From MuckRock.com: It's been almost 50 years since the Freedom of Information Act's enactment and accessing information at the federal, state and local level has almost turned into a document lottery.
Over the past few days we have been breaking down what to expect when sending a response and today we take a better look at the difference between federal and state/local agencies.
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Read More… from Hunting local public records is faster than federal FOIA — but with a catch
From journalgazette.net: For years, the Central Intelligence Agency denied it had a secret file on MIT professor and famed dissident Noam Chomsky. But a new government disclosure obtained by FP reveals for the first time that the agency did in fact gather records on the anti-war iconoclast during his heyday in the 1970s.
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Read More… from CIA memo confirms snooping file on Noam Chomsky
From Politico: A federal judge in New York has rejected a bid to restore access to National Security Council records under the Freedom of Information Act. U.S. District Court Judge Eric Vitaliano, who sits in Brooklyn, said in a ruling dated Tuesday that he saw no reason to depart from a 1996 D.C. Circuit ruling that found files beyond the reach of FOIA on the grounds that the NSC's primary role is to advise the president.
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Read More… from Judge rejects bid to FOIA National Security Council
From News-Gazette.com: City Attorney Fred Stavins said on Tuesday night that the city does not plan to appeal an appellate court's decision that it must turn over text messages to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request The News-Gazette filed in 2011.
Stavins said there are "very few documents" to produce, but the city will comply with a ruling that text messages sent and received on a council member's private device during a city council meeting are public records.
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Read More… from Champaign won’t make further appeals of FOIA ruling
From Politico: A legal clinic seeking information on the U.S. Government's use of drone strikes and "kill lists" in the war on terror is mounting a headlong drive to restore the Freedom of Information Act's reach into the White House.
For decades, the core federal transparency law had some—albeit limited—purchase in the White House. At least some National Security Council records could be obtained through FOIA, along with some administrative records relating to White House operations.
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Read More… from Lawsuit seeks to restore FOIA access to NSC records
Settlement in Knight FOI Fund case resolves tenant’s open meeting complaint, but public records issues are still pending.
COLUMBIA, Mo. (August 6, 2013) – A public housing agency serving suburban Seattle, Wash., will institute a sweeping series of transparency measures as a result of a lawsuit made possible by the inspired persistence of an engaged public housing resident and a litigation grant made under the Knight FOI Fund.
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Read More… from Seattle-area Housing Authority institutes transparency reforms
From New England First Amendment Coalition: The NEFAC Report — New England's monthly right-to-know dispatch.
This month:
Electronic Chatter Among Officials at Public Meetings Raises Issues of Transparency:
NASHUA, N.H. – When officials in Nashua came up with an idea to equip the city's elected leaders with electronic tablets at public meetings to save costs on paper copies of documents, it seemed like a decent idea.
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From The National Press Club: A National Press Club panel will convene on Aug. 12 to debate federal public-affairs practices that some say can cut the public off from its affairs.
Although executive branch communications offices can be useful, at times indispensable, in helping the press cover the government, reporters need to always be free to seek information in other ways. Yet doing so has become difficult to a degree that some say jeopardizes open government.
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Read More… from Government Public Affairs Offices: More Hindrance Than Help?
