During Sunshine Week, the American Civil Liberties Union joined with the Free Expression Network in a Capitol Hill briefing on the state of the First Amendment.

At the event, the ACLU introduced a new report, "Publish and Perish: The Need for a Federal Reporters' Shield Law."

"The need for a federal reporters' shield law today is urgent," the report noted. "Freedom of the press is at risk of being lost for good as more journalists are jailed than ever before." The report can be downloaded from the ACLU Web site.

A sample of outstanding work by members of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists is featured in an online slideshow.

Sixty-four cartoonists donated more than 100 editorial cartoons, making their work available to all participants during Sunshine Week 2007, March 11-17. You can view the slideshow sampler, or go directly to the online gallery to see all the cartoons.

Rabbi Larry Bach of Temple Mount Sinai in El Paso, Texas, incorporated the weekly Torah readings with Sunshine Week and current events into a sermon on "Accountability and Sunshine."

Recounting the closing chapters of the Book of Exodus, Rabbi Bach told his congregation of Moses' insistence on providing his people an accounting of materials used to build the mishkan, or Tabernacle.

"Moses must account for every last shekel of silver – even the unseen hooks on the tops of the posts – because, in the absence of scrupulous disclosure, the public trust is weakened," Rabbi Bach explained.

"One can only hope that our public servants will, like Moses, set their sights a bit higher…. Eyes lifted and hearts opened, perhaps they will learn what Moses seemed to know from the beginning: that they serve best when they serve most openly."

Call Newspapers of St. Louis and the Mehlville School District co-hosted a free seminar on the Missouri Open Meetings and Records Act. More than 200 people attended the two-hour event, which featured Assistant Attorney General James Klahr and Missouri Press Association legal counsel Jean Maneke of Kansas City.

The Sunshine Law Seminar was promoted with advertising, in-paper announcements and opinion columns during Sunshine Week. There also was full coverage in the following week's paper.

According to the Call Newspapers, the seminar was part of a settlement between the newspaper and the board of education over allegations of "purposeful" violations of the state Sunshine Law.

Records of Ohio foster parents topped a Cincinatti Enquirer Sunshine Week staff and reader poll about information withheld by state and local governments.

Other "secrets" included the rosters of school committee members, gun permits, private school test scores, high school coaches' salaries, federal information about an investigation into whether police fired beanbags into a crowd of protesters, and the hiring of the CEO for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

The Enquirer's weeklong coverage, which included articles on how to get different types of public documents, was launched with a Forum section featuring community opinion on Sunshine Week, a column on secrecy by the county deputy clerk of courts, and a cartoon by Jim Borgman, that also was featured on his BorgBlog.

Several groups hosted "Closed Doors, Open Democracy?", a forum on government secrecy held at the National Press Club and webcast around the country.

Moderated by Ira Flatow of NPR's Science Friday (left), two panels discussed issues including the manipulation of scientific, environmental and health data, and other access issues. The event can be viewed online and DVDs are for sale from the Special Libraries Association.

Forum sponsors included: American Association of Law Libraries, American Library Association, Association of Research Libraries, League of Women Voters, National Coalition Against Censorship, National Freedom of Information Coalition, OpenThe Government.org, Special Libraries Association, Sunshine Week, and Union of Concerned Scientists.

The Connecticut Post in Bridgeport kicked off Sunshine Week on Saturday with a front-page teaser. The paper also produced a special Web site, "Secrecy vs. Your Right to Know."

On Sunday, the Post ran its Secret Juries investigation, which found that federal court clerks were refusing to release the names of sitting jurors. Editor James H. Smith, writing on the Sunday opinion page, called such action "a wholesale miscarriage of American justice."

On Monday, the Post reported on its results in the nationwide audit of emergency preparedness plans. "Most of the communities in the Bridgeport region flunked the test," the paper reported. Wrapping up the week on Tuesday was a look at the attempts to get public gun permit applications.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver signed a proclamation declaring March 11-17, 2007 as Sunshine Week in Iowa. Attending the signing was Associated Press Bureau Chief Carol Riha, with the governor at left in an AP photo by Steve Pope.

