A must read now and before the 2022 Kentucky legislative session: an eloquent defense of the public's right to know which is under attack here, in Virginia, and in numerous states across the country:

"Implicit in all open records pushback is the idea that fulfilling records requests is a nuisance these functionaries barely tolerate instead of a core part of the public services they exist to provide.

"People who request records usually are taxpayers, and in many cases what we're subsidizing — with FOIA fees that can run into the hundreds and thousands of dollars — is years of inefficient record keeping, outdated computer and software systems that make finding records hard and public employees who seem to think they should get to decide which requests are and aren't worthy.

"It's not just about changing the law, it's also about changing some obnoxious attitudes in some obstinate bureaucrats."