Free Republic

HARRISBURG — For the first months of the pandemic, as state officials took sweeping and unprecedented actions to combat COVID-19, the public was cut off from a crucial tool to understand how those life-and-death decisions were being made. The Wolf administration in mid-March stopped responding to public records requests, a way for people to obtain copies of government data, emails, and other records from state agencies. Without that, Pennsylvanians were forced to rely on elected officials to share as much — or as little — information as they chose. When the state’s open records process resumed in May, it was...

For the past three months, New Zealanders have enjoyed a ‘COVID-free’ country, with citizens hugging one another, children returning to classrooms and sport fans filling stadiums. But this changed on Tuesday, when a family of four from Auckland, the country’s biggest city, tested positive for the virus, breaking a 102 day streak without any new COVID-19 cases. As of today, 29 people have tested positive for the virus, all of which remain linked to the original four cases. Although the government says the latest outbreak appears to currently be limited to one cluster, it is taking tough actions to prohibit...