California's Administrative Office of the Courts has written a bill that imposes a $10 fee each time someone requests a court file -- a fee that would also apply to journalists, who regularly request dozens of such documents as part of ordinary beat reporting. Public records already are prepared with taxpayer dollars. And with newsroom resources at historic lows, increased court file retrieval fees would have a chilling effect on coverage by even the best-funded newsrooms -- and may bar access altogether for independent journalists and start-up news sites that lack deep pockets. Sign the petition to tell lawmakers and courts in California that this new fee is an intolerable restriction of the public's right to know.