The office of the Inspector General for the General Services Administration has refused a Freedom of Information Act request for documents on their investigation of GSA travel fraud saying to release the documents would jeopardize the investigation. As part of the inquiry, the Inspector General is looking into the profligate spending at a 2010 GSA [...]
The U.S. Court of Appeals from D.C. ruled that interchanges between Google and the National Security Agency on cybersecurity and encryption are not part of the public record. The Electronic Privacy Information Center used a Freedom of Information Act request to seek the records following a cyber attack against Google in 2012. -db From The [...]
At the insistence of The Redding Record Searchlight that records of some 2400 criminal cases were being withheld illegally, the Shasta County Superior Court finally examined their policy, found no basis for it and released the records. The court was withholding records of criminal cases involving arrest warrants. -db From The Redding Record Searchlight, May [...]
The Transportation Security Administration in charge of airport security finally produced complaint files from 2008 in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. A TSA spokesperson apologized for the delay and said it was dealing with 800 records requests each year. -db From a commentary for ProPublica, May 4, 2012, by Michael Grabell. Full [...]
The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms are stonewalling a CBS News investigation into its “Fast and Furious” operation which used “gunwalking,” the selling of guns to arms traffickers to track down leaders of Mexican drug cartels. No cartel leaders have been arrested and many of the weapons have been found at crime scenes in [...]
Tags: arms trafficking, Brian Terry, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, CBS News, Fast and Furious, FBI, FOIA, FOIA exemptions, gunwalking, Justice Department, Mexican catels, Project Gunrunner
The Federal Communications Commission should require broadcasters to post their political ad sales on a national database to allow the public to know how much super PACs are spending and for what candidates and causes, argues a New York Times editorial. The broadcasters say the requirement would be too expensive and time-consuming. -db From an [...]
A federal court order that a classified document on the U.S. negotiating position in free trade talks must be released under the Freedom of Information Act will be appealed. But, writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News, the court’s rare order gives hope to those opposed to government overclassification. -db From a commentary in Secrecy News, [...]
President Barack Obama won a battle in federal court this week when the judge rejected a request from Judicial Watch to force the administration to release photos and video of the operation that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan last year. The judge refused to overrule the CIA and Defense Department in its claim that [...]
News organizations won a victory in a Florida court as the judge unsealed the court records in the prosecution of George Zimmerman. In the interests of a fair trial, Zimmerman’s defense team asked that the records be sealed, and a judge who since recused herself agreed to seal them. -db From the Reporters Committee for [...]
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education fund filed a writ of mandate to force the Los Angeles County sheriff to release documents in the death of journalist Ruben Salazar caused by a tear gas projectile after a peaceful rally. The Office of Independent Review found the sheriff’s department made errors in choice of weapons [...]
Attorneys for Pfc. Bradley Manning, charged with espionage for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks, are charging that the federal prosecutors are withholding documents needed for a defense. Manning’s attorneys say that they have been frustrated in their attempts to gain access to official “damage assessments” that provide details on the actual damages of the leaks [...]
In what they say is a need for greater security, the U.S. Department of Labor has ordered the media to remove their computer software and other equipment at the department and to rely on government equipment, software and Internet connections to retrieve the news. The media is concerned that reporters will not gain access to [...]
A federal judge ordered the Securities and Exchange Commission and American International Group Inc. to release the corporate monitor reports on AIG up to 2008, the year of the economic collapse. It is the first time a judge has granted access to monitors’ reports. Sue Reisinger of Corporate Counsel had sought access to the reports [...]
In a speech at a broadcasters convention, the FCC chair refuted the broadcasters’ arguments against a proposed rule creating an FCC website for political ad data. The broadcasters say the data is proprietary and that disclosure would be too expensive and destroy jobs. -db From a commentary in ProPublica, April 17, 2012, by Justin Elliott. [...]
Three lawyers with experience in litigating Freedom of Information Act cases charge that the Obama administration has performed poorly in promoting government transparency. Whereas Attorney General Eric Holder said he would only defend agencies when it was clear that disclosure was contrary to law or would cause harm, in actual practice since his pronouncement Holder [...]
News outlets including the Miami Herald have asked a judge to unseal court documents in the Trayvon Martin murder case. The judge granted the request of George Zimmerman’s attorney to withhold court records because of the intense media interest in the case. -db From the Miami Herald, April 17, 2012, by David Ovalle, contributions by [...]
A new federal judge order has cleared the way for the release of evidence in a 1990 car bombing in the San Francisco Bay Area that injured two Earth First activists. The FBI had contended for a time that the two were injured by a detonation of their own bomb, and the two injured sued [...]
A federal judge asked the Department of Homeland Security to explain its withholding of information from immigration lawyers dealing with new restrictions on H-1B visas used for temporary foreign workers in jobs requiring theoretical or technical expertise. The judge wants the DHS to provide greater detail for its decision to justify withholding information that might [...]
The FBI lost another round Wednesday in its quest to withhold records detailing the late Memphis photographer Ernest Withers’ secret work as an informant in the 1960s. A federal judge held that the FBI made errors and lapses but also deliberate decisions that confirmed the fact that Withers was an informant, making his file [...]
While pledging to become the most transparent government in history, the Obama administration has fallen far short of that lofty promise. They made some strides in releasing some files and documents such as the torture memos but have been secretive about domestic spying. They have also been criticized for prosecuting whistleblowers under the Espionage Act [...]
