Reed Anfinson Receives Freedom of Information Award

Reed Anfinson received the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information's Freedom of Information Award. Anfinson is the publisher and owner of the Swift County Monitor-News and is the treasurer of the National Newspaper Association. He will become its president in 2011. He is also vice-president of the Minnesota News Council and has co-chaired the Minnesota Newspaper Association's legislative committee for 16 years.

Read more about Anfinson and the award here.

Reed Anfinson to Receive John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award

The Minnesota Coalition on Government Information will honor Reed Anfinson, publisher of the Swift County Monitor-News, with the 2010 John R. Finnegan Freedom of Information Award on March 16 at the Minneapolis Central Library.

Anfinson is a journalist and an advocate for open government at the local, state and national levels. He has testified frequently before the Minnesota Legislature and the U.S. Congress on Freedom of Information and First Amendment issues.

He has co-chaired the Minnesota Newspaper Association's legislative committee and chairs the National Newspaper Association Government Relations Committee. In 2012 Anfinson will become president of the National Newspaper Association.

Tracing an E.Coli-Tainted Hamburger from the Freezer to the Farm

A fascinating piece of work by the New York Times.  A 22-year old woman is paralyzed after eating a grilled hamburger at her mother's house in the fall of 2007.  Through records requests and confidential interviews, the writer traces the tainted meat from freezer to farm.  Get it here. 

Medical records of minor cancer patient are public

A Brown County district judge ruled that the medical records of Daniel Hauser, 13, are public, City Pages reported. Hauser's case has been in the public eye after he and his mother fled the Minnesota to avoid chemo for his Hodgkin's lymphoma. The judge said the boy's parents have spoken to the media and the case has been in the public thus far. Therefore, it wouldn't make sense to reverse the course now.

He might be a minor and the issue might be medical records, but that doesn't mean this family will have any medical privacy in their case as their boy has forced chemotherapy treatment for his cancer.

A judge denied their request to seal the medical records of Daniel Hauser, 13, who made national headlines when he fled the state with his mother to avoid chemo for his Hodgkin's lymphoma.

More here.

NFOIC Summit: Civics education

Katherine Garner, president of KLGarner Consulting and NFOIC treasurer; Mary Jo McGuire, Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership faculty at College of St. Catherine; and Barbara Peterson, president of Florida First Amendment Foundation, spoke about the crisis of civics education. Tom O'Hara, adviser of The Latern at Ohio State University moderated. Here are the notes from their NFOIC Summit session:

• Schools are not teaching civics or not teaching it as properly or fun as it could be taught. This crisis is real. Check out Richard Dreyfuss' initiative on bringing civics back into schools here.
• Children are not understanding the importance of Americans' freedoms. Democracy must be reborn in each generation.
• The original reason for schools in this country was to teach people how to be good citizens.
• For a democracy, citizens need knowledge, skills and inspiration. These skills include critical thinking, civil conversations, problem-solving, knowing how to vote, etc.
• Some education models dismiss government. Therefore, young people don't understand how the political system works, McGuire explained. The people most likely to be affected by the government -- with the Iraq war, housing and health care -- are the least likely to be prepared to speak out.
  
• No Child Left Behind focuses on language arts and math. If the subject isn't tested, it isn't taught.
• Garner discussed how difficult it was to get K-12 teachers in Texas to teach a First Amendment curriculum. When she asked why they didn't teach it, one said it was too controversial. If you teach students they have a freedom of speech and press, they use it.
• Garner spoke about the Light of Day project which connects Texas university students. They pick an investigatory topic and make FOIA requests across the state. The students use the data to write localized stories that are published by area newspapers. The first year, the students investigated how the Cleary Act was being used on college campuses. They found that most campuses were under reporting crime and not classifying date rapes as a crime. After their stories, Southern Methodist University changed the way it reports campus date rape and decided to start sending out campus alerts after date rapes. Students uncovered University of Texas at Dallas had private off-campus apartments for international students that had toxic mold and was ripe with crime. A week after the story, the administration created a committee to study the problem. Within a month, the apartment managing company had been fired and 16 new police officers were hired.
  
