One of the rarest fish in the world, the Ash Meadows Amargosa pupfish, lost a third of its numbers while under federal protection, but the public and press were banned from a meeting to discuss how to save it. Review-Journal environmental reporter Keith Rogers is citing open records laws to find out what happened. Review-Journal file photo

Reporters in Nevada regularly use state and federal laws on open government to dislodge details on decisions that affect public safety, spending of tax dollars and dispensing justice.

The Nevada Supreme Court tried to keep the wraps on a Washoe County judge's attempt to block the Nevada Judicial Discipline Commission from bringing ethics complaints against him.

The U.S. Department of Defense didn't want the federal Environmental Protection Agency to reveal that toxic coating for military aircraft was being burned at Groom Dry Lake, commonly known as Area 51.

Clark County didn't want to share cell phone records of county commissioners who were suspected of receiving favors from parties with business before the commission.

Under media scrutiny, officials at McCarran International Airport released documents about questionable airport land exchanges and leases.

In all these cases, journalists in the Las Vegas Valley wrested material from reluctant public agencies by citing state or federal laws on open government, and sometimes going to court, according to the news staffs of the Review-Journal and KVBC-TV, Channel 3.

Channel 3's investigative reporter Darcy Spears has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for investigation records that could shed light on how a casino in the southeast valley used funds intended for repairs after 1999 flooding. She said she's been awaiting a FEMA response for two years.

Keith Rogers, who covers military, science and the environment for the Review-Journal, recently appealed a decision that barred him from attending a February meeting in which Nevada and federal biologists discussed steps to keep the Devil's Hole pupfish from going extinct. A 2004 accident at Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge -- which involved flooding and human error -- killed off a third of the fish's population, which has continued declining.

National Sunshine Week, which uses the slogan "your right to know," is March 12-18, in honor of the 40th anniversary later this year of the Freedom of Information Act. That act is a blueprint for the ways that federal agencies must maintain open government.

But each state sets its own standards of "sunshine in government," a term that means open access to state and local public records and public meetings. Sunshine laws are mainly used by reporters, but also are intended for individuals who want to monitor government actions.

"People in and out of government tend to forget that government exists solely to do the bidding of the citizens, and the only way the citizens can make sure their wishes are being abided by is if they are allowed to do so through open meetings and records," said Thomas Mitchell, editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "Sunshine Week is simply a means of reminding us all of that fundamental premise."

The "open meeting" end of the access equation is strong in Nevada. The state's law is "one of the best in the country," said Ande Engleman of Northern Nevada, a former director of the Nevada Press Association, who has also worked for state government as a public information officer during her communications career.

Longtime Nevada journalist Myram Borders, now retired in Las Vegas, remembers the era before the law was beefed up in 1989. At one point a body of Southern Nevada officials bypassed public access by holding a meeting aboard a yacht that motored to the Arizona side of Lake Mead, she recalled.

In 2005 the state Legislature tightened open meeting law -- strengthening public access -- after a 2003 incident in which the state university Board of Regents held meetings that violated state law, according to a 2004 opinion from the state attorney general.

In response, legislators at the latest session spelled out that a public body cannot close a meeting if it will be considering the character, alleged misconduct or professional competence of an elected official or an executive appointed by the body.

Neil Rombardo, senior deputy attorney general for Nevada, estimated his office handles an average of 60 meeting complaints per year, with about 30 percent turning out to be valid complaints that public meetings were not properly announced or conducted.

But the "open record" end of the public access equation is murky in Nevada, which leads to a variety of showdowns between agencies and reporters.

Nevada has had an open record law since 1911. All records of public agencies are supposed to be open for inspection, but lawmakers can make exceptions to the general rule. Over the years, more than 100 types of records have been declared "confidential in whole or in part," according to an analysis of Nevada open records law, published online by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press at www.rcfp.org.

"In principle, records in Nevada are open. In practice, there are so many exceptions it's not really as open as the principle would suggest," says Barbara Cloud, a UNLV professor emeritus in communications.

To make matters murkier, Nevada law does not even define "public record."

To determine what a public record is in Nevada, agencies may conduct a "balancing test" that weighs the public's need to know against reasons to keep the material confidential. The only way to overcome an agency's refusal to categorize a record as public is to take the agency to court.

Prominent Las Vegas lawyer Dominic Gentile likes the vagueness of state law when it comes to public records.

"I'm kind of in favor of letting it (record) go undefined. It leaves more to the argument of a lawyer," Gentile explained. "I'd rather let a judge, who's going to be answerable to the electorate, exercise some of that discretion" on which records are public.

Las Vegas lawyer Colby Williams, whose firm also has media clients -- including the Review-Journal, on occasion -- points out the downside. If the only remedy to a records denial is to go to court, the small guy who can't afford an attorney suffers.

Special interests such as large unions and powerful industries account for many of the exceptions to public record that exist in Nevada law, according to Engleman.

"A lot of times, what the Legislature does, when they can't give somebody money -- like public employees -- they'll give them a perk like closing down information," she said.

One nonprofit journalism organization believes most state freedom of information laws are weak. According to Investigative Reporters and Editors, an association of journalists, limp laws cause "an information gap that significantly affects the citizenry's ability to examine even the most fundamental actions of government."

Nevada earned a D in a 2002 analysis by the Better Government Association of state laws affecting freedom of information. The study looked at factors such as response time to complete records requests, appeal process and penalties for government violations of law. No state received an A; six states got B's; 21 earned C's; 16 earned D's; eight flunked. The study is posted on the IRE Web site (www.ire.org/foi/bga).

In Nevada as well as the nation at large, people fearful of identity theft are urging lawmakers to lock down personal information contained in formerly public records.