Public comment policy changes at Douglas County school board meetings
The Douglas County Board of Education passed a resolution March 25 that sharply reduces time allotted for general public comment, but leaves discretion to the board president to allow more ...
Outrage as V.A. hides names of hospitals where vets died from delays
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) blocked the release of the names of hospitals where 19 veterans died because of delays in medical screenings, leading to calls for transparency from news outlets and a bipartisan group of Capitol Hill lawmakers ...
When detectives put Chris Ward in handcuffs earlier this year, he and his attorney were surprised.
In public information clashes with Charleston police, some see need to change bill already in works. Investigators had told the medical doctor's attorney that they probably didn't have enough evidence for prosecution. Ward had been accused of sexually assaulting a woman during a date. read more ...
Need to know vs Right to know
THE FREEDOM of Information bill recently passed the Senate on Third Reading and moved on to the House of Representatives for concurrence. This early, I want to put the bill to a test, just to know in some detail what the advocates have been giving al ...
Our government is always hiding something: Column
The Obama administration has used the Freedom of Information Act to increase rather than decrease government secrecy. In 2013, it increased use of exemptions to bar release of requested files by 22% over the previous year, according an analysis by th ...
Texas Freedom of Information group honors citizens
Robert and Maureen Decherd received the John Henry Faulk Award for Civic Virtue Friday from the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. The former chairman, president and chief executive of The Dallas Morning News’ parent company, A.H. Belo ...
Protecting your privacy is a good cause to support
When someone goes to the doctor, they expect their medical information will be kept confidential. In the same way, when producers work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), they also want confidentiality. Livestock and crop producers, for ...
FOIA exemptions provide ample cover for bureaucrats hiding agency secrets, transparency advocates say
Black columns run vertically down 700 pages, devoid of any information about the federal workers who spent thousands of hours doing union work while on the government payroll. This is what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers public disclos ...
Caldwell: In Poudre School District, a lesson on how not to handle public records
Certain Poudre school district officials treated the Starr family with disdain, even ordering the destruction of e-mails in anticipation of a potential public records request from the parents ...
Column: When Lawyers Fool with FOIA
Two weeks ago, the city of Ann Arbor took a deliberate step to remove a document that had been publicly available on its website for nearly half a decade. Why? Allegedly, that document contains information that – if it were disclosed – ...
