Prison Legal News denied death-scene photos of man murdered in prison

A federal appeals court ruled that releasing images, video and audio recordings concerning a murder in a Colorado federal prison would violate the privacy of the murdered prisoner’s family. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press January 11, 2011 By Christine Beckett Releasing certain images, video and audio recordings regarding a prison murder [...]

Gulf oil spill: Federal government forced to subpoena Transocean safety records

The federal government reached its limit in patience and issued subpoenas for 12 years of safety records from Transocean after this year’s disastrous Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. -db Courthouse News Service November 29, 2010 By Sabrina Canfield NEW ORLEANS (CN) – The United States says Transocean has blown off its [...]

Federal judge orders CIA to produce records of government experiments on soldiers 1950-1975

Three veteran groups and six individual veterans won a judgment in federal court ordering the CIA to produce records about human experiments conducted on soldiers from 1950 to 1975. -db Courthouse News Service November 17, 2010 By Annie Youderian (CN) – A federal magistrate judge in San Francisco ordered the CIA to produce specific records [...]

Rensselaer team leads in making flood of government data intelligible

The Obama administration has begun to release raw government data in an unprecedented transparency initiative, but without context, the public cannot make sense of the data. Now a team from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has stepped up to make the data intelligible through sorting, combining and presenting the data in visual form. -db The New York [...]

Orange County: Government e-mails not always part of public record

Californians Aware, an open government advocate, is challenging local governments in Orange County to make e-mails conducting official business available to the public. -db Voice of OC November 11, 2010 By Adam Elmahrek Although email has firmly supplanted printed letters and memos as our most common form of written communication, it remains an elusive public [...]

No plan yet to improve public access to information in EPA libraries

The Environmental Protection Agency is still working on a strategic plan to inventory its information and make it easily accessible to the public. -db OMB Watch Analysis November 9, 2010 After more than three years of development, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has yet to complete a strategic plan for its library network or [...]

Memphis newspaper sues FBI for records on civil rights spy

The Memphis Commercial Appeal is suing the FBI for records about a photographer who was “advising the government of the plans and activities of civil rights leaders” in the 1960s. -db Courthouse News Service November 8, 2010 By Ryan Abbott WASHINGTON (CN) – The Memphis Commercial Appeal sued the FBI, saying the Bureau is unreasonably [...]

Federal appeals court orders Obama to release names of those seeking presidential pardons

A federal court of appeals ruled that President Barack Obama could not withhold on privacy grounds the names of those seeking clemency. -db Wired October 29, 2010 By David Kravets Ruling in a privacy flap, a federal appeals court says the Obama administration must divulge the names of convicts seeking pardons or commutations of sentences. [...]

California appeals court rules media no right to records of investigation of alleged kidnapper’s parole

The Third District Court of Appeals ruled that under the state’s Public Records Act, the Inspector General did not have to release the details of an investigation of parole authorities who during Phillip Garrido’s parole did not discover details of the kidnapping of an 11-year-old girl. -db Metropolitan News-Enterprise October 27, 2010 By a MetNews [...]

Federal appeals court orders release of court documents in terrorism case

A federal appeals court upheld the public’s right to access court documents in a case in which the prosecutors allege that a charitable organization provided support to Hamas, listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press October 22, 2010 By Daniel Skallman A federal appeals [...]

Federal judge upholds subpoena in Rwandan genocide case

A U.S. district judge  refused to quash a subpoena to the Human Rights Watch and an author who invoked the First Amendment in refusing to turn over notes with accounts of the Rwandan genocide. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press October 21, 2010 By Rosemary Lane A U.S. district judge in Kansas [...]

Tulare: Vice mayor resigns to settle lawsuits over violations of open government laws

Members of the Tulare City Council admitted violations of California’s Public Records Act and the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, and the vice mayor resigned as part of the settlement of lawsuits filed against the city and two members of the council. -db Tulare Advance-Register October 11, 2010 By Staff Vice Mayor Phil [...]

Freedom of information: Reporter receives records several years after environmental disaster

It took the Department of Labor almost a decade to grant a request for an investigative report on the Martin County Coal Corp. spill in 2000. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press October 7, 2010 By Rosemary Lane The editor of a mining industry newsletter received additional government records Monday regarding the [...]

Los Angeles County postpones release of salary information of highest-paid employees

A Los Angeles County lawyer said they are delaying the release of the names and salaries of its highest paid employees out of concern for the workers’ safety. -db Los Angeles Times September 27, 2010 By Rong-Gong Lin II Los Angeles County officials are taking steps to keep secret the names and salaries of some [...]

