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Quiz: Do you know which records are public in Minnesota?

With at least 660 exemptions in the state's public records law, it can be hard to know what's available to you and what isn't.

By James Eli Shiffer

March 10, 2017 at 8:58PM
In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece
In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in recent years, according to hundreds of pages of documents released in response to public records requests by The Associated Press and other media. (Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece
(Associated Press/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

(Photo: Eric Risberg/Associated Press)

The Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, the state's public records law, starts with the presumption that government data are public. But over the years, lawmakers have carved out at least 660 exemptions to protect individual privacy, corporate secrets and the confidentiality of criminal investigations. See if you know which of the following records are available to you — and which aren't.

about the writer

about the writer

James Eli Shiffer

Topic Team Leader

James Eli Shiffer is the topics team leader for the Minnesota Star Tribune, supervising coverage of climate and the environment as well as human services. Previously he was the cities team leader, watchdog and data editor and wrote the Full Disclosure and Whistleblower columns.

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