NFOIC – Page 272 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

ACLU slams D.C. police body camera program on disclosure

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The American Civil Liberties Union is urging the District to postpone its plans to provide body cameras to Metropolitan Police Department officers, challenging the mayor’s plan to keep the videos from public view.

The ACLU of the Nation’s Capital says the city’s plan to spend $5.1 million to purchase 2,800 body-worn cameras for patrol officers should not occur without a mechanism for allowing the videos to be redacted and released to the public.

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California state senators’ calendars should be released to the public, judge rules

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In a groundbreaking victory for open-government advocates, a Sacramento County Superior Court judge on Thursday ordered the state Senate and its leaders to turn over the appointment calendars and other records of two former state senators.

In a sweeping decision, Judge Michael Kenny tentatively ruled that the appointment books, meeting schedules and calendars of former Democratic Sens. Leland Yee and Ron Calderon requested by two news organizations are public records.

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FBI Releases ‘Cell Phone Tracking for Dummies,’ Plus 4,999 [Redacted] Documents

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The FBI has just released more than 5,000 pages of documents regarding its highly controversial "Stingray" cell phone location tracker, a device so secretive that the agency has forced local law enforcement to drop criminal cases rather than risk disclosing details about it at trial. But don't expect to open these documents with the intent of understanding, well, anything about how the FBI uses them—nearly everything is redacted.

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Judge voids $403,000 resignation payoff to former Pasadena City College president

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A $403,000 resignation agreement between former Pasadena City College President Mark Rocha and the board of trustees was voided Wednesday when a Los Angeles Superior Court judged ruled the board broke open government laws while discussing the deal in closed session.

Rocha stated he resigned for “personal reasons” when he left with 18 months of severance in August, but court filings revealed the sudden resignation and payout stemmed from Rocha threatening to sue the board because of negative comments a board member made about him to the media.

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Opinion: How can government support open data without doing it all itself?

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While not the only source of open data, government can play an important wider supporting role, no matter who manages or provides the information beyond the General Election, argues Open Data Institute technical director Jeni Tennison.

Government collects, maintains and provides access to a whole range of data. It manages information to aid decision making, including geospatial data, the census and crime surveys.

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Even the simplest of FOIA requests a challenge for 10 of 21 agencies, reports open gov group

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A new report from an open government advocacy group shows that agency responses to the same, basic Freedom of Information Act requests varied widely.

About 65 business days after FOIA requests were sent to 21 agencies asking them to detail their FOIA processing practices, only seven have furnished complete and usable records in response, says an April 24 blog post from The FOIA Project. Four of the agencies are still working on the request in good faith, the group says.

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Virginia Court finds Loudoun schools not in violation of FOIA laws

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Loudoun's Circuit Court declared Loudoun schools not in violation of Virginia's Freedom of Information Act on April 29.

Loudoun's School Board and school and IT staff were called to court last week when Lansdowne parent, Brian Davison, filed a Writ of Mandamus claiming Loudoun County Public Schools deliberately withheld information from the public and failed to fulfill multiple of his FOIA requests within the five day period mandated by law.

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Editorial: Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt grants a license to secrecy

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With a preposterous opinion, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt has created an opportunity for each and every state employee to operate behind a curtain of secrecy.

It is OK to conduct public business on private e-mail accounts, the attorney general said. And the correspondence need not be subject to the Kansas Open Records Act.

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Deadline Set for State Dept to Release Hillary’s Personal Emails

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A federal judge has ruled that the State Department has roughly three weeks to propose a deadline for the release of tens of thousands of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's emails, Politico reported.

The deadline, mandated by U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras in an order issued Tuesday, applies to work-related emails Clinton sent or received on her personal account.

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District 86 shows several people security tape kept from the public

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For more than six weeks, the encounter between a Hinsdale High School District 86 Board member and a Hinsdale South High School student has generated a lot of controversy and comments at board meetings.

The district has a recording of the March 12 incident, made by a security camera outside Hinsdale South, but it has not released it to the public or the press.

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Author: NFOIC

Posts by NFOIC

ACLU slams D.C. police body camera program on disclosure

California state senators’ calendars should be released to the public, judge rules

FBI Releases ‘Cell Phone Tracking for Dummies,’ Plus 4,999 [Redacted] Documents

Judge voids $403,000 resignation payoff to former Pasadena City College president

Opinion: How can government support open data without doing it all itself?

Even the simplest of FOIA requests a challenge for 10 of 21 agencies, reports open gov group

Virginia Court finds Loudoun schools not in violation of FOIA laws

Editorial: Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt grants a license to secrecy

Deadline Set for State Dept to Release Hillary’s Personal Emails

District 86 shows several people security tape kept from the public