National Freedom of Information Coalition
Protecting Your Right to Open Government

Author: NFOIC

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Thruway Authority (N.Y.) refusing to release records

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WIVB News 4 Investigates wants to know how the New York State Thruway Authority is spending some of its toll money. Last December News 4 filed a New York Freedom of Information Law request asking to see the last three years of expenses for the agency’s top executives and the authority’s board of directors.

However, even nearly seven months later, the Thruway Authority has refused to release records that News 4 believes should be public. The records are related to the expenses of the board and executives who run the authority.

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Over 500 grievous injuries or deaths at VA hospitals in 2013

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Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country reported more than 500 incidents last year where patients were gravely injured or died as a result of the care they received.

Data obtained by the Washington Free Beacon through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) shows 575 “institutional disclosures of adverse events”—the bureaucratic phrase for reporting a serious mistake—at VA hospitals in fiscal year 2013.

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SLED (S.C.) keeps video of York inmate death secret

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The South Carolina state Law Enforcement Division (SLED) has denied a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from NBC Charlotte for jailhouse video of the second inmate to die in the same restraint chair in the same York County Detention Center.

The WCNC-TV Investigative Team filed the FOI request seeking video depicting the last hours of the life of Joshua Grose, arrested for the murder of his mother and a neighbor woman in October.

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Justice Dept. Inspector General Report Once Again Validates Whistleblower’s Allegations About FBI Lab Scandal

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Twenty. Years. Yesterday, July 16, 2014, the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its third report of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Lab misconduct first alleged twenty years ago – in 1994 – by Dr. Frederic Whitehurst.

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Forum: Connecticut legislature should rectify disastrous court ruling on freedom of information

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It’s a big question really. Why would seven judges decide that the police can keep information about crime secret from the American public? That is essentially what the state Supreme Court did July 7.

Before becoming Supreme Court justices, four of the seven who decided the case were either prosecutors or city attorneys, one was an FBI agent — species not prone to informing the public. The justice who wrote the 27-page opinion, Richard Robinson, (there are no concurring or dissenting opinions) worked as a city lawyer for Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy.

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Judge takes IRS to task, sets email deadline

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Judicial Watch, a public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, says federal Judge Emmitt Sullivan has ordered the Internal Revenue Service to produce documents of sworn testimonies describing what happened to emails of former IRS official Lois Lerner and others – and what steps have been taken to try to recover those records.

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Snowden emails withheld due to US govt concerns about ‘invasion of personal privacy’

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The United States' Department of State Freedom of Information Act has said that the public disclosure of emails by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, Edward Snowden, during his time with the agency, "could cause an unwarranted invasion of persdonal private", according to a report on The Desk website.

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International: How open data is driving efficiencies across Australian government and industry

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The open data movement is about more than government agencies being transparent, it's driving efficiencies across government and industry in Australia, says GovHack's national coordinator Pia Waugh.

GovHack is an Australia-wide hackathon event where developers produce innovative tools and apps using open government data.

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