As governments build smart cities and businesses deploy commercial tools, the commercial potential of facial recognition is competing with civil liberty concerns and protections for individuals’ private information.

A bill slated to extend certain aspects of the public records act to the Washington State Legislature is dead following a heated public hearing.

Public records law is making headlines this week with new legislation on the horizon. States across the nation are looking to revise, change, and add new directives that will affect records requesters in their state and across the nation.

Documents responsive to a request by Tom Nash shed light on a proposed conversion therapy ban in Virginia that failed last January. The documents include emails between experts and Doctor David Brown, Director of the Virginia Department of Health Professions, regarding a conversion therapy “workgroup” convened by Brown in October 2018, and a pair of bills, SB 245 and HB 363, seeking to ban the practice.

Last month, Governor of Hawaii David Ige signed a bill into law preventing state-licensed medical professionals from performing sexual orientation or gender identity conversion therapy on anyone under 18, making the state the 12th so far to implement a ban.