• Light of Day students have also studied taser reviews, which led to legislative bills to put a moratorium on them until more research could be done, and academic evaluations of university presidents, provosts and deans.
• Texas also struggled to explain what would happen if there were no FOIA laws. The blackout book was created by taking front pages of metro sections around the state and removing all stories, photos, infographics, etc. that were based on open meetings or open records laws.
• Peterson said the lack of civics education frightens her. A Florida first-term legislator introduced a bill that would make names of elected school board members anonymous.
• Peterson worked with a group of Florida young adults who had grown up in the foster care system. They testified at public hearings because they didn't have access to their own records, including their own SSN and previous home addresses. They helped get legislation passed that allowed children who had aged out of foster care access to their own records. Their involvement energized them and politicized them.
• Florida First Amendment Foundation created a training video for middle and high school students. The group is currently working on a corresponding curriculum for teachers. View the video here.
  

Resources:

• Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools
  
• CIRCLE: The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement
• Minnesota Civic Education Matters
• Center for Civic Education
• Center on Congress -- For Kids
• National Conference of State Legislatures
• U.S. Courts Educational Outreach
  

NFOIC Summit: Fiscal transparency

Charles Glasser, global media counsel for Bloomberg News; James Nobles, legislative auditor for the State of Minnesota; and Rebecca Otto, auditor for the State of Minnesota spoke about the secrecy surrounding the bank bailout and other fiscal transparency issues. Jane Kirtley, Silha professor of media ethics and law at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communication moderated. Here are the notes from this NFOIC Summit session:

Charles Glasser on the Bloomberg lawsuit:

• Glasser explains the "great freak-out of 2008" as follows. A network of banks borrow money from the Federal Reserve each night. The money's distributed through a discount window. Bank X says we need $200,000 until tomorrow so our checks clear. That discount window number is public. It's released every morning by the Treasury. The number usually hovers between $1 and $4 million a night. For the federal government, that’s not big money.
• Mark Pittman saw this number climbing. He noticed that the overnight window ballooned to $400 million inside two weeks. He called the Federal Reserve, which said that information is proprietary and can't be released. The Federal Reserve is lending public money to private banks but saying it doesn't have to disclose the criteria for collateral. What did the federal government take in return as a promise for your money? And on what terms was your money given and to whom?
• Bloomberg filed the lawsuit in November, and it's still under advisement. The suit's been assigned to a friend-of-the-press judge in the southern district, so Bloomberg is hopeful.
• Glasser said the fact that Bloomberg had to file this suit is something in and of itself that should raise your ire.
• Great credit goes to Matt Winkler and Mike Bloomberg, who from day one told reporters and editors to do the right thing and they'd deal with the cost later. So far the cost is estimated at $125,000.
• Two weeks after Bloomberg filed the lawsuit, FOX News announced that it was suing the federal government without any mention of Bloomberg. "The boat is always big enough," Glasser said. The more people involved, the better.
• The best federal agency to comply with FOIA requests was the Department of Defense, and this was under the Bush administration. The Securities and Exchange Commission rated the worst. It's the one federal agency that was created to promote transparency and fairness in the market.
• Bloomberg filed a FOIA letter to the Board of Governors for records on how much money was lent in a certain time period and under what terms. It resulted in a de facto denial. The board didn't respond. Bloomberg kept at them and received a response 30 days late. It said the material is considered proprietary trade secret and would cause harm to the parties involved. The Fed was basically saying if the public knew which banks were in trouble, the banks would get in trouble because of a run. In the meantime, the Troubled Asset Relief Program was announced. Bloomberg noticed that when a company announced that it was applying for TARP, its stock would jump. Investors felt better with a company that had the backing of the federal government. Therefore, this argument that knowing what banks were bailed out would cause competitive harm makes no sense.
• Bloomberg is now hoping to at least prove that the Board of Governors is FOIA-able.
  
• Bloomberg has launched a new iniative that has tasked all investigative reporters to use FOIA aggressively. In the Bloomberg terminals are built-in internal functions called FOIA Go, which provides guidelines and templates for FOI requests in most states and some nations.

