City of Detroit officials, including Mayor Mike Duggan, sometimes use private e-mail accounts to conduct the public’s business — a practice that concerns open records experts and one that has hounded Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign.
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Read More… from Michigan: Duggan, officials use private e-mail for city business
From Courthouse News Service:
DETROIT (Nov 27, 2012) – Wayne State University is exempt from answering a FOIA request about its use of dogs in medical research, because the last time it did “animal rights extremists” threatened its researchers with “torture and death,” the university claims in court.
The university sued the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, in Wayne County Court.
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Read More… from College alarmed by animal rights ‘extremists’
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:
Michigan schools create their own FOIA interpretations
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Read More… from NFOIC’s State FOIA Friday for October 12, 2012
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
From Detroit Free Press:
The Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) sets requirements for disclosure of records by all public bodies in the state. To obtain records, any citizen can submit a request in writing and note that the information is being sought under the act.
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Read More… from Tips to help your FOIA request get results, Mich.
From LSJ.com:
A bill introduced last week in the Michigan House would take some strong steps toward improving citizen access to government records and deserves bipartisan support.
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Read More… from Editorial: FOIA updates will benefit Michigan citizens
From AnnArbor.com:
A retired Ann Arbor pathologist has filed a lawsuit against the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners, claiming he was not given the full video of an alleged theft from a court employee’s car in 2011.
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Read More… from Lawsuit seeks to force sheriff’s office to turn over surveillance video
From Detroit Free Press
About five years ago, finding out whether your new neighbor spent time behind bars for murder, rape, robbery — even writing bad checks — required little more than an Internet connection.
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Read More… from Things you should have easy access to, but don’t
