A confidentiality rule approved by the board of Evanston Township High School District 202 (ETHS) on Dec. 11 unlawfully reverses the presumption of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), according to an attorney on the board who voted against it. “The presumption under FOIA is that all government communication is public with some narrow areas […]
Read More… from Evanston (IL) High School board slams door on public access to communications
Students at several of the commonwealth’s public universities got a surprise on their cell phones last fall: A text message urged them to register to vote, and to support the local Democrat running for the House of Delegates. The students’ cell phone numbers were obtained through a Freedom of Information request made by NextGen Virginia, […]
Read More… from Editorial – Texts to student phone numbers obtained via FOI request not a violation
Superintendent of Schools Kevin Smith recently testified at a Freedom of Information Commission hearing that the district “inadvertently” violated the Freedom of Information Act by failing to properly notice the public of preschool committee meetings. The hearing was held on Dec. 12, in response to a complaint Alex Ruskewich filed in February against the district […]
Read More… from Wilton (TX) school district admits to violating Freedom of Information Act
Nearly every state allows citizens to access records about state legislatures and governors. Not Michigan. It’s not for a lack of trying. Bills introduced in each of the last two years have passed the Michigan House but died in the Senate. Jane Briggs-Bunting, founding president and current board member of the Michigan Coalition for Open Government, says she’ll keep working […]
Read More… from Why Isn’t the Michigan Legislature Covered by the Freedom of Information Act?
The city of Fort Smith and the Fort Smith School Board were accused of violating the Freedom of Information Act on more than one occasion this year. In one instance, Sebastian County Circuit Judge Stephen Tabor found the school board to be in violation, calling an email exchange between school board members a “meeting” with […]
The statement was simple. Factual. A Kansas spokesperson was acknowledging that the state highway department didn’t have the money to rebuild a dangerous stretch of Interstate 70 that had been the scene of multiple wrecks and a grisly motorcycle fatality caught on video. “KDOT has lost a lot of money over the last few years,” the spokesperson […]
Read More… from ‘One of the most secretive, darkest states’: What is Kansas trying to hide?
When Kirsten Anderson submitted a memo detailing her concerns about sexual harassment at the Iowa Capitol, she expected comments about women in the office – their sex lives, breast sizes and the length of skirts worn by teenage pages – to stop. Instead, Anderson was fired seven hours later from her job with the Iowa Republican […]
NFOIC board president and Maine Freedom of Information Coalition member lone dissenter on Maine task force recommendation to digitize public records yet restrict online access to attorneys only. Read more… […]
May 24, 2016
Knight Foundation NFOIC FOI Fund helps finance plaintiff’s appeal in far-reaching FOIA case
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Michael Giudicessi, a partner in the Des Moines office of Faegre Baker Daniels LLP was selected as the 2017 inductee into the “Heroes of the 50 States: State Open Government Hall of Fame.” Each year, the National Freedom of Information Coalition (NFOIC), in collaboration with the Society of Professional Journalists, solicits nominations for First Amendment “heroes” whose […]
