Missourians in 1973 could have felt secure that the then-newly approved state Sunshine Law made public records and meetings easy to access, but today’s lawmakers often bare their hairy assertions of ignorance, if not outright contempt for the Sunshine Law. I began my journalism career in Illinois, a point that I will make relevant to my Missouri experience. I traveled to Springfield, Illinois, to testify for a Shield Law amendment pending before the Senate. I knew first-hand the feeling of being threatened with jail time for refusing to reveal the source for a story I had written as The Granite City Press-Record/Journal’s editor. I sweated the real threat of jail time. I had a wife and a new baby to support in a new house. I also had reported on people who had been jailed for crimes, including murder, and I did not want to risk sharing a cell with them as they awaited trial. Increasing my anxiety, just a few months before my predicament started, a St. Clair County Board chairman…