After deleting e-mails, S.C. governor changes course.

• Position: E-MAIL - Nikki Haley

After a state newspaper discovered that South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), who ran for office on promises of greater government transparency, had been deleting controversial e-mails between herself and her staff, Haley decided to begin saving them instead.

Under a policy set by the governor's office, only e-mails between Haley and the public were being saved and archived permanently, according to The State. Others, including internal e-mails, were deleted by the governor's staff.

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The policy came to light after The State, under the state's open records law, requested all of Haley's e-mails dating back to her first day in office in January 2011. But the office said no e-mails existed prior to October 3. Older e-mails had been deleted, The State was told.

The Post and Courier had previously requested e-mails related to Haley's influence over a nonpartisan, taxpayer-funded committee she established to deSouth Carolina should implement the federal healthcare overhaul. The Department of Health and Human Services turned over the related e-mails, created in March, to the newspaper in December, but Haley's office did not include them in its response to a separate, but almost identical, Freedom of Information Act request in May.

Haley's staff said all important communication is kept as required...