A U.S. senator earned an entry in his FBI file in 1949 for making a speech calling for transparency about how many nuclear bombs we possessed and how many were in production. It was only on May 3 of this year that we learned the true size of our nuclear arsenal. -db
Secrecy News
Commentary
September 2, 2010
[...]
L.A. County supervisors are seeking doctors’ peer review documents to monitor patient safety and improve their ability to settle malpractice claims. -db
Los Angeles Times
August 28, 2010
By Molly Hennessy-Fiske
In a fight that could have wide-ranging implications, Los Angeles County supervisors are pushing to see confidential medical records used by county doctors to evaluate their peers to [...]
A Superior Court judge has ordered California State University of Stanislaus to comply with public records laws and release a speakers contract with Sarah Palin. -db
San Francisco Chronicle
August 26, 2010
By Nanette Asimov
California State University at Stanislaus violated public records laws and will have to release the speakers contract with Sarah Palin it had tried [...]
The full U.S. Court of Appeals in New York refused to review a decision by the court’s three-judge panel requiring the Federal Reserve Board to identify banks that may have failed without the federal bailout. -db
Bloomberg News
August 23, 2010
Aug. 23 (Bloomberg) — An appeals court refused to reconsider a decision compelling the Federal Reserve Board [...]
Deluged by data, the federal government looks to virtualized storage to create a single pool of storage capacity controlled from a central console making it easier to retrieve data. -db
NextGov
August 23, 2010
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan
The federal government is awash in data. And it’s expanding at rates faster than chief information officers can count. No [...]
Through its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has revealed that the FBI and CIA are aggressively perfecting their ability to probe social networks and the Internet for intelligence data much of which is outside the law enforcement context. -db
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Commentary
August 16, 2010
By Tim Wayne
In the midst of recent [...]
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she favored disclosure for the groups funding opposition to the mosque planned for Ground Zero as well as who is funding the construction of the Islamic center. -db
Washington Post
Commentary
August 18, 2010
By Greg Sargent
Nancy Pelosi kicked off a bit of controversy on the right this morning when the news broke [...]
Redondo Beach has launched social networking pilots to create greater transparency and public participation, but the city attorney warns of complications concerning California’s open meeting law, the First Amendment and the expense of maintaining the sites. -db
Redondo Beach News
August 18, 2010
By Sascha Bush
The City Attorney’s office spoke to the Redondo Beach City [...]
Transparency advocates are wondering if recent changes in Obama administration management mean that Obama is stepping back from his commitment to open government. -db
NextGov
August 16, 2010
By Aliya Sternstein
As the Obama administration gently pushes agencies to follow their transparency plans, recent changes in key management positions at the White House have watchdog groups concerned the open government [...]
Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News argues that WikiLeaks disclosure of the Afghan War Diary has had
the unfortunate consequence of increasing public support for the present system of document classification. -db
Secrecy News
Commentary
August 16, 2010
By Steven Aftergood
Unauthorized disclosures of classified information (“leaks”) often play an important role in the proper functioning of American democracy. They [...]
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Army must release information to a veteran studying the effectiveness of body armor in preventing wounds to the torso area or cite specific exemptions for withholding the information. -db
Courthouse News Service
August 16, 2010
By Joe Celentino
(CN) – A federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered the Army’s medical [...]
Legal experts say that California’s open meetings law does not allow cities to create secret advisory committees not open to the public. -db
Pasadena Star-News
August 14, 2010
By Brenda Gazzar
PASADENA – Open government advocates said city officials should release the names of members of two secret review boards that advise the police chief.
At least one expert [...]
A Los Angeles Times columnist says the fleecing of the small city of Bell by its own elected officials has prompted a flurry of citizen activity in public records requests. But experience shows that public officials can conjure up a myriad of excuses for and stratagems to withhold information from the public so citizens must persist. [...]
The Council on American-Islamic Relations is seeking details about a raid led by the FBI on a Muslim cleric suspected of running a criminal gang. The cleric was killed by agents. -db
Wall Street Journal
August 9,2010
By Alex P. Kellogg
DETROIT—A leading Muslim advocacy group is accusing local and state law-enforcement agencies of improperly withholding [...]
