As I was reading Edgar County Watchdogs today, I came across an article that mentioned Illinois Governor Rauner being nominated for a“Black Hole Award.” There in the body of the article is my name and nomination for the Office of the Governor submitted to the Society of Professional Journalists. Awesome!
In honor of this nomination, here are the Office of the Governor’s FOIA logs from 2014-2017 that I originally sought and prompted my submission to SPJ’s Black Hole Awards.
I was only able to obtain these through an appeal to the Illinois Attorney General. The process took about three months from request to records produced. Three months isn’t as bad as some horror stories I’ve heard, but I believe the only reason I have the records now is because of my appeal. I encourage any readers out there to do the same: don’t hesitate – appeal.