Govt to declassify some secret court opinions in response to FOIA lawsuit
From ABC News: The Justice Department is declassifying portions of some secret court orders concerning the government's authority to seize records under the Patriot Act. read more ...
Lawsuit filed to obtain copy of Senate committee’s torture report
From Jason Leopold at The Public Record: Late Monday evening, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Justice to obtain a copy of the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on ...
Clerical error leads to bogus request to unseal death penalty files
From The Denver Post: It turns out a request to the Colorado Supreme Court to consider unsealing court files in two death penalty cases was never granted in the first place. Rob McCallum of the State Court Administrator's office said a clerical error led to an order to show cause Tuesday regarding the unsealing of court files in the death penalty cases of Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray. But that had already been denied by the Colorado Supreme Court. The Denver Post reported Thursday that attorneys for Owens and Ray, who are both on death row for the killings ...
Mitchell Daily Republic wins case against Huron (S.D.) schools
From Mitchell Daily Republic: HURON — A copy of a secret agreement that directed nearly $175,000 to an ex-superintendent of the Huron School District must be provided to The Daily Republic, a judge ruled Wednesday. [. . .] In a four-p ...
Utahn debates roles of government spokespersons at National Press Club event
From Salt Lake Tribune: Linda Petersen, president of the Utah Foundation for Open Government, recently participated in a debate over censorship by government public information officers. The event at the National Press Club in Washington ...
Hundreds of pages of NSA spying documents to be released
From Electronic Frontier Foundation: In a major victory in one of EFF's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits, the Justice Department conceded yesterday that it will release hundreds of documents, including FISA court opinions, related to the government’s secret interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the law the NSA has relied upon for years to mass collect the phone records of millions of innocent Americans. read more ...
Public Open Data: The Good, the Bad, the Future
From Idea Lab: New technology tools, combined with raised expectations among voters and stakeholders for government transparency, have sparked a movement toward “open government.” Championed by advocacy organizations and a few high- ...
Arkansas FOIA “Road Shows” held across the state
From the Arkansas Attorney General: Arkansas has one of the strongest open meetings and open records laws in the country, yet Arkansans may not know all the mechanics or the applications of the state’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). ...
Defense attorneys in Colorado death penalty cases want court files opened
From The Denver Post: The Colorado Supreme Court is asking prosecutors to explain why court records in the death penalty cases of two Aurora men should be kept secret. The move comes more than five years after an Arapahoe County District Court judge barred the files from public review. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued an order to attorneys of both men, Sir Mario Owens and Robert Ray, to explain why they want the court files opened. In previous filings, defense attorneys have claimed misconduct by the prosecution. They are asking that the case files be made public, including transcripts, ...
Cost to fill open-records requests in Colorado Springs plunges in 2013
From the Colorado Springs Independent: Earlier this year, Mayor Steve Bach's administration began charging citizens and media for public records, citing "voluminous and frivolous" requests that allegedly cost Colorado Springs taxpayers more than $200,000 in staff time in 2012. In the almost seven months since that policy change, the city's costs have dropped to less than $6,000, while citizens and media have paid about $1,400. But that financial "win" for administrators raises questions for Luis Toro, director of the nonprofit watchdog group Colorado Ethics Watch. For one thing, the small 2013 numbers could mean the city's 2012 figure was inflated ...