The Obama administration has asked Britain, Germany, Australia, and other countries to consider bringing criminal charges against the WikiLeaks founder for providing the media with classified documents on the Afghan war. -db
The Daily Beast
August 10, 2010
By Philip Shenon
The Obama administration is pressing Britain, Germany, Australia, and other allied Western governments to consider opening [...]
Cities across Texas are starting to open their books to the public by posting their check registers online.
The Dallas Morning News
August 9, 2010
By Ian McCann
Open government advocates applaud the trend, though they note that in many cases the [...]
The Cincinnati Enquirer argues that the federal shield law now in Congress, while providing for national security and fair trials, will strengthen the media in its quest to hold government and other powerful entities accountability and make it less likely that sources go to “fringe entities” such as WikiLeaks to protect their anonymity. -db
Cincinnati Enquirer
Editorial
August [...]
A new law requires the Office of Management and Budget to publish contractor integrity information online. -db
NextGov
August 4, 2010
By Aliya Sternstein
A bill President Obama recently signed requires the Office of Management and Budget to disclose on a public website contractor integrity information housed in a new vendor performance database, reversing a recent [...]
In reaction to Wikileaks’ publication of Afghanistan war documents, Senators Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein are amending the proposed federal shield law to exclude websites that publish leaked government documents without editorial comment. -db
Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press
August 4, 2010
By Cristina Abello
Legislators are amending the federal shield bill, which was passed by [...]
A Los Angeles Times editorial argues that a bill in the California legislature to grant families of murdered children the power to keep autopsy reports sealed would prevent public scrutiny that could improve the criminal justice system and protect families. -db
Los Angeles Times
Editorial
August 3, 2010
California lawmakers should reject a bill that would give families of [...]
The Santa Cruz Sentinel says in an editorial that when Bell town officials voted themselves outrageous salaries and pensions, it went unnoticed because the town’s community newspaper shut down in 1998. -db
Santa Cruz Sentinel
Editorial
August 4, 2010
An aftermath of the scandal in the Los Angeles-area city of Bell over salaries and pension benefits for top city [...]
BY PETER SCHEER–The New York Times’ front-page stories on the war in Afghanistan–based on a massive leak of classified US military cables and other documents–are not likely to change the course of the war. But they represent a sea change in the way journalists report on national security.
The records for the [...]
Two chemical facility security bills introduced in the U.S. senate are designed to reduce the consequences of accident or attack on chemical plants and drinking water facilities but fail to provide for accountability and transparency to ensure safety says OMB Watch. -db
Chemical security bills lack provisions for transparency
OMB Watch
Commentary
July 27, 2010
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) has [...]
A District of Columbia Superior Court judge switched course and ruled the National Law Journal could not publish information in a fee dispute even after it obtained the information through public court documents before the judge decided to seal them. -db
Local judge blocks law journal from publishing information obtained legally
http://www.rcfp.org/newsitems/index.php?i=11501
The Reporters Committee for Freedom of [...]
An editorial in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat calls for the Sonoma County employee association to release information on pensioners receiving over $100,000 a year. In a recent case in Sacramento County, a judge ruled that under California’s Brown Act Sacramento County could not keep pension information from the public. -db
Pubilc agency pensions: Editorial reaffirms [...]
While the Obama administration downplays the importance of the classified field reports on the Afghanistan war released by WikiLeaks July 25, WikiLeaks founder Julian Asange says the reports will increase transparency on the war and strengthen democracy and governance. -db
WikiLeaks claims release of classified Afghan war documents beneficial
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/26/world/26wiki.html
The New York Times
July 25, 2010
By Eric Schmitt
WikiLeaks.org, [...]
FAC—Monday July 19—The First Amendment Coalition (FAC) today announced that it has sued CalPERS, the retirement system for California government workers, over access to records about the agency’s ill-fated investment in an East Palo Alto residential real estate development that has gone bust–at a loss to CalPERS of all of its $100 million stake in [...]