The proclamation read, in part, "the founders of our nation believed, as we do, that access to public information and the right to share that information with others without fear of reprisal is essential for a free society to prosper; and…even today, the men and women of our Armed Forces are put in danger to protect these freedoms."

The document went on to note that "the terror-ridden and despotic regimes around the world have shown that democracy cannot flourish when the public’s right to know is compromised."

The Dominion Post in Morgantown, W. Va., opened Sunshine Week with a front-page article on why government must be accountable. Inside was an explanation of Sunshine Week and a primer on how to get information from local counties. The Opinion page included congressional testimony on federal FOIA reform.

In addition to daily Opinion page columns and cartoons, coverage included articles on how to get salaries from area schools, where to find election information, general First Amendment knowledge, background checks on school athletic coaches, student athlete graduation rates, filing state FOI requests, federal legislation, and other federal FOI issues.

Follow the links to read The Dominion Post's coverage from Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and the following Sunday.

The Government Documents Department of the El Paso Public Library hosted a series of events to celebrate Sunshine Week in Texas.

Promoted on the library's Web site (left), library staff hosted presentations that explained the importance of Sunshine Week and discussed the library's government publications collection, explained Lisa Kidder-Lopez, library information specialist. Refreshments, flag pins, key chains, and First Amendment pamphlets were given to attendees.

To celebrate Freedom of Information Day on March 16, the El Paso Public Library hosted a mid-day reception in the Grand Hall.

"This was a terrific series of events, and the staff is already planning on doing events for next year’s Sunshine Week," Kidder-Lopez reported.

In Florida, home of the first Sunshine Sunday, the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors Web site hosts the annual compilation of Sunshine Week work from around the state, as well as video interviews with Gov. Charlie Crist and Attorney General Bill McCollum, hosted by Barbara Petersen, president of the Tallahassee-based First Amendment Foundation.

Crist was the featured speaker at the FAF annual "Sunshine Luncheon," where he presented a Sunshine Week proclamation to Petersen (left).

While conducting the Sunshine Week audit of emergency response plans, The Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Ind., came across the part-time emergency management director in Noble County, who keeps a copy of the emergency plan in his repair shop.

He offered to let the auditor the take the original to make copies,but ended up taking the plan to get copied the next day. He even made a second copy in case anyone else came looking for it. Read more in The Journal Gazette's coverage of the local and national audits.

The Morning Call of Allentown launched Sunshine Week with a special investigation into Pennsylvania puppy mills. The paper examined more than 20,000 reports, finding that despite horrid conditions, many kennels easily passed state inspections.

The paper gave readers the resources to search inspection reports online, watch videos on related topics, and to show off pictures of their dogs.

Also, as reported by Amy Gahran in Poynter Online's E-media Tidbits, the paper created a special search widget (left) that allows others to embed the kennel database search tool on their sites.

Detroit's alternative weekly Metro Times marked Sunshine Week by sending 54 students from Wayne State University to get public records such as performance evaluations.

While the students generally got the records they were looking for, in more than four in 10 cases they were asked inappropriate questions such as why they wanted the information. In one case, a records request by student Caitlin Muciek led to the town's mayor calling her grandmother to find out why Caitlin (at left, with her grandmother in a photo from Metro Times) wanted the records. Read more about the students' experiences in the Metro Times article.

The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., developed a variety of news and opinion articles during Sunshine Week, which are featured on a Special Web page.

Coverage included a look at secrecy and misconduct charges against public officials, results from the paper's audit of chemical emergency preparedness plans, an overview of the federal Freedom of Information Act, results of a statewide information audit, and profiles of a local woman's quest for public records and efforts of a "Sunshine Warrior". The newspaper also described how public records were used in stories such as officials' boat party on taxpayers' dime and lead levels in drinking water.

