In a hearing Thursday morning at the John Marshall Courthouse, attorneys representing the city sought to have the lawsuit thrown out. They argued that documents detailing an employee dispute – in this case, Marshall – are exempt from public disclosure.
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Read More… from FOIA lawsuit against City of Richmond can proceed
House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) have introduced bipartisan legislation to reform the Freedom of Information Act.
The FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2015 would, among other things, require agencies to process FOIA requests with a "presumption" of openness, putting the burden on the agency to demonstrate an identifiable harm in releasing it.
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Attorney General Brian E. Frosh is promising to make government documents more accessible under the Maryland Public Information Act.
“We want to make government open,” Frosh said during an appearance Friday at the Annapolis Summit hosted by Marc Steiner. “We want to make (government) transparent. We want to make it easy for people to get information. I think my office can help do that.”
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Read More… from Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh promises more open government
Despite earlier failed efforts, Republican Darrell Issa of North County and Democrat Elijah Cummings introduced legislation Monday in the House to strengthen the nation’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws.
The FOIA Oversight and Implementation Act of 2015 would establish a presumption of openness for releasing information while creating electronic accessibility for frequently released information.
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Read More… from California Rep. Issa Joins New Stab to Strengthen Freedom of Information Laws
An effort to make nonprofit tax forms and data more accessible and searchable online took a potentially big step forward after a judge’s ruling last week.
U.S. District Court Judge William H. Orrick of the Northern District of California gave the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 60 days to comply with a nearly two-year-old Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking Form 990s of nine tax-exempt organizations in a searchable, electronic format.
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The Board of Representatives wants to know if they can phone it in — literally.
At Mayor David Martin's prodding, a board committee began research in December on electronic attendance at meetings of the city's legislative boards and commissions.
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Read More… from Stamford, Connecticut considers virtual attendance at meetings
The Virginia Supreme Court's Office of the Executive Secretary has repeatedly refused a request from the Daily Press to release its compilation of case records from most of the state's circuit courts.
The record the Daily Press sought, and that the Supreme Court used to release, compiles summary information about almost every circuit court case in the state.
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Read More… from Does FOIA cover court records? No, Virginia court administrators say
"This is a place where policy is being made and we believe those discussions on policy should be made in the open," said Blair Horner, New York Public Interest Research Group legislative director.
"Requiring a slow, deliberate process to be public is sort of an unreasonable expectation in the circumstances," said political scientist Dr. Gerald Benjamin.
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Read More… from Good Government Groups Call for More Government Transparency
The Missouri Municipal League and the State Attorney General's Office have joined forces to educate city officials on the Sunshine Law.
The Freedom of Information Laws, better known as the Sunshine Law, allow the general public to have access to data held by government entities. That means, that by law, meetings, records, votes, action and deliberations of public governmental bodies are to be open to the public.
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The Electronic Frontier Foundation on Thursday said the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its Ninth Circuit appeal in a Freedom of Information Act dispute over a secret legal interpretation of a section of the Patriot Act, teeing up the release of an unpublished opinion on census data access by law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
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Read More… from DOJ Drops 9th Circ. Appeal In Patriot Act FOIA Dispute
