News

AP: Records show Maine gov. tried to jam wind plan

From The Sacramento Bee: AUGUSTA, Maine -- Before its public push to have Maine reconsider wind energy proposals, Gov. Paul LePage's administration worked behind the scenes to explicitly derail Norwegian company Statoil's multimillion-dollar agree ...

Capitol Notebook: State law protects public employees from public scrutiny

From Aberdeen News: PIERRE — South Dakota’s laws regarding public records are in some ways good and in other ways bad, depending on what a person is trying to learn about the everyday operations within a government or public school district. read more ...

Mass. Attorney General’s Office declines to investigate Open Meeting Law complaint against Palmer Redevelopment Authority

From Masslive.com: PALMER - The Attorney General's Office has declined to investigate an Open Meeting Law complaint against the Palmer Redevelopment Authority lodged by Paul E. Burns regarding what he said were violations of requirements for quoru ...

West Milford Township wants proposed open-government amendments tweaked

From NorthJersey.com: A campaign to tweak the state's most prominent open-government acts continues in town hall. read more ...

Judge turns down FOIA for bin Laden burial records

From Las Vegas Sun: A federal judge is siding with the Navy in its refusal to release some records about the 2011 burial at sea of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon this week turned down a bid by Judicial Wat ...

Open-government laws fuel hedge-fund profits

From The Wall Street Journal: WASHINGTON—When SAC Capital Advisors LP was weighing an investment in Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., the hedge-fund firm contacted a source it knew would provide nonpublic information without blinking: the federal government. read more ...

NSA bought hacking tools from Vupen, a French based zero-day exploit seller

From The Hacker News: The US government, particularly the National Security Agency has been paying a French security firm for backdoors and zero day hacks. According to a contract newly released in response to a Freedom of Information request, las ...

Globe’s request for FBI records regarding probe was filed in ’12

From The Joplin Globe: JOPLIN, Mo. — The Joplin Globe filed an open records request more than a year ago to try to determine whether a Joplin City Council member or any other public officials were involved in a five-year gambling and publi ...

Blocking the public’s right to know about ALEC

From The Nation: In the two years since the ALEC Exposed project revealed the role that the secretive American Legislative Exchange Council plays in shaping the laws of states across the nation, the group has had a much harder time hiding its meddling. In fact, so much national attention has been paid to ALEC’s role in promoting restrictive voter ID laws and controversial Stand Your Ground initiatives that ALEC officials announced last year that they would shut down the task force that was responsible for promoting those measures. read more ...

City may sue pension board

From Highlands Today: AVON PARK, FL. - Avon Park City Manager Julian Deleon believes the time to wait is over in his recommendation to file a lawsuit in connection with his public records request of police pension plan officials. In a Sept. 18 le ...