National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

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16 New Cities Join Bloomberg’s Open Data Initiative

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A year and a half after its launch, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ What Works Cities initiative is more than halfway to its goal of supporting 100 mid-sized cities’ data ambitions, according to a Bloomberg press release. With 16 new cities announced Monday, 55 cities across the U.S. are now participating in the network of municipalities aiming to utilize data to improve city services and inform local decision-making.

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Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition: State board of ed ‘politicized’ approval process for data requests

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Education researchers and advocates are worried that a newly formalized approval process will make it harder to get information needed to adequately evaluate existing K-12 programs and to recommend innovations.

The process, adopted by the State Board of Education in September to implement a 2016 state law on student data privacy, requires that the elected seven-member board approve all outside requests for student-level data.

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Short on staff, Anchorage police records division falls behind on report requests

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Requests for reports at the Anchorage Police Department have stacked up due to a shortage of staff and a continuous flow of work.

A police report requested online typically takes four to five days to fulfill, said APD records supervisor Jennifer York. However, the records division currently is behind on requests by about three to four weeks, she said.

There were 431 pending requests as of last week, according to the police department.

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New open-data portal increases transparency in Virginia Beach

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You don’t have to be a journalist or a Freedom of Information Act expert to access public records in Virginia Beach, thanks to a new open-data portal that launched Monday.

The portal provides Virginia Beach residents easy access to many public records normally available through a FOIA request. The idea is to cut the middle man, putting information at residents’ fingertips and encouraging city employees to look at ways to improve services, said Virginia Beach Director of Management Services Catheryn Whitesell.

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Florida First Amendment Foundation Hanna and Douglas Weiss Open Government Legal Fellowship

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Supported by a donation from Kenneth L. Weiss, Esq., the Hanna and Douglas Weiss Open Government Legal Fellowship is a one-semester fellowship for a law student interested in learning about Florida's open government laws and the legislative process.

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Va.: Data show that nearly 80 percent of those stopped by city police are black

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Official reports released recently reveal that black people accounted for nearly 80 percent of those stopped by Charlottesville police so far this year.

On Wednesday, results of a Freedom of Information request revealed that there have been 97 stops this year — as of Oct. 15. Of those stops, 74 involved individuals who were black, while 22 involved people who were white. One individual’s race was listed as “unknown.”

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Lawsuit against ICE seeks information on asylum seekers

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Civil rights advocates filed a lawsuit in San Francisco on Thursday against the federal government in an attempt to get information about how many detained asylum seekers are denied parole and how such decisions were made.

In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court, the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Hastings College of the Law and others want to know why fewer asylum seekers are being offered parole.

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Civil rights group sues the federal government over the surveillance of black activists

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It's no longer a secret that police have conducted surveillance on activists involved in the Movement for Black Lives. Increasingly, these activists say they want to know exactly what's in the files the government may be keeping on them.

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IL: City of Bloomington accused of violating FOIA laws in probe of old murder case

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The City of Bloomington, Illinois, is facing a lawsuit over alleged violations of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). FOIA is a transparency law that’s intended to give citizens insights and data about their government and allow them to access important relevant documents and records from any federal agency.

Matthew Topic, the attorney from Loevy & Loevy representing plaintiffs Tammy Alexander and Raymond Wilson in the case, said the lawsuit, filed on Sept 30, arose because the city allegedly is withholding nonexempt public records regarding a murder case.

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