Minnesota auditing:

• Rebecca Otto oversees local government spending. She helped revamp reports by telling her staff that if no one understands them, we're not doing our job. She aimed to make them understandable and nonpartisan. Her office did that by creating easy-to-read executive summaries with the report's most important information and references to page numbers of the report.
• Her office as overhauled the Web site so that audits and special investigations were easy to find online. She asked the media to sign up the her office's weekly newsletter, and she works closely with reporters to help them ensure their stories are accurate.
• When her office audits local governments, the audits are public. It's not as transparent when private CPAs audit local government. Their papers are sometimes proprietary. The same thing with special investigations done by her office versus by private investigators.
• James Nobles audits state government and outline four things needed for good government.

1. Strong laws that require records to be open. Minnesota has a presumption that all government data is public unless specifically classified by law as otherwise. Nobles would like to get to the point where citizens would have access to raw data related to the state's accounting system. The problem is how to also protect for privacy.
   
2. Active, vigorous citizen participation in government.
3. A vigorous media. Nobles worries about the diminished resources of media and whether investigative work will continue.
4. Paid agents of accountability. It's important in every state that there are independent agents to dig out data about how the government is spending money.
   

Great resources:

• States for a Transparent and Accountable Recovery
• Bailout Watch

NFOIC Summit: FOI & Infrastructure

James Shiffer, reporter and editor at the Minneapolis Star Tribune; Tisha Thompson, investigative reporter at WTTG Fox 5 in Washington, D.C.; and Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director and former computer-assisted reporting editor at St. Louis Post-Dispatch, discussed how to use FOI to inform the public about infrastructure issues. Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, moderated. Here are some notes from their session at the 2009 NFOIC Summit:

Lessons from the Minneapolis I-35W Bridge collapse:

• The Minneapolis I-35W Bridge collapsed at 6:05 p.m. a couple blocks from the Star Tribune office. James Shiffer said the Star Tribune had a suspicion that there was something in the bridge's history that would explain why the collapse occurred. Reporters used the National Bridge Inventory database as the basis for a front-page story. The bridge had been declared structurally deficient as recently as 2005.
  
• On Aug. 2, the paper filed its two first formal requests related to inspection and maintenance records. Reporters followed up with four additional requests that month about contractors who worked on the bridge. Minnesota Government Data Practices Act requires that relevant corporate records of government contractors are public.
• The conclusion was that the bridge had a design defect dated back 40 years. However, the paper did get Missouri Department of Transportation to acknowledge that part of it was bent. This was visible in photos, and at least one inspection noted the bending. You didn't have to be an engineer to notice.
• This was the most studied bridge in Minnesota. A Star Tribune columnist pointed out that when it was announced that a bridge had collapsed, a lot of people probably didn't have to ask which one.
• The Minnesota Department of Transportation was bombarded with records requests from journalists, lawyers, construction companies and victims. The organization did a good job early on in putting the inspection reports online. They couldn't argue that the information was protected because of homeland security. The bridge was gone.
• Shiffer said MDOT was not good at providing notes, photos and internal documents. The newspaper gave MDOT a draft lawsuit, which got them going. The excuse was that the inspectors were too busy making sure other bridges were safe to answer questions or find records. You want us to do our jobs, right? they asked. Four months later, MDOT dumped data online, but the system was difficult to use. The newspaper reporters were not allowed into the office to view the files.
• The National Transportation Safety Board completed its report, which included citations of documents and memos that MDOT hadn't turned over to the Star Tribune via FOIA and hadn't released on its database.
  
• Jaimi Dowdell said the St. Louis Post-Dispatch used bridge databases to conduct its own analysis the first day after the collapse. Then, reporters began analyzing similar St. Louis bridges by requesting audit and inspection records.
• Tisha Thompson noted that agencies shut down records after the Minnesota bridge collapse. They realized that the records tattled on them.

Lessons from bridges and dams coverage:

• From FOIA documents, Tisha Thompson reported on a Kentucky bridge with rusted bolts and rotten pillars and rails, a Baltimore bridge with loose timber beginning to decay and a D.C. bridge with a tree growing out of its side. (The tree was slowly pulling the bridge apart.)
• Thompson says stories on bridges and dams are the easiest to do because there are federal inspection requirements.
  
