EDITORIAL
BY DHIREN SHAH
Hello Readers,
Hunter Biden, a son of President Biden, has copped a plea deal with the federal justice department. It seems like he will not serve any jail time, except he will be put on probation. The second charge is a serious charge, when he possessed a gun, a Colt Cobra 38 special, while on drugs in 2018. This can carry a maximum sentence of 10 years. However, with the plea deal, he will not serve any prison term. The deal must be approved and accepted by the judge. In most cases, with a plea deal, the judge accepts the prosecutor’s deal conditions.
The worst things are happening in New Jersey. The Democratic stronghold, elected by the people, wants to change the OPRA laws to protect the political machine who controls the majority of the government. Right now, under New Jersey law, OPRA, or the Open Public Records Act, is enacted to give the public greater access to government records maintained by public agencies in New Jersey. If the government does not supply you the records within the time frame, people have the right to go to the Superior Court of New Jersey, and the Superior Court dishes out penalties to anyone who knowingly and willfully violates OPRA. Some of the government records are protected for security reasons, and are not provided under OPRA law.
Now, the Democratic lawmakers in New Jersey are trying to indirectly restrict the public’s access to making OPRA requests by making it harder for the public to get the information. First, they restrict the public to access through the Superior Court, so they cannot get fast information. They can apply to the Government Records Council (GRC), which takes about two years to get a judgement. The public does not have time to get the information and the cost for getting the OPRA information.
Also, they want to restrict the lawyers’ remuneration for their charges. However, at the same time, the government administration can spend any amount of money to defend their cases, even if it is political and they are intentionally not giving the information to the public. Right now, I am asking our readers to call on our elected representatives to vote against the bill, even though they are democrats. The bill is against our first amendment rights in my opinion.
The main point for the lawmakers who are elected by us is to protect the administration, but they make it look like they are trying to save the taxpayers’ money. Every government administration is spending too much money to protect their privacy, rather than working with the constituents and making life simpler. It is going in the wrong direction.
OPRA is the best source for the public to make the administration transparent. Once it is taken from our hands, it will be very difficult for us to get the information. Even the information might be recorded in a different way, as they will not be afraid anymore. If someone does not provide the information under OPRA law, they might not be in the administration after two years.
I hope people can wake up and call their representatives and ask them to vote no on crippling OPRA. If passed, it will be clear control in favor of administration by ignoring the public. There are some citizens who regularly make OPRA request. However, they are spending their time and money to keep the administrations on their toes. Some of them have faced retaliation with lawsuits and intimidation just for exercising their rights. Without those brave citizens, the administration would have ignored the people and impeded their rights.
Have a wonderful week. I’ll talk to you next week.