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon, a longtime supporter of open government, affirmed his commitment with a Sunshine Week statement.

"Officeholders, boards, agencies and organizations that are covered by the Sunshine Law should always strive to keep the public's business public," Nixon said. "My office has taken an active role to ensure compliance with the Sunshine Law, while providing guidance and training about the law on a regular, ongoing basis."

In addition to hosting seminars to train government officials on the state's Sunshine Law, Nixon's office has distributed more than 19,000 copies of a free, 80-page guide to the law. And for those who think they have the law mastered, there are two versions of a Sunshine Quiz on Nixon's Web site, one version for the public and the other for government officials.

The Oklahoman in Oklahoma City supplemented its extensive print coverage with a special Web page for its Sunshine Week coverage and related items.

Among the many features and links to information on the Web page were interactive graphics from The Associated Press that chart federal agency FOIA compliance rates, single out slow responders and provide federal FOIA contact information.

The Oklahoman also produced an online open records timeline, which followed an Oklahoman records request for information about police chases.

The Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y., partnered with League of Women Voters chapters for information audits in several counties.

The paper’s package of stories included reports on the local and national audit results, the state of the plans, and a write up on how the audit was conducted, what should have happened and what did happen in each county. Read the first day and second day coverage.

The paper's PressConnects Web site included links to the Sunshine Week audit coverage, as well as to Freedom of Information Law resources. Online visitors also could click on a step-by-step guide to filing a FOIL request.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch opened Sunshine Week with a front-page article explaining how Virginia open-records law helps citizens keep elected officials accountable, illustrating the point with stories of people who used information to make a difference.

The paper also dedicated its full Commentary front to open government issues, and featured a lengthy editorial, cartoon and editor's note on the subject. Among the guest columnists was Virginia's lieutenant governor.

Coverage continued on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, in addition to its coverage of the emergency plans audit and open government commentary, posted on its Roc Docs page of links to public data, maps and investigative reports an interactive, animated maze.

The maze (pictured left) takes readers through each step of the information request process, offering them the opportunity to click on "Things to know," "Grounds for denial" and "Learn the lingo" at each stop.

The Student Press Law Center generated several stories for its Web site that included examples of students using public records and gave tips on how to get such information.

The SPLC Report recapped Sunshine Week and recounted the efforts of its student reporters to get information about public school salaries, bus maintenance and food establishment health inspections from Washington-area agencies.

The Sunlight Foundation hosted a special mashup contest for Sunshine Week. Entrants were asked to create an online mashup about congressional openness.

The judges awarded the $2,000 prize to "Unfluence," which generates interactive network maps of state level political contribution data using campaign finance data, Sunlight Foundation explained. It was created by Skye Bender-deMoll, a researcher and dynamic networks consultant, and Greg Michalec, a freelance Web developer.

In California, 10News investigative reporter Marti Emerald (left) had to travel two hours north to Hemet for a copy of the Comprehensive Emergency Response Plan for San Diego. When she got there, she found George Watson of The San Bernardino Sun, who also was participating in the nationwide audit of emergency plans. But the only copy of the plan was not there.

To watch Emerald's report, click on the 10News logo to download a Flash file, or go to the screen shot from Emerald's report for the MP4 version.

Seven media outlets in Worcester, Mass., co-hosted a panel discussion on open government and Sunshine Week, an event WCCA-TV Station Manager Mauro DePasquale called, "an historical first for Worcester as this was a unique collaborative effort between traditional and non-tradition media."

Co-sponsors were the InCity Times; Power 1310, WORC-AM; the Telegram & Gazette; Vocero Hispano; WCCA-TV13: The People's Channel; Worcester IndyMedia; and Worcester Magazine.

The program video and more Sunshine Week news are on WCCA's Web site. Still images, such as the panelists pictured at left preparing for the broadcast, are on Flickr.