Tags: domestic spying, First Amendment, FOIA, free press, free speech, freedom of information, health care, lobbying regulations, natonal security, News Gathering, Obama admnistration, right to petition, torture memos, whistleblowers
A 50-50 split between Democrats and Republicans on the six member Federal Election Commission may cause a deadlock preventing the commission from honoring a district federal judge’s order requiring groups that spend money on ads mentioning candidates for federal office but do not advocate for or against them — to disclose their donors. -db From [...]
To protect their commercial interests, major news organizations are opposing efforts for greater transparency of political advertising, a move that counters their reporters’ efforts to promote the public’s right to know. The news organizations oppose the Federal Communications Commission’s proposal to require television stations to put online files with information about who buys political ads [...]
An Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered the release of most of the report on the November pepper-spraying of U. C. Davis students during an occupy protest. The judge wrote, “The court is not persuaded that either the Legislature or the California Supreme Court intended [the law protecting officer information] to apply whenever public entities [...]
At the direction of the city Attorney, the Los Angeles Fire Department announced it was not longer releasing details about fires, medical calls and traffic accidents. The department’s public information officer said they were not allowed to provide information including the locations of crashes in compliance with a federal medical privacy law. -db From the [...]
The Army crimelab is attempting to fire its firearms branch chief for talking to a McClatchy reporter. The Army launched an internal investigation after a story a year ago about the loss of evidence at the lab. The lab is under pressure as Congressional leaders have been urging the military to investigate the lab’s handing [...]
The New York Supreme Court ruled that communications between New York and federal environmental officials are public record and must be released. Waterford town officials sued to obtain 344 records about dredging PCBs from the Hudson River. -db From the Seattle Post Intelligencer, March 22, 2012, by Michael Virtanen, Associated Press. Full story
Experts on open government say that the University of California is violating the law in withholding portions of a police report on the pepper-spraying of Occupy protesters at UC Davis. Members of a task force investigating the November incident said they did not want to release parts of the report until the entire document was [...]
National Security Agency chief General Keith Alexander denied in a House subcommittee hearing that his agency spied on Americans without a court order. That denial runs counter to statements by former NSA employees who worked on the agency’s domestic spying infrastructure says James Bamford in a commentary in Wired. From a commentary in Wired, March [...]
Tags: domestic spying, NSA, open government, Operation Sharock, Operation Stellar Wind, Project Minaret, secrecy, telecom companies, transparency, U.S. Signals Intelligence Directive 18, warrantless surveillance, wiretapping
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa stamped out the Los Angeles Fire Department’s policy of withholding basic emergency response details. The mayor acted after the city council criticized a new policy reversing the practice of providing rescue response details including the times, locations and type of emergency and age and gender of victims. -db From the Los Angeles [...]
Although overall California earned a B-minus on a corruption risk report card, it still ranks fourth in the United States in fighting corruption. The report was done by the Center for Public Integrity, Radio International and Global Integrity. The state scored lowest in public access to information with a D-minus. -db From the Mount Shasta [...]
In general, states are behind the federal government in releasing information online in ways accessible to citizens, but the states excel in financial disclosures of public officials. Some states also publish full texts of contracts, a practice not a part of federal governance. These findings are part of an OMB Watch report released on March [...]
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals supported the government’s position that two fugitives accused of tax evasion could not have access to IRS records assembled as part of the criminal investigation against them. The two fugitives, both U.S. citizens, most likely fled to China to evade a criminal trial while in the meantime the IRS [...]
An investigative report by the Associated Press reveals that California state legislators running for re-election disguise their votes on key laws by changing their votes after official tallies. The change in vote is not always indicative of their true stance on a piece of legislation. The First Amendment Coalition’s Peter Scheer said the practice was [...]
The Obama administration is asking Congress to grant new exemptions to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), to keep secret selected information about cybersecurity, government computer networks, and certain industrial plants and pipelines. The FOIA already allows the government to withhold information that would hurt national security, invade personal privacy, reveal business secrets or compromise [...]
The Justice Department has asked a federal district court to allow the government to refuse to discuss or even to acknowledge the existence of any cooperation between Google and the National Security Agency. The Electronic Privacy Information Center is suing under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain documents with details of the relationship. -db [...]
The Miami Herald is asking a New York federal judge to allow access to a docket in a criminal case that included a Russian company that exploited land investors in Florida and a businessman who pleaded guilty in an organized crime case but turned into a witness for the prosecution. -db From the Reporters Committee [...]
Laws building transparency in the federal government are bogged down in Congress according to open government groups even with indications that more openness would build public confidence. Congress is currently getting poor approval ratings. The laws mired in Congress include the Transparency in Government Act and the Senate Campaign Disclosure Parity Act. -db From the [...]
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press along with 46 news organizations is asking the Defense Department for better access to court records during the court martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning. Manning is accused of providing classified war documents to WikiLeaks. The request came in the wake of complaints by journalists covering the trial [...]
Federal prosecutors looking into the CIA’s alleged abuse and killing of detainees in their custody are backing the CIA to keep the investigations secret. The CIA wants to keep them kept secret on a number of grounds including national security and the importance of protecting sources. -db From Politico, March 7, 2012, by Josh Gerstein. [...]
A superior court judge granted the University of California police union a victory as he ruled that the report of the pepper-spraying of University of California Davis students during a campus protest last November should for now be kept under wraps. The union claims that state law forbids the release of the names of the [...]
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