Opinion: Push in Sacramento to seal pension data based on false premises
Opinion from Terry Francke, general counsel of Californians Aware, via San Jose Mercury News: Recent press reporting suggests that legislators in Sacramento, pressured by state employee unions and retiree associations, may be considering amending the California Public Records Act to exempt from public disclosure the names of CalPERS pensioners linked to their retirement payments -- information that's been open to public scrutiny for the past 28 years. read more ...
Tennessee Coalition for Open Government presents Sunshine Hero award
From Columbia Daily Herald: One Maury Countian’s fight for government transparency in his community has garnered him state recognition. read more ...
The future of open government in the cloud
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NFOIC’s State FOIA Friday for July 19, 2013
From NFOIC: A few state FOIA and local open government news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier in the week. While you're at it, be sure to check out State FOIA Friday Archives. Toledo mayor refuses to release a police department gang-turf map read more ...
Denver launches financial transparency website, displays checkbook
From The Denver Post: Denver just opened the book on its finances. The city and county of Denver launched "Transparent Denver" on Wednesday afternoon, a website displaying city finances that before were only available through public-records requests and deeper digging. read more ...
Small California publisher wins public records case
From San Jose Mercury News: A state Court of Appeal has ruled that a small-town California newspaper publisher does not have to pay legal fees to a school board he sued over his public records request —a decision hailed by First Amendment ...
S.C. Supreme Court rules public bodies cannot say FOIA hurts speech
From Miami Herald: Public bodies in South Carolina cannot use the Freedom of Information Act to justify decisions not to release records or hold open meetings, the state's highest court ruled Wednesday. In a 3-2 decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that a circuit judge should not have allowed the South Carolina Association of School Administrators to argue that open records requirements harmed its members' free speech rights. [...] read more ...
FOIA requests may illustrate foreign despots’ access to U.S. surveillance devices
From Courthouse News Service: A federal judge may shine a light on foreign dictatorships that have imported illegal surveillance and jamming technology from the United States. Events from the so-called Arab Spring show that Middle Eastern dic ...
County transit district (Cal.) set to change email retention policy
From inewsource: In the midst of an inewsource investigation and with state and federal agencies eyeing its practices, the North County Transit District is considering a policy change that would direct employees to delete certain emails after 6 ...
