A leading open-government advocate offered strong support Monday for a legal challenge to a proposed workers’ compensation insurance premium increase of nearly 20 percent.
“I think he’s got a cause of action,” First Amendment Foundation President Barbara Peterson said of Miami attorney James Fee, who is challenging the rate hike on open-government grounds. Continue…
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When the Dallas police used a bomb robot to kill a suspect who had shot and killed five police officers and wounding nine others, it set a controversial precedent that raised questions about the procedures and practices the police had followed to determine whether to use a remote detonation explosive. Multiple journalists filed Freedom of Information Act requests to learn more about the police’s decision-making process.
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A police force that picks and chooses the laws it will honor probably doesn’t deserve to call itself a law enforcement agency. The St. Louis Police Department behaves as if Missouri’s Sunshine Law doesn’t apply uniformly to departmental records and the fees it charges to access them.
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Read More… from Editorial: Police department accountability shouldn’t require a lawsuit
Court challenges filed August 3 cite the “stubborn refusal” of District of Columbia and federal agencies to release records of the deal with the Trump Organization, developer of the Old Post Office Building at 12th St. and Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
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Two large defense contracting firms are seeking to enter a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit where the Associated Press is demanding details on a settlement the State Department reached with one of the companies over export control violations.
BAE Systems plc, a British company, and BAE Systems Inc., its U.S.-based affiliate, filed motions in federal court in Washington Thursday asking to intervene in the case. Continue…
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Read More… from BAE Systems moves to enter State Department FOIA fight
The city of Santa Fe on Wednesday launched a new website that officials say gives the public “unprecedented access to city budget data.”
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Read More… from Santa Fe, N.M., Launches Open Data Spending Portal
The Kansas Attorney General’s Office next week is holding three free public training sessions on the state’s open records and open meetings laws, including one in the Wichita area.
Space is limited and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. To reserve a spot, go to www.ag.ks.gov/open-gov or call 785-296-2215. Continue…
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Read More… from Kansas AG’s office to hold free open government training
Legislation to shore up oversight of charter schools’ finances went quietly through the D.C. Council this June, though without requirements for the schools to follow open meetings and public records laws as advocates urged at the bill’s public hearing almost a year ago.
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At the Sunlight Foundation, we care about open government data and want to provide tools to empower advocates — both inside and outside the public sector — to improve and spread the public policy that is making it possible. However, there remains a glaring barrier to easily comparing and analyzing open data reforms across jurisdictions: Ironically, open data policy itself is not available as structured, machine-readable open data.
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