Attorney Paul Wright of Seattle-based Prison Legal News was stunned when he filed a right-to-know request with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and was told the department didn't have the information he sought.

Wright wanted records on lawsuit settlements. The department responded that it isn't required to create records.

"I call it the 'Right to Know Nothing Law,' " Wright said of Pennsylvania's open records statute.

Pennsylvania's updated law was supposed to start an era of transparency Jan. 1, but it has raised troubling issues along the way.

On the upside, public interest is heightened, said Terry Mutchler, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records, who is swamped with inquiries and appeals from denials. Mutchler said citizens, not journalists, have led the way, filing more than 90 percent of the nearly 300 pending appeals.

The Rendell administration appears to be going out of its way to block public access to government documents. At least that is the impression left on the state's new open-records czar.

Terry Mutchler, executive director of Pennsylvania's Office of Public Records, has written to Gov. Rendell questioning whether top administration officials share the view that government should be open and transparent.

In the three-page letter, obtained by The Inquirer, Mutchler revealed a list of her concerns over how the administration has dealt with her and her staff - as well as individual records requests - since she was tapped to lead the open-records office in June.

According to her letter, the situation has gotten so bad that lawyers in Rendell's office have put representatives of every state agency on notice not to even take her calls. Everything has to be in writing, the lawyers insist.

House Republicans on Monday proposed a package of ethical reforms for state government including limits on staff campaigning and use of nonprofit organizations by public officials -- activities that figured into high-profile criminal prosecutions of Democrats in the Legislature.

"The status-quo mindset, the corruption and the general lack of good judgment must end," said House Minority Leader Sam Smith of Punxsutawney. "Everything government does is suspect anymore, so cleaning up the mess must be our first step."

Some of the GOP proposals have merit but some are redundant, said Brett Marcy, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Wilkes-Barre. He said the House adopted a rule in 2007 preventing lawmakers' involvement in nonprofits.

"We welcome Republicans to the fold of reform," Marcy said. "We've been a backer of reform efforts over the past two years. Certainly, accountability and transparency are something we should all strive for."

Gene Stilp wanted the state Ethics Commission to investigate whether House leaders used $290,000 in state money for political polls. Instead, Mr. Stilp is the one who wound up under investigation.

While the commission dismissed his complaint against former state House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, it fined Mr. Stilp $500 last year for publicly discussing his filing with newspaper reporters.

Aiming to ensure that doesn't happen again to him or anyone else, Mr. Stilp Friday filed suit against the commission in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg. He claims the commission's regulation unconstitutionally violates his right to free speech.

"It's very, very chilling. It makes people afraid to file a complaint," said Mr. Stilp, founder of the activist group Taxpayers and Ratepayers United.

Ethics regulations prohibit filers from discussing active complaints, with a few exceptions.

Mr. Stilp distributed news releases to reporters before filing his complaint, but did not discuss the complaint once it was before the commission.

Via John Micek:

The AP reports this morning that appeals officers for the state House and Senate think that Magnifying-glass Pennsylvania's new Right-to-Know Law does not give the public the right to review correspondence between lawmakers and lobbyists.

On Tuesday, the two chambers rejected the AP's request for communications last year between registered lobbyists and the four floor leaders: Sen. Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware; Sen. Bob Mellow, D-Lackawanna; Rep. Bill DeWeese, D-Greene; and Rep. Sam Smith, R-Jefferson.

The caucuses denied the requests last month. The AP then appealed to House Parliamentarian Reizdan Moore and Senate Secretary Mark Corrigan, the designated House and Senate appeals officers.

Moore and Corrigan both found that lobbyist communications are not covered by the law's definitions of the types of "legislative records" that the public can get.

One of the problems here, at least as I see it, is that the appeals officers have a vested interest in the privacy of the House and Senate. We need independent appeals officials who aren't beholden to House and Senate leadership.