From NFOIC: COLUMBIA, Mo. — The National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC) is among open government groups that are urging the Obama White House to renounce and reform secret law practices that have enabled controversial and overreaching National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs.
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From NFOIC: A federal appeals court has agreed with NFOIC’s Delaware-based member organization, the Delaware Coalition for Open Government, that Delaware’s Chancery Court judges’ practice of overseeing and resolving business disputes in secret arbitrations is unconstitutional.
Following the ruling, handed down last Wednesday by the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, state and court officials, including a spokesman for Gov. Gov. Jack Markell’s office, indicated they are considering an appeal.
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From NFOIC: A few state FOIA and local open government news items selected from many of interest that we might or might not have drawn attention to earlier in the week. While you're at it, be sure to check out State FOIA Friday Archives.
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Read More… from NFOIC’s State FOIA Friday for October 25, 2013
From Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition: With a proposed property tax increase on the November ballot, Conifer resident Melody Mesmer thought that residents of the Elk Creek Fire Protection District ought to know how much district employees have been paid over the last few years in salary and overtime.
But even though such information is public under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA), the fire district isn’t handing it over.
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Read More… from Jeffrey Roberts: When public information is not public
From The Virginia Gazette: WILLIAMSBURG – Although it will come after November’s elections, the Virginia Coalition for Open Government’s annual conference will explore “Gifts, Disclosure and the Virginia Way,” according to a release.
The day-long conference will be held at the Williamsburg Community Building in early December.
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Read More… from Virginia Coalition for Open Government will host annual conference
From Watchdog.org: A special committee ordered by President Obama to review the legality of the National Security Agency’s spying programs will not be subject to government transparency laws.
The president created the NSA review group in August and publicly promised it to be an “independent review” of NSA programs revealed by leaks from whistleblower Edward Snowden. Obama promised that the committee would be a “high-level group of outside experts to review our entire intelligence and communications technologies.”
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Read More… from ‘Independent review’ of US spying policy not subject to open-records law
From Reuters: Next week, the Summit of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) will be held in London. Established in 2011, under American and Brazilian leadership, the OGP is a group of 60 countries, including the US, the UK, Brazil and 6 African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania) that have made a commitment to work with civil society to promote more transparency, participation and accountability. In its first year OGP achieved a staggering amount and has continued its impressive record into 2013.
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Read More… from The Open Government Partnership comes to London
From NJ.com: In 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation revised its operational guidelines known as the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide. Under the new marching orders, the document allowed agents to engage in limited racial and ethnic profiling when assessing criminal and terroristic threats.
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Read More… from 3rd Circuit decision allows FBI to continue to withhold race data from ACLU
From Courthouse News Service: (CN) – President George W. Bush’s presidential directive on cybersecurity is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a federal judge ruled.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center had filed the FOIA request in June 2009, seeking information related to National Security Presidential Directive 54.
Visit Courthouse News Service for more.
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Read More… from Cybersecurity directive from Bush kept secret
From Al Jazeera America: While much has been made of the government’s current penchant for secrecy, few have noticed that this atmosphere now shrouds government history as well.
Working on a biography of a noted Washington journalist, I placed a routine Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in 2011 for her FBI file. The timing of my application seemed propitious. Two years earlier, President Barack Obama had signed an executive order to speed declassification of materials and had issued an encouraging FOIA memorandum.
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Read More… from US government secrecy making historical research difficult
