Understanding open public records requests in Beatrice, Nebraska
From Beatrice Daily Sun: The Nebraska Legislature recently passed LB363 amending the Nebraska Statutes relating to public records. With this passage the Beatrice City Council adopted a Resolution at their August 5th regular meeting to update th ...
CIA refuses to release drone documents
From Salon.com: As Salon noted in March, a D.C. federal appeals court sided with the ACLU in ruling that the CIA could no longer refuse to respond to FOIA requests about its drone programs on secrecy grounds, as the existence of the “targeted&r ...
First 100 pages of Aaron Swartz’s Secret Service file released
From Wired.com: After half-a-year of delays and roadblocks, the U.S Secret Service today released the first 104 pages of agency documents about the late coder and activist Aaron Swartz, including a brief report on Swartz’s suicide less th ...
Judge rules Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin broke the law
From The City Wire: A Pulaski County Circuit Court judge today (Aug. 12) ruled that Secretary of State Mark Martin (R) violated state law by hiring outside legal counsel to the tune of more than $100,000 instead of using attorneys already on staff, or using the Arkansas attorney general's office. read more ...
Inner workings of Indiana government rarely disclosed
From Kansas City Star: More and more, the internal workings of Indiana government are being shown and the political pageantry stripped away in a reminder that the trappings of power are rarely trumpeted in news conferences, aired in campaign ad ...
Santa Clara County supervisors consider proposal to publish calendars online
From San Jose Mercury News: Six years after San Jose required its elected officials and key staff to post their public calendars online, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is poised to enact its own policy on Tuesday. But open-government advocates and even some supervisors say it's an essentially toothless policy proposal that needs to be rewritten. [...] read more ...
New laws clearly aimed at boosting government transparency in Texas
From San Antonio Express: AUSTIN — As the dust settles on the 83rd Texas Legislature, open government advocates are applauding new laws they say leverage evolving technology to increase access and shine light on all levels of government f ...
Hanover FOIA proposal gets cold reception from some organizations
From Richmond Times-Dispatch: Hanover County’s supervisors asked for feedback on their proposal to loosen state regulations restricting private meetings of elected officials, and the reactions have been well shy of a warm welcome. The B ...
Iowa Department of Public Safety reduces charge for public records
From Des Moines Register: The Iowa Department of Public Safety now says it will not charge The Des Moines Register the overtime rate for an employee to gather data in response to a public records request. The decision came a day after the new ...
