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First Posted: 2/28/2014
HARRISBURG — Ten media organizations have been granted permission by the state’s Commonwealth Court to join The Times Leader and The Morning Call in a legal challenge of the Public Utility Commission’s refusal to release documents related to a settlement reached with PPL Utilities over its response to a 2011 snowstorm.
Reporters with The Times Leader and The Morning Call of Allentown were denied documents by the PUC last year after filing right to know requests. The state’s Office of Open Records said the newspapers were entitled to an anonymous letter claiming PPL improperly dispersed work crews from a higher priority response outage call to a lower priority one.
The case was appealed to the state court and the newspapers asked other media outlets within PPL’s coverage territory to join in. The 10 organizations that were granted permission to join the case are: Reading Eagle Co., The Associated Press, Calkins Media Inc., WNEP-TV, Times News LLC, Lancaster Newspapers Inc., PA Media Group, Philadelphia Media Network LLC, Times Shamrock Communications and The Pocono Mountain Media Group.