government transparency – Page 4 – National Freedom of Information Coalition

COMPLY-Investor advocates push to see trove of arbitration records

Posted on

From Reuters: Dec 5 (Reuters) – A long-running battle over whether the top U.S. securities regulator should release records about its supervision of Wall Street’s arbitration process is about to go another round, this time with input from a vocal consumer advocate.

For nearly four years, a group of lawyers has been pushing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to release documents about its oversight over how the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority selects arbitrators who hear legal disputes between brokerages and investors.

[…]

Google urges US gov to be more open about online spying

Posted on

From Firstpost: Search giant Google Inc pushed the US government to be more open about its online spying on Wednesday in the first such testimony before Congress by a major technology company since a series of news leaks began in June.

In written testimony submitted to a US Senate judiciary subcommittee, a Google executive said that the official secrecy was contrary to American values and hurting US economic interests.

[…]

Documenting political influence

Posted on

From NFOIC: COLUMBIA, Mo – Do you know which industries spend the most to influence politics in your state?

If not, or even if you think you have an idea, you might be in interested in a report by Mother Jones staffers Alex Jones and Tasneem Raja. Using data on political contributions during the 2012 election cycle that was compiled by Followthemoney.org, the pair produced an interesting report and state-by-state map.

[…]

Open government closed, watchdogs shut out

Posted on

From Project on Government Oversight: With the government shutdown in full swing, you sort of expect these messages, but actually receiving them is still surreal:

“Out of Office Reply: Due to the government shutdown, OSC is currently closed. I will respond to your email message when OSC reopens. Thank you.”

[…]

The government shutdown is terrible for transparency

Posted on

From National Journal: Thursday morning’s New York Times starts with a blockbuster story on Obamacare:

“A sweeping national effort to extend health coverage to millions of Americans will leave out two-thirds of the poor blacks and single mothers and more than half of the low-wage workers who do not have insurance, they very kinds of people that the program was intended to help, according to an analysis of census data by The New York Times.”

[…]

FOIA ombudsman not yet at full force, report finds

Posted on

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.

[…]

A special sneak preview of OpenTheGovernment.org’s 2013 Secrecy Report

Posted on

[…]

D.C. Circuit rejects FOIA access to White House visitor logs

Posted on

From The Blog of Legal Times:

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled today that records of visitors to the White House were off limits to requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Allowing public access to the information would circumvent Congress' intent to give the president discretion to keep his appointments calendar secret, the court said.

[…]

U.S. spy network’s successes, failures and objectives detailed in ‘black budget’ summary

Posted on

From The Washington Post: U.S. spy agencies have built an intelligence-gathering colossus since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but remain unable to provide critical information to the president on a range of national security threats, according to the government’s top-secret budget.

[…]

Countries with more established FOI laws have better human development, still perceived as corrupt

Posted on

From Investigative Reporters and Editors: Freedom of Information Act advocates have consistently claimed that institutionalizing the right to information will benefit countries, particularly in addressing corruption.

They are not lying.

By comparing indices on corruption, human development, and years of having an FOI law across 168 countries, I found support to the assumption that having an FOI law leads to lower levels of perceived corruption.

[…]