Over at the Spokesman-Review's Spin Control blog, reporter Jim Camden argues that Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna's proposal to restrict state inmates' ability to collect fines for improperly denied public records requests starts the state down a slippery slope to denying valid requests generally. "Removing the penalties for noncompliance with the public records law will only lead to one thing: Noncompliance with the law," Camden writes, arguing,

Clearly, instances of harassment based on information found in records should not be tolerated. But that might be better addressed with added prison time for any miscreant who plans or carries out a crime based on information gleaned from a public records request, similar to the extra penalties for crimes with guns.

Read Camden's whole (compelling) argument here.