I was happy to read in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (subscription required) today that Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley intends to file a charge of violation of the Freedom of Information Act against Rodney Forte, director of the Metropolitan Housi ...

Since its inception nearly 50 years ago, the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline has only made three disciplinary cases against judges public, and the director told Watchdog.org that even the commission’s budget is a state secret ...

A report commissioned by the Homeland Security Department's Science and Technology Directorate says barriers to using and developing open source software must be addressed as IT budgets across government continue to tighten. Security and the perceptions of security are just as problematic as "non-security" challenges to open source software, or OSS, says the report's authors ñ David Wheeler, a research staff member at the Institute for Defense Analyses, and Tom Dunn, senior research engineer at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. read more ...

In the absence of a hospice consumer guide from the government, The Washington Post has created one using available Medicare data. The newspaper unveiled the quality tool Sunday, in an article criticizing a lack of transparency around hospice quality ...

It isn't often that insurers and hospitals come together on an issue involving payments, but that's what seems to be happening in reaction to a new study being funded by the state's Department of Financial Services. Both groups worry that this project, which aims to add transparency to contract process between private hospitals and private insurance companies, could reveal proprietary information, and produce results that will be taken out of context. read more ...

Caroline County's school board members went into a closed session last week to discuss, among other matters, their own performance. It's probably not a bad idea to evaluate themselves occasionally, but they shouldn't keep it secret from county residents. In fact, using a closed meeting under the personnel exemption to talk about themselves is not permitted under state law. Virginia's Freedom of Information Act permits closed meetings to discuss ìspecific' people they have the authority to hire, fire, discipline or evaluate. read more ...

This author wrote previously on the status of sexual harassment investigations under the Freedom of Information Act ['FOIA']. In a case that has grabbed some notoriety; the Freedom of Information Commission ['FOIC'] has offered further guidance and reminders as to the public nature of sexual harassment complaints. read more ...

Fifty transparency organizations and watchdog groups are pressing the White House to state its position on a number of core reforms they say are needed to fix the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In a letter released last week, the 50 groups requested the White House's opinion on legislative efforts included in the FOIA Improvements Act of 2014, which is currently awaiting a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. read more ...

Failure to make a decision on the recording of Saguache County meetings is equivalent to flipping off the entire county, indicating the county has no intention whatsoever to conduct taxpayer business in a transparent and easily accessible manner ...

The federal government's disability fund is set to run a $75 billion cash-flow deficit this year, and the program's own judges are reportedly responsible for running it into the ground. Congressional reports have highlighted allegations of disability judges' rubber-stamping cases, snoozing on the job, sexually harassing colleagues, and colluding with corrupt lawyers - but the Social Security Administration continues to be more concerned with shielding questionable judges from much-needed scrutiny that it is with protecting the disability fund's financial integrity. read more ...