A study of leaks of classified information says that the friction caused by interests in keeping national security secrets and in the public’s right to know can be mitigated to some extent through improved understanding and management achieved partly through dialogue between the government and media.

WikiLeaks has changed the secrecy terrain, writes Steven Aftergood for Secrecy News, with the government’s increased focus on leaks and use of new surveillance tools. -db

From a commentary in Secrecy News, February 8, 2012, by Steven Aftergood.

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Pasadena encrypted their radio signal January 7, effectively denying the public and media access to police radio traffic. The Pasadena police department said the media could make public record requests for access to the traffic and insisted that the department took the step to encrypt to protect officers by closing criminals out of the system. -db

From the Pasadena Star-News, February 5, 2012, by Brian Charles.

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As early as this fall, the U.S. government could have in place an interagency project using up-to-date technology to implement the Freedom of Information Act.

New technologies could increase proactive disclosure, speed responsiveness and cut backlogs. -db

From a commentary in OMB Watch, February 7, 2012.

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A federal district judge ruled that the government had to release a 500-page report about alleged prosecutorial misconduct in the case against the late Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska for failing to list improper gifts in Senate ethics forms.

Stevens was convicted of the charges and lost his seat in the senate, but the conviction was vacated when it was discovered that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense. -db

From Politico, February 8, 2012, by Josh Gerstein.

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Shareholders of AT&T, Apple, Ford and Pepsi are among the shareholders demanding to know how much money the corporations are spending on super PACs and lobbying.

The demands are fueled in part by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Citizens United v. FEC that allowed unlimited and anonymous corporate spending. -db

From Politico, February 7, 2012, by David Saleh Rauf.

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The Children’s Law Center, which advocates for children in juvenile court, is suing in a state appeals court to overturn a Los Angeles judge’s decision to allow the media into juvenile hearings.

The center says the ruling wrongly puts the interests of the public and media above the interests of those suffering child abuse and neglect. -db

From the Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2012, by John Hoeffel.

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The State Attorney General narrowed the scope of the real estate negotiation exception to the Brown Act, the open meeting law. The interpretation places higher value on the public’s right to know over local government’s interest in protecting bargaining power in real estate negotiations. -db

From Best Best & Krieger Attorneys at Law, February 3, 2012.

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Debate over the use of iPads by city council members during meetings continues in Petaluma with no consensus as yet.

Some say that it is invaluable in allowing members to gain access to documents, research information and eliminate volumes of paper. Others say that the public may think that the iPads are being used to send and receive messages pertaining to city business in violation of the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db

From the Petaluma Patch, February 6, 2012, by Karina Ioffee.

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A media access bill allowing journalists into California state prisons stands a chance to become law. Eight previous versions of the law were vetoed by three governors.

The bill would not only allow journalists to talk with inmates but also prohibit officials from punishing inmates for doing so. -db

From the Fog City Journal, February 4, 2012, by Rebecca Rosen Lum.

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The presiding judge for the L.A. County Juvenile Court ordered the courts open to the media but not the public.

The court had previously barred the media and public from cases of child abuse, foster care and adoption. The parties involved in a case can still make a compelling case to close doors.

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, February 3, 2012, by Rachel Bunn.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the Obama administration to force them to release records related to the deaths by drone attacks of three U.S. citizens in Yemen.

The administration cited national security in denying the request for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act, but the ACLU said the drone program should not be allowed to operate without transparency and accountability. -db

From The Washington Post, February 1, 2012, by Karen DeYoung.

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The Hanford City Council has so far not released an anonymous packet of documents to the public and may never. The documents make allegations against city leaders which the council discussed in closed meetings.

Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publisher Association, said the council may be on safe ground in denying public access to the documents but should consider if someone who intends to sue had supplied the documents. In that case disclosure is required under the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. -db

From the Hanford Sentinel, February 1, 2012, by Eiji Yamashita.

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An editorial in the Los Angeles Times says the board of supervisors for Los Angeles County “displays its contempt for the public” by closing the door before discussing such vital issues as the shift of convicts from state facilities to the county.

The Times argues that the mere wish to speak frankly does not allow a public agency to close its doors and the exemption cited for closing the door on the convict issue was passed in the 1970s to allow a government body to discuss how to keep protesters from denying citizens and workers access to public buildings. -db

From an editorial in the Los Angeles Times, January 31, 2012.

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Long Beach and a police officers group are asking an appeals court  to overturn a lower court ruling that the city must provide the names of officers involved in shootings. After a controversial shooting of an unarmed man in Long Beach in 2010, the Los Angeles Times asked the city to provide the identities of officers involved in shootings.

