There's good news.  And bad.  The good news is that the sunshine is coming.  Spring is springing.  Thank goodness.

        The bad news?  You probably missed national Sunshine Week.  It was back in March.

        The weeklong event was sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors "to open a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information."

        But The Sunshine Week 2007 National Information Audit found a majority of our government offices violated the open records laws by refusing to fully provide the public with what are public documents.

        In Illinois last October, the Better Government Association conducted a similar study.  Its results showed government agencies failed to comply with Freedom of Information requests nearly two-thirds of the time.

        Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Public Policy, was recently stonewalled by the Tennessee Department of Revenue.  Nashville’s City Paper found out why.  In one e-mail message, the revenue department’s public information officer tells other staffers, "The Tennessee Center for Policy Research has called several people in the department, including me, re: unauthorized substances tax.  As you know, this is Drew Johnson’s group.  We are not responding to the calls."

        Imagine, officially designated a non-person by the state.  It's right out of a science-fiction novel.  And it should be science-fiction.  Citizens have a right to know what their government is up to.

        It's good news, though, that leaders across the country are increasingly using these open records laws to hold government accountable.  The laws just need to be strengthened.

        This is Common Sense.  I'm Paul Jacob.