From Rapid City Journal: House and Senate conferees are continuing to meet to resolve the differences between the House and Senate versions of the 2013 Farm Bill. We received a copy of a letter to the conferees from the National Freedom of Information Coalition, calling attention to a provision in the House bill that would undermine the Freedom of Information Act.
[…]
From Standard Newswire: WASHINGTON, Nov. 6, 2013 /Standard Newswire/ — Judicial Watch announced today that on October 17, 2013, thanks to Judicial Watch litigation, the public gained access to more than 57,000 pages of previously withheld documents from the Clinton Presidential Library related to the National Taskforce on Health Care Reform, a “cabinet-level” taskforce chaired by former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton during the first term of the Bill Clinton presidency.
[…]
From NFOIC: Open government groups, including NFOIC members and allies, are urging House and Senate conferees to remove provisions from the Farm Bill that provides for increased government secrecy regarding agricultural and livestock operations.
[…]
From Journalist’s Resource: Since the Progressive Era, ideas about the benefits of government openness — crystallized by Justice Brandeis’s famous phrase about the disinfectant qualities of “sunlight” — have steadily grown more popular and prevalent. Post-Watergate reforms further embodied these ideas. Now, notions of “open government” and dramatically heightened levels of transparency have taken hold as zero-cost digital dissemination has become a reality. […]
Read More… from Open government and conflicts with public trust and privacy: Recent research ideas
From Patch.com: A legal battle in Illinois over a $20 parking ticket could potentially cost a Chicago suburb tens of millions of dollars — and fear that the case could have implications here is prompting many Milwaukee-area police departments to drastically clamp down on how much information they’re releasing to the public.
[…]
Read More… from Police records no longer open in many communities
From Boing Boing: Freedom of the Press Foundation has taken charge of the DeadDrop project, an open-source whistleblower submission system originally coded by the late transparency advocate Aaron Swartz. In the coming months, the Foundation will also provide on-site installation and technical support to news organizations that wish to run the system, which has been renamed “SecureDrop.”
[…]
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.
[…]
Read More… from FOIA ombudsman not yet at full force, report finds
From New England First Amendment Coalition: PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Journalists from a variety of media and all six New England states will gather in Dedham, Mass., Sept. 29-Oct. 1 to learn the latest investigative and database reporting techniques and public records access skills.
The fellows chosen for this, the New England First Amendment Coalition’s third annual Institute, reflect today’s diverse news media and come from daily and weekly newspapers, television and radio stations and online publications.
[…]
Read More… from NEFAC announces its 2013 New England First Amendment Institute fellows
From Open Government Standard: The Open Government Standards are open to public consultation. We are inviting experts, civil society organisations, academics and the general public to make suggestions, comment and provide input on the standards in three sections: transparency, participation and accountability.
You will be able to read the standards and make your comments and suggestions here. You can also email comments to contact [at] opengovstandards.org.
[…]
Read More… from Open Government Standards – public consultation