The city contended that the records of shootings were part of personnel files and not for public viewing. The police officers union said the police needed to prevent retaliation against officers who used lethal force in conduct of their duties. -db

From the Los Angeles Times, January 27, 2012, by Victoria Kim.

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After Twitter announced last week they would engage in country-specific censorship, EFF’s Eva Galperin says there are ways to fight the plan including checking to see if Twitter makes use of the Chilling Effects Project which publishes a country’s censorship orders and puts it in an archive.

Galperin also says that a user can circumvent the censorship by changing the country listed in their profile. -db

From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 27, 2012, by Eva Galperin.

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Safety Research and Strategies is suing the federal government for details of their investigation into the sudden acceleration of a Prius last year.

Federal regulators have found no evidence that electronic systems were the cause of the unintended acceleration in Toyota vehicles, but Safety Research is not satisfied with that conclusion. -db

From The New York Times, January 24, 2012, by Bill Vlasic.

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The Rio School District has over half of the 36 complaints about violations of the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, according to a report by the district attorney’s office.

The office said it might have to take legal action against the district unless they paid greater attention to the issue, perhaps providing training for board members. -db

From the Ventura County Star, January 25, 2012, by Cheri Carlson.

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An agent for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration lost a ruling in federal appeals court when the court ruled that  a video that went viral of his accidentally shooting himself during a public lecture did not violate the  Privacy Act.

The agent claimed that the video was part of an investigation into the shooting and was private. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 18, 2012, by Rachel Bunn.

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The Los Alamitos City Council voted 3-1 to prosecute Councilman Warren Kusumoto for an alleged violation of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.

Kusumoto had disclosed that in closed-door discussions on a lawsuit against the city, he had a different viewpoint  from the council majority. The City Attorney said in that disclosure he had violated the rule against the confidentiality of closed meetings although Kusumoto’s views on the lawsuit were well known in the community. -db

From the Orange County Register, January 18, 2012, by Roxana Kopetman.

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A federal judge in Washington, D.C. found that the Justice Department could not withhold files from the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics of their criminal investigation of U.S. Rep. Don Young of Alaska.

The Justice Department did not file any charges against Young and withheld the files on privacy grounds. -db

From the Anchorage Daily News, January 11, 2012, by Richard Maurer.

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A Visalia resident discovered that without public hearing last October, the Visalia City Council approved a $50,000 expense account for its newly appointed Elections Task Force.

The city claims it feared a lawsuit so was justified in acting in closed session, but no one was threatening to sue over the creation of the task force. -db

From an editorial in the Visalia Times-Delta, January 9, 2012.

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The lawsuit over closed lunch meetings of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors is going to the California Supreme Court.

The suit centered on 30 closed lunch meetings in 2009 during which at least a majority of the supervisors were present. The supervisors claimed they never discussed county business during the lunches. -db

From the Visalia Times-Delta, January 10, 2012, written by Staff reports.

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California Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco intends to introduce a number of bills in 2012 to give the public greater access to the workings of their government.

The bills include SB 1000 keeping the California Public Utilities Commission from withholding information about their regulation of PG&E responsible for a recent catastropic fire and SB 1001 that would improve the state’s campaign finance and lobbying database. The database has crashed several times in the past and needs updating. -db

From the San Francisco Bay Guardian, January 3, 2012, by Steven T. Jones.

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A federal district judge ordered the release of court records relating to a lawsuit brought by a hospital system alleging that another hospital group had conspired against them.

The hospital system refused to release details of an agreement settling the case claiming that the information was confidential, containing vital business information about future plans. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, January 4, 2012, by Kristen Rasmussen.

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The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled unconstitutional a Washington state law restricting political action committees from taking in donations of $5000 or more in the last three weeks of an election.

The state argued that the law was intended to protect voters allowed to mail their ballots 18 days before the election. -db

From Jurist, December 31, 2011, by Jaimie Cremeans.

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The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled that the CIA had the right to refuse to confirm or deny existence of records named in a Freedom of Information Act request. The refusal is called a Glomar response.

The CIA had refused to provide information to a US. citizen seeking information on his grandfather, an Iceland citizen who allegedly was associated with the Icelandic Communist Party. -db

From The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, December 22, 2011, by You-Jin Han.

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The increasing numbers of closed door sessions conducted by the Stockton City Council has prompted open government advocates to protest the practice. Under a threat of bankruptcy, the council has met in closed meetings three times for every two open meetings.

The council may meet in closed session to discuss certain financial matters, but in doing so they close the public out of the discussion and deprive them of a chance to participate in crucial decisions, say the council’s critics. -db

From the Stockton Record, December 27, 2011, by Scott Smith.

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A county judge ruled that four members of the Dunsmuir City Council must defend itself against allegations that they violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.

A citizen sued the council for alleged conflict of interest and holding meetings without public participation. -db

From the Record Searchlight, January 2, 2012, by Sean Longoria.

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Under amendments to the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, government agencies are now required to disclose more details about items under consideration at meetings. The amendments will go into effect, January 1 of 2012.

The amendments also require agencies to provide notice in writing to the media of special meetings and notice by telephone in the case of emergency meetings. -db

From the Ridgecrest Daily Independent, December 20, 2011, by Stephanie Forshee.

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A recent study found that under the Obama administration, in 2010 federal agencies used exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 33 percent more than they did under George W. Bush in 2008.

Watchdog groups are now trying to hold Obama to his pledge to make his administration the most transparent and accountable in history. -db

From Federal Times, December 15, 2011, by Sean Reilly.

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An ex-school board member alleged that the Galt Joint Union Elementary School District board violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting act by not allowing public comments while conducting public interviews to fill a vacant seat on the board.

The board has agreed to repeat the meeting to satisfy the Brown Act. -db

From the Lodi News-Sentinel, December 13, 2011, by Jennifer Bonnett.

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A recent poll showed that 72 percent of the public were in favor of allowing TV cameras into the U.S. Supreme Court hearings on the new health care law.

C-Span has asked the court for permission to film the proceedings to give its audience live coverage. Several justices have voiced vehement opposition to allowing cameras into the courtroom. -db

From Politico, December 9, 2011, by M.J. Lee.

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The Justice Department seized the assets of a popular music blog, Dajaz1, reportedly for violations of copyright, but did not give the blog a day in court to fight the action.

Writing in TechDirt, Mike Masnick says it was an outrageous act, “I suspect that nearly all of you [readers] would say that’s a classic case of prior restraint, a massive First Amendment violation, and exactly the kind of thing that does not, or should not, happen in the United States.” After over a year, the government restored the blog’s domain. -db

From a commentary in TechDirt, December 8, 2011, by Mike Masnick.

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After Ben Bernanke of the Federal Reserve sent a letter to lawmakers criticizing Bloomberg News for “egregious errors” in a story on the bank bailout, Bloomberg responded with a detailed rebuttal of the key charges.

Among other issues, the rebuttal addressed factual errors, disputes over transparency, and fairness in reporting. -db

From Bloomberg News, December 7, 2011, edited by Robert Friedman and John Voskuhl.

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The Obama administration is still insisting that cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified even though the cables were released by the State Department in compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request.

The classified information concerned targeted killings, detention at Guantanamo, torture and rendition. -db

From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, December 7, 2011, by Nathan Freed Wessler and Anna Estevao.

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Medicare is making its database of claims available to the public to allow assessment of doctors. A court ruling has blocked access to this information for decades.

Critics of the release warn that the data could be easily misinterpreted in assessing doctors. -db

From KSPR (ABC), December 5, 201, by Joanna Small.

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In a case brought by the Los Angeles Times, the Pasadena Sun and the Sacramento Bee, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ordered the California Assembly to release budget records under the California Public Records Act.

Lawyers for the Assembly did not participate in oral arguments before the judge last week. -db

From the Los Angeles Times, December 5, 2011, by Joe Piasecki.

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A California appeals court ruled that a man who wanted to find out if he were registered in the Domestic Violence Restraining Order System could not have access under the Information Practices Act of 1977.

A judge had earlier ruled that the registry was exempt under the California Public Records Act. -db

From the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, December 5, 2011, by a MetNews Staff Writer.

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When the lawyers argue before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on the appeal of the striking down of Prop 8, the referendum prohibiting same-sex marriage, the proceedings will be videotaped and then televised.

A federal district court had ruled Prop 8 unconstitutional for violating equal protection and due process rights. -db

From the First Amendment Center, December 2, 2011.

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In a special meeting called to discuss a draft of the general plan, a member of the city council spoke on an item not on the agenda, a possible violation of the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law.

A council member said the council did not violate the law in that members were allowed to report briefly on their activities. -db

From Sign On San Diego,  December 1, 2011, by Jonathan Horn.

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