbury Post and Time Warner Cable's News 14 Carolina.
Perhaps you live elsewhere and saw these stories in your local media. If so, thank the spirit of Sunshine Week.
-- Steve Riley