• When a dam broke in St. Louis, Jaimi Dowdell's team did an immediate story based on the National Inventory of Dams database. They then requested reports from state studies. In doing so, they found a state clause that sets up an agricultural exemption for dams to be inspected. So many dams were not being inspected because they were under a certain height. It turned into a watchdog story. You never know where FOI paths can take you.
• The dam database has been shut down to the public. It doesn't have data after 2002 because of homeland security concerns.
• Access to records often depends on the agency and who's in charge. Thompson recalled that Virginia shut down records on all 13,000 of its bridges because of homeland security. She had no problems getting dam inspection reports from dams. It was the opposite in Maryland.
• Thompson couldn't get data on a small bridge in the middle of nowhere because of homeland security concerns. Only 72 people passed over the bridge in a day. She explained the ridiculousness of this excuse. The furthest she got was being allowed to view documents in the office. She was not allowed to photocopy them.
• Thompson said that although agencies fought her on the data on the bridges, they replaced every bridge she covered.
• James Shiffer described one of his reporters who talked to the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers concern a dam that the Minnesota hoped to get stimulus money to rebuild. The reporter got full access to inspection reports because the state wanted it fixed. However, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers refused to speak with the reporter regarding another dam next to the Ford Plant that might have water seeping underneath it. The corp used the homeland security excuse. Eventually an interview was reluctantly arranged.
  

NFOIC Summit: Minnesota FOIA roundup

State-by-state updates at the 2009 NFOIC Summit: Helen Burke of the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information provided a summary of her state's FOI news.

• The governor's approach toward retention of e-mails is that they be kept up to 90 days, preferably 30 days.
• Minnesota took a step in the right direction with the Transparency and Accountability Project which includes vendor reports.
• Minnesota doesn't allow cameras in the courtroom, but the Supreme Court has said there can be a commission set up to explore this issue. It's moving at a glacial pace but in a good direction.
• The Uptake streamed the hearings regarding the Franken/Coleman senatorial election.
• Public access suffered a setback when the governor signed into law a bill that defines the Department of Natural Resources database as not a public database.
  

NFOIC announces 2009 summit

The National Freedom of Information Coalition and the Minnesota Coalition on Government Information bring you the 2009 FOI Summit from Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 5 - 6.

Access to information is protected and expanded by a vibrant FOI community at all levels.

The FOI Summit helps promote that, and your participation is vital.

Join us for lunch at noon on Friday, June 5, at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center as we launch the conference with opening remarks from Richard J. H. Varn, director of the Coalition for Sensible Public Records Access and the chief information officer for the City of San Antonio. Following that is the return of the ever-popular FOI Salon, which includes a moderated discussion of what's going on in all of the states.

Saturday, we'll have panels on FOI & Infrastructure, Financial Transparency, and FOI as Civics Education.

For our keynote address Saturday, we're proud to present Paul Anger, vice president and editor of the Detroit Free Press. Mr. Anger has nearly 40 years’ experience as a reporter and editor.

The Free Press, you'll remember, played a key part in the controversy surrounding the former Mayor of Detroit, his firing of whistleblowers, and the text messages that exposed his lies under oath. The existence and implementation of the Michigan Freedom of Information Act was a key factor in the media’s ability to help the public learn the truth.

Scheduled panelists include:

Paul Anger, Vice President/Editor, Detroit Free Press
Richard J. H. Varn, Director, Coalition for Sensible Public Records Access
Rebecca Otto, Auditor, State of Minnesota
James R. Nobles, Legislative Auditor, State of Minnesota
Jane E. Kirtley, Silha Professor of Media Ethics and Law, University of Minnesota School of Journalism & Mass Communication
Patrice McDermott, Director, OpenTheGovernment.org
Joel Kramer, CEO and Editor, MinnPost
James Schiffer, Reporter and Editor, StarTribune

Scheduled panels include:

Coalition Sustainability — How do you keep that fledgling FOI group going, or take the next step?

FOI and Infrastructure — The Minneapolis I-35W Bridge collapse placed laser-like focus on infrastructure issues, not only in Minnesota, but all over the country. A panel of experts will gather to discuss the use of FOI to inform the public about infrastructure issues.

FOI as Civics Education — Freedom of information is a core democratic value, and one that should be celebrated in classrooms coast to coast. The NFOIC welcomes a panel of education and civics experts to discuss the national renaissance in civics and how FOI can play a leading role.

Financial Transparency — At the same time that some in our government are making efforts to increase transparency with online tