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There’s an ugly trend in Florida government — one that seems to be based on a conviction that politicians and bureaucrats have the right to conduct public business and spend public money under a veil of privacy. Requests for records that once would have been considered routine are now being met with demands for outrageous sums of money and stalled for months, even years.

It may seem like an abrupt departure from Florida’s historic embrace of government in the sunshine. In reality, the light has been gradually dimming for a long time, aided by one-party control of state government. And it’s spreading to local governments as well, as city and county officials watch Florida’s most powerful politicians thumb their noses at open-government laws a

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