Black columns run vertically down 700 pages, devoid of any information about the federal workers who spent thousands of hours doing union work while on the government payroll.
This is what the U.S. Department of Agriculture considers public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
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Two weeks ago, the city of Ann Arbor took a deliberate step to remove a document that had been publicly available on its website for nearly half a decade. Why?
Allegedly, that document contains information that – if it were disclosed – would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of someone’s privacy. Never mind the fact that the context of the document itself makes clear that the information in question is clearly and deliberately intended to be publicly available.
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Judicial Watch announced today that on March 18, 2014, it filed two new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to obtain government records about the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
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The easiest and most common form of government communication is often the most expensive and difficult for the public to access.
Email has transformed government operations in ways that the state’s Freedom of Information Act never anticipated when it was last revised in 1999, said Maria J.K. Everett, executive director of the state’s FOIA Council.
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It was a chilling crime and, even with a quick arrest, disturbing questions lingered.
Derrick Thompson called 911 in the coastal Maine city of Biddeford to report that he was being threatened. Police checked out the complaint, decided it was a civil matter and left the scene. Three minutes later, the teenager and his girlfriend were shot dead.
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Read More… from Not just a federal issue: Transparency declining in local government, some say
While former NSA-er Edward Snowden has demonstrated his own particular method to fostering greater government transparency, there are alternate ways that won't require you to seek asylum in a foreign country. One officially sanctioned avenue is by filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
FOIA was a 1966 federal law that grants the public and the press access to previously unreleased government information and documents (several states have since enacted their own state-specific Freedom of Information acts).
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The Chicago Police Department can no longer keep misconduct records secret, a state appeals court has ruled.
The Illinois Freedom of Information Act doesn’t exempt “CR files,” which consist of misconduct complaints against officers and documents created during the investigations, the court found Monday.
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Read More… from Police misconduct files must be made public, court rules
When Florida media groups are concerned about freedom of the press and open government, they turn to the First Amendment Foundation for help.
Pete Weitzel, former senior editor of the Miami Herald, founded the non-profit 30 years ago.
The foundation is funded through contributions. It provides training, legal aid, and the annual Government in the Sunshine Manual as a guide to Florida’s open meetings and public-records laws.
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