On June 12, Wikileaks’ submission page stopped working, so those wishing to submit documents are stymied. The outlet has not published a document in four months. -db
Wired
June 30, 2010
By Ryan Singel
Would-be whistle-blowers hoping to leak documents to Wikileaks face a potentially frustrating surprise. Wikileaks’ submission process, which had been degraded for months, completely collapsed more [...]
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for public disclosure of names on a petition to overturn a gay rights law in Washington state. Those for disclosure say it is an important victory for the public’s right to check signatures and to discover who are supporting particular political stances. -db
SeattlePI.com
June 24, 2010
By Chris Grygiel
The Supreme Court ruled [...]
California State University, Sanislaus finally agreed to open its June 25 fundraiser featuring Sarah Palin to the media. Officials have refused to release documents concerning the fee Palin will receive for appearing. -db
Washington Post
June 19 2010
By Robin Hindery
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — After months of requests from reporters, a California university has agreed to allow [...]
While ruling that an Ontario police department armed with a legitimate purpose had the right to inspect an officer’s text messages, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the pubic’s right to know under the California Public Records Act. The Court said that police officers should realize their writings may be subject to public viewing. -db
Washington Post [...]
Weighing the family’s right to privacy to the public’s right to know, a Superior Court judge released most of the records sought by the media pertaining to last year’s murder of an eight-year-old girl. The judge withheld autopsy photos. -db
Tracy Press
Jun 14, 2010
By Jaclyn Hirsch
STOCKTON, Calif. — Judge Linda Lofthus decided this afternoon to unseal [...]
As of July 1, the Higher Education Opportunity Act requires textbook publishers to provide detailed information to student journalists investigating high prices and to professors making textbook selections. The law is expected to bring more flexibility in providing affordable textbooks to students. -db
Student Press Law Center
June 15, 2010
By Kelsey Ryan
A new federal law mandating greater [...]
Saying “secrecy is the fertilizer of sexual abuse,” an attorney urged a county judge to open 20,000 pages of evidence of sexual abuse in the Boy Scouts of America. -db
Courthouse News Service
June 15, 2010
By Travis Sanford
PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) – “Secrecy is the fertilizer of sexual abuse!” attorney Kelly Clark thundered in his opening remarks, urging [...]
OMB Watch, a nonprofit devoted to promoting government transparency and accountability, says that lack of information from the government and BP has hampered the public’s ability to deal with the spill. In particular, BP has not revealed the chemical makeup of the dispersants so that scientists and others can determine their possible long term consequences. -db
OMB [...]
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has launched GeoPlatform.gov, a data-rich website to enable the pubic to track the spread of the oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico and find out other crucial information. -db
NextGov
June 14, 2010
By Bob Brewin
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration launched a slick and data-rich website on Monday that the public [...]
A New York Times reporter says that the U.S. government has relinquished control of information to BP who is blocking its free flow to protect its bottom line. -db
The New York Times
Commentary
June 13, 2010
By David Carr
The three journalists crept along in a boat captained by James Ledet in a bayou near Golden Meadow, La., [...]
A Catholic high school refuses to release the details of a football coach’s punishment for a recruiting violation claiming the school is private and not subject to the California Public Records Act. -db
Los Angeles Times
Opinion
June 13, 2010
By Eric Sondheimer
Transparency and openness are virtues that parents and students expect from their high school sports programs, but [...]
The Federal Elections Commission ruled that the conservative Citizens United was a media organization and as such did not have to disclose the donors behind their documentaries. -db
The Washington Post
June 9, 2010
By Carol D. Leonnig
The conservative political group Citizens United has won a ruling from federal election authorities that it does not need to [...]
The New York City Police Department won a victory as the 2nd Circuit panel ruled that it did not have to release police surveillance records gathered before the 2004 Republican National Convention. The panel found in this case that police privilege trumped the public’s right to know. -db
Courthouse News Service
June 9, 2010
By Nick Divito
(CN) – [...]
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