From ars technica: The Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) will not be faxing any orders to Five Guys or receiving journalists’ Freedom Of Information Act requests anytime soon. According to a report from the FOIA request service MuckRock, the OSD’s sole fax machine—the only effective electronic conduit for sending FOIA requests to the Pentagon—is down for the count and won’t be replaced until October at the earliest. […]
Read More… from Failed Pentagon fax machine blocks FOIA requests
From MuckRock: Jason Leopold has used the Freedom of Information Act to break a number of major stories, from the drugging of Department of Defense detainees to the Biblical justifications the Air Force used for nuclear war to a drawn-out battle with the FBI over Occupy Wall Street documents.
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Read More… from “FOIA Terrorist” Jason Leopold shares his transparency secrets
From Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Federal health officials broke federal laws by stonewalling legal attempts to learn how they created new rules requiring employers to pay for insurance that covers contraception, sterilization and abortion, according to lawyers representing the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh.
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Read More… from Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh files suit over FOIA request
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:
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Read More… from NFOIC’s State FOIA Friday for November 16, 2012
From Electronic Frontier Foundation:
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Tuesday, demanding answers about how and why it loans out its Predator drones to other law enforcement agencies across the country.
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Read More… from EFF files FOIA suit for answers re: predator drone flights in U.S.
From Bloomberg:
The next time you submit a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. government, it may end up in the hands of a company you’ve never heard of.
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Read More… from Transparency outsourced as U.S. hires vendors for FOIA request aid
From Michigan Capitol Confidential:
Grandville Public Schools is breaking the law by agreeing to a union contract provision that allows teachers and their union to have a say about what is released in Freedom of Information Act requests, according to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy’s legal expert.
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Read More… from Mich. school district allows union, employees to exclude material from FOIA requests
