Jonathan Reichental is the CIO of the City of Palo Alto, Calif., and one of the world’s leading proponents of open data. Why is he so big the idea of giving citizens access to the data their governments collect? Because even in times of recession and debt, he said on our Structure Show podcast this week, the one thing governments always have in abundance is data. And it belongs to the people.
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Read More… from 5 reasons why good governments should embrace open data
From The Washington Free Beacon: A court has ruled that the Department of Homeland Security must release its protocols for a shut down of wireless systems, rejecting claims that the criteria for triggering a wireless system shutdown are exempt.
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Read More… from Judge says Homeland Security cannot keep wireless shutdown protocols secret
COLUMBIA, Mo — The Veterans Administration’s so far unexplained new processing policy for FOIA requests is examined in this report by reporter John Ryan at KUOW radio, the NPR affiliate in Seattle.
"Here's a new layer of review for an agency that is already doing poorly on response times, and it's probably going to make it worse," said Ken Bunting with the National Freedom of Information Coalition in Columbia, Mo. "Instead of improving the backlog, it's going to add to the backlog."
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Read More… from VA Risks Worsening Already-Bad FOIA Performance
From Center for Effective Government: A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) doesn't have a plan for conducting comprehensive reviews of federal agencies' Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) policies or their compliance with the law.
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Read More… from FOIA ombudsman not yet at full force, report finds
From USA Today: The Justice Department's internal ethics watchdog says it never investigated repeated complaints by federal judges that the government had misled them about the NSA's secret surveillance of Americans' phone calls and Internet communications.
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Read More… from Justice Dept. watchdog never probed judges’ NSA concerns
From Mackinac Center: In June of this year, Capitol Confidential sent Freedom of Information Act requests to every municipality in the state which operates a golf course seeking financial information. Westland responded that the city requires a $5 fee up front before they will provide any information.
Westland also charged $1 per page for copying costs and $45.61 per hour for the person gathering the information.
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Read More… from Mackinac Center files FOIA suit against City of Westland, Mich.
From The News Tribune: A state appeals court panel has ruled that now-retired Pierce County Judge Frederick Fleming was wrong to award $650,000 in damages and fees to an abuse victim who sued the Department of Social and Health Services to get investigative records.
In a decision released Tuesday, the Division II panel ruled some of the records sought by Amber Wright were not subject to the state's Public Records Act and that others were not improperly withheld by DSHS because Wright's request for them was too vague.
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Read More… from Washington state appeals court voids $650K award to woman in public-records case
From ABC News: The Justice Department is declassifying portions of some secret court orders concerning the government's authority to seize records under the Patriot Act.
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Read More… from Govt to declassify some secret court opinions in response to FOIA lawsuit
