NFOIC – Page 183 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

White House highlights cities, announces plans to lift communities with open data

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The Obama administration Monday unveiled a new open data portal that melds tools from various federal and local government agencies to help communities find ways to improve their residents' lives.

The Opportunity Project is "grounded in the president’s background as a community organizer," said Aden van Noppen, a special adviser within the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, adding it was a form of "participatory development" based on the principle that "people are experts on their own lives."

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Executions aren’t supposed to be easy, quiet or hidden

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The legislative rationale behind Senate Bill 2237 presumes falsely that the business of taking an inmate’s life as punishment for a capital crime should be easy, quiet, free from confrontation or protest, and hidden as much as possible from public view or scrutiny.

That rationale is incredibly flawed.

This legislation presumes that how the state implements our harshest punishment for the most heinous crimes should be a secret ceremony conducted behind closed doors and without any accountability to the taxpayers.

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Opinion: Florida lawmakers continue to chip away at open government

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The Ted Nugent Relief Act — a proposal to keep information on hunting and fishing licenses secret — is dead.

So is another bill that would have kept certain data about voters secret from the general public while still making it available to candidates, political parties and PACs.

And an attempt to undo access to public information in Florida as we know it was neutralized so that it gained the acceptance of the First Amendment Foundation.

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Idaho coalition teaches about open government

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State and local governments affect citizens’ daily lives, but often small governments, media and the public don’t understand open meeting and open record laws.

Free sessions offered by a nonprofit Idaho coalition aim to change that, but you’ll have to wait until fall for the next round of offerings.

Betsy Russell, a Boise-based journalist for The Spokesman-Review, and Dean Miller, then-editor of the Post Register in Idaho Falls, in 2004 formed Idahoans for Openness in Government, a broad-based coalition.

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Database of Colorado statutes will be free, state lawmakers decide

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The state legislature no longer will charge thousands of dollars for copies of its annually updated database of the Colorado Revised Statutes and ancillary information such as source notes and editors’ notes, the Committee on Legal Services decided Friday.

The committee, which includes members of both the House and Senate, also voted to stop copyrighting the ancillary information. There is no copyright on the laws themselves.

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Beware of ‘big data hubris’ when it comes to police reform

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For the past several years police departments around the United States have been betting on “big data” to revolutionize the way they predict, measure and, ideally, prevent crime.

Some data scientists are now turning the lens on law enforcement itself in an effort to increase public insight into how well police officers are doing their jobs.

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What police records should be public? New Jersey Supreme Court to decide

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New Jersey's highest court is weighing whether police departments should be given broad discretion over which documents to release under the state's public records laws.

News organizations and civil liberties advocates say a decision in the case, which involves records from a police shooting requested by a media company, will have broad implications for transparency in New Jersey.

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Virginia Governor backs off push for sweeping changes to FOIA bill

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Facing substantial opposition from legislative leaders in both parties, Gov. Terry McAuliffe is backing off sweeping changes he recommended to a Freedom of Information Act bill designed to prevent a public record from being denied when only a portion of the record needs to be redacted.

Sponsored by Sen. Scott A. Surovell, D-Fairfax, Senate Bill 494 was proposed to clarify FOIA following a Virginia Supreme Court ruling on a case Surovell brought last year that sought details on how Virginia carries out executions.

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When publishing open data, cities and states have variety of platform choices

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The Louisville Metro Government in Kentucky started its open data efforts in 2011 with a homegrown Web portal, and is now automating the publishing processes and using the data for performance improvement.

As it does so, Louisville is working with a handful of vendors specializing in open data catalog publishing. “We are at a crossroads,” said Jason Ballard, director of the Department of Information Technology.

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Massachusetts committee will debate public records law changes in public

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Adopting a spirit perhaps befitting the first major overhaul of a public records law, six lawmakers reconciling House and Senate versions of the legislation plan to keep their meetings accessible to the public as they solicit commentary from interested parties.

The conference committee met for the first time Wednesday afternoon in a backroom off the House chamber where Rep. Peter Kocot invited advocates to share their thoughts on the differing bills (H 3858/S 2120).

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Author: NFOIC

Posts by NFOIC

White House highlights cities, announces plans to lift communities with open data

Executions aren’t supposed to be easy, quiet or hidden

Opinion: Florida lawmakers continue to chip away at open government

Idaho coalition teaches about open government

Database of Colorado statutes will be free, state lawmakers decide

Beware of ‘big data hubris’ when it comes to police reform

What police records should be public? New Jersey Supreme Court to decide

Virginia Governor backs off push for sweeping changes to FOIA bill

When publishing open data, cities and states have variety of platform choices

Massachusetts committee will debate public records law changes in public