Open Government in West Virginia

A number of "press, state universities and nonprofit groups" have banded together "to help residents and public officials better understand laws that allow access to public documents, information and government meetings," The Associated Press reports.

The new West Virginia Open Government Coalition is aided by "a $15,000 grant from the National Freedom of Information Coalition," writes AP's Tom Breen. "The money will fund an office at Marshall University," the article said, while "members of the group also have plans for educational seminars for public officials and to provide answers to urgent questions by phone."

West Virginia "may be the last state in the country to get such a group," Corley Dennison, dean of Marshall's School of Journalism and Mass Communications, told AP.