ROBERT STEINBUCH: Freedom still ain't free | Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Sally Wilson’s experience as former mayor of Osceola and a longtime FOIA participant is at the center of a transparency fight described in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Wilson says the city’s online council packets stopped including complete sets of adopted resolutions and ordinances. After she checked postings since February 2024, she found that more than 100 approved items were missing. Among them, she points to Ordinance 2024-07, a tax-abatement measure connected to a potential increase of the revenue bond for the U.S. Steel/Big River Steel expansion from $3 billion to $3.75 billion. Wilson filed a FOIA request Sept. 23, received a non-working link to files from a hacked old website six days later, and followed up Sept. 30, when nine documents and 11 emails were provided.