California governor signs bill sealing autopsy records of murdered children

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill sealing autopsy records of slain children. A notable open government advocate said the legislation was unnecessary since coroner records in homicide cases are already exempt from disclosure. -db 10NEWS.com September 28, 2010 SAN DIEGO — State legislation on behalf of the families of two murdered San Diego County teenagers [...]

Public records requests laid bare corruption in small, poor Southern California city

Two Los Angeles Times reporters knew they were on to something when the Bell, California city clerk told them they would have to wait ten days to receive records that should be produced immediately. They threatened to invoke the California Public Records Act to obtain the records that showed city officials were giving themselves outlandish [...]

PG&E cites security in refusing to divulge pipeline information

After  a gas pipeline explosion in San Bruno that devastated a neighbor, PG&E is refusing to give out the locations of its riskiest gas lines out of concerns for safety and security. -db The Bay Citizen September 15, 2010 By Zusha Elinson, Jennifer Gollan PG&E’s deadly explosion in San Bruno last week laid bare the [...]

Huntington Beach City Council pledges to make budget documents more accessible to public

A Huntington Beach resident complained that the city council was bundling crucial budget information into “late communication” packets, making it difficult for citizens to know the importance of the information ahead of time. -db Voice of OC September 20, 2010 By Adam Elmahrek Today the Huntington Beach City Council is scheduled to hold a public [...]

San Francisco mayor wants law requiring departments to put city data online

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is announcing legislation to make permanent an executive order to require city data to be published online. -db San Francisco Chronicle September 13, 2010 By  John Coté Parents looking for the nearest playground, diners seeking the cleanest restaurants and Muni riders waiting for the next bus won’t be the only [...]

Government transparency: Single pool of storage could save money and allow better access

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 [...]

Domestic spying: Uncle Sam developing ability to reach wide and deep on Internet

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 [...]

Federal transparency: Changes in administration raise questions

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 [...]

Open government: Pasadena creates secret review boards to advise police chief

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. [...]

Muslim civil liberties group files suit to force police to release information on raid resulting in cleric’s death

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 [...]

Performance reviews of federal contractors go online

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 [...]

Local judge blocks law journal from publishing information obtained legally

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 [...]

Public agency pensions: Editorial reaffirms public’s right-to-know

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 [...]

WikiLeaks claims benefits to releasing classified Afghan war documents

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 [...]

PRESS RELEASE: FAC Suit Against CalPERS Seeks Records on Controversial E Palo Alto Real Estate Investment

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 [...]

California university opens Palin event to media

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 [...]

Supreme Court ruling on employer montoring of e-mail messages leaves intact right of public’s right to know

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 [...]

New federal law requires textbook publishers to disclose prices of texts

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 [...]

Oregon judge asked to allow public access to files of Boy Scouts’ sex abuse

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 [...]

Government agency launches website to help public monitor oil spill

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 [...]

Federal court allows New York police to keep convention surveillance records secret

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 [...]

ACLU sues over access to surveillance documents

The American Civil Liberties filed suit in federal district court to obtain documents concerning the federal government’s surveillance of U.S. citizens using the electronic media to communicate with people overseas. -db FierceGovernment June 7 2010 By David Perera The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit June 3 in a New York federal district court to [...]

Transparency presents challenges for citizens

Nick Judd of techPresident writes that open data alone does not allow the public to participate meaningfully. The citizenry needs training in assessing the reliability of  data and also in interpreting it. -db techPresident May 26, 2010 By Nick Judd This morning, danah boyd summed up the problem with the open data movement in a [...]

Public interest groups ask U.S. Supreme Court to overturn ruling they claim detrimental to Freedom of Information Act

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press joined other public interest groups in filing a brief asking the Supreme Court to overturn a Third Circuit opinion that would extend privacy rights to corporations, potentially limiting investigations into such disasters as the West Virginia mining deaths and the gulf oil spill. -db Reporters Committee for [...]

Orange County court denies Sierra Club low cost access to parcel map system

An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled in a lawsuit brought by the Sierra Club  that the California Public Records Act (CPRA)  did not require the county to provide its Landbase parcel map system at little or no cost. In a ruling last year a state appeals court ruled in a First Amendment Coalition lawsuit [...]

New study questions premise that government secrecy promotes better decision-making

A new report challenges the view that government deliberations must be private to achieve candor. The authors of the report say that secrecy actually discourages dissenters from voicing their concerns. -db Secrecy News May 20, 2010 By Steven Aftergood When the Supreme Court ordered the Nixon White House to comply with a subpoena for the [...]

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