From Arizona Republic: Federal officials blocked state investigators from interviewing members of a second hotshot crew that fought the Yarnell Hill Fire because they feared some of their statements might become publicly disclosed under Arizona’s Public Records Law, according to correspondence released Thursday.
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Read More… from Feds blocked key interviews in state inquiry
Opinion from The Californian: The word “restraint” and the First Amendment usually exist in uneasy tension.
The 45 words of the First Amendment don’t include it. The Pentagon Papers case in 1971 settled the issue of “prior restraint” by the government on what the press may publish: Nothing doing.
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Read More… from Gene Policinski: ‘When’ and ‘why’ we need to hear 911 calls
From Courthouse News Service: MANHATTAN (CN) – Two New York Times reporters sued the Department of Homeland Security for records on their interrogations at JFK Airport this year.
The DHS claims the records do not exist, though one reporter claims his interview was entered on a computer.
Mac William Bishop and Christopher Chivers sued the Department of Homeland Security in Federal Court.
Both filed FOIA requests for information about their questioning at the airport; both were brushed off.
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From Sun Herald: GULFPORT — Chancery Court Judge Jennifer Schloegel said Friday she will wait to see how a hearing in federal court plays out before she rules on whether the state auditor is in contempt in her court over his failure to produce public records.
And she also stepped back from her order earlier this week that State Auditor Stacey Pickering and the state Department of Marine Resources produce by Monday the DMR records the Sun Herald is seeking, records that Pickering says are part of a state and federal investigation.
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From USA Today: TRENTON, N.J. — In advance of an expected 2016 presidential campaign, Chris Christie’s administration is stepping up efforts to control the Republican governor’s image at all costs — even skirting sunshine laws that permit public access to government records.
Getting the Christie administration to release its grip of records tracking use of federal recovery money for Superstorm Sandy has been particularly difficult for watchdog groups and media outlets, including the Asbury Park Press.
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Read More… from Christie critics cry foul over public records access
From Indianapolis Star: This year, the Indiana State Police paid $373,995 for a device that law enforcement personnel have described as a powerful tool in the fight against crime and terrorism.
It could allow investigators in a surveillance vehicle to park in a crowded area and track the movements of anyone nearby with a cellphone and capture the numbers of people’s incoming and outgoing calls and text messages.
All of which concerns civil liberties and open-government groups.
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Read More… from Indiana State Police tracking cellphones – but won’t say how or why
From The Republic: SANTA FE, New Mexico — A judge has ruled that government agencies don't have to disclose an audit of more than a dozen mental health providers under investigation for possible overbillings and fraud, because the audit contains law enforcement materials that are confidential.
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From California First Amendment Coalition: As part of a legal settlement with the First Amendment Coalition, the Los Angeles County Jail has agreed to pull back its veil of secrecy on the identities of persons who visit incarcerated public officials.
The jail’s prior policy had been to withhold—on grounds of privacy-protection–the names of visitors to all jail inmates. Going forward, the state’s biggest jail will apply a “presumption” of access when the requests (made under the Public Records Act) relate to public officials.
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Press release from ACLU: SAN FRANCISCO – The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Popular Democracy today filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to compel the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to provide details about the agency's relationship with the financial industry and its efforts to block municipalities from using eminent domain to prevent foreclosures.
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From Courthouse News Service: SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) – The CIA properly handled a man’s demand for records on his 1966 interrogation regarding telepathy and espionage, a federal judge ruled.
Phillip Mosier had sued the agency in San Francisco under the Freedom of Information Act last year, but his case was removed this past April to the Eastern District of California.
The complaint is sparse on details about the nature of the CIA’s alleged interview with him nearly 50 years ago in Lebanon, Mo.
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Read More… from CIA cleared on answer to telepathy FOIA demand
