Politics & Government

Sunshine Week Quiz: Do You Know What Your Local Journalist Does?

Shining a light on local journalism.

It seems fitting to highlight suburban D.C. and Baltimore Patch government reporting during Sunshine Week,  that promotes open government and encourages journalists and residents to talk about the public’s right to know what the government is doing.

Patch journalists in the last year have revealed everything from , to  to .

If you're ever curious about what your local journalists do, take a look at some of our stories below:

Find out what's happening in Westminsterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Carroll County commissioners ignited a several-month long controversy over the decision to use up to $10,000 in county money for an event on PlanMaryland, a state plan aimed at stemming urban sprawl. The admission-only county event drew ridicule from around the state from those who criticized it for being  against the plan. The backlash didn’t end there. The State of Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board  that the commissioners violated state open meetings laws for charging admission to the forum.

Find out what's happening in Westminsterwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The fight last year to learn the salary of newly hired Baltimore County Public Schools deputy superintendent Renee Foose was followed closely by many in the Baltimore County region. Patch Editor Bryan Sears made a verbal request for the salary, was asked to file a written request (even though salaries are public record). A Baltimore County schools public information official told Sears that without a written request "it will be a cold day in hell before you get the information." The schools system , 35 days after it was requested verbally: a $214,000 salary for Foose.

Baltimore County Police agreed to allow Patch reporters to view a daily log of arrests and incidents after an editor was denied access to public records in an audit to test compliance with Maryland’s open record laws.

Baltimore County Patch editor Marc Shapiro and former editor Alex Pyles  over whether to build a water tower in a residential area of Owings Mills and Reisterstown—an idea that was eventually .  A resident concerned about the proposed water tower likened the dogged local reporting of Shapiro and Pyles to that of Woodward and Bernstein.

Child Welfare Officials Allowed Toddler Contact With Alleged Abuser One Month Before Death

Less than a month before 3-year-old Elijah LaJeuness died in what police ruled a homicide, the Howard County Department of Social Services agreed to allow supervised contact between the child and his “alleged maltreator.” The news was broken by Patch with the help of an anonymous source and documents obtained from the Maryland Department of Human Resources. LaJeuness died April 13 of asphyxia at his Columbia home, according to a death certificate. No charges have been filed in his death.

Other Watchdog Headlines from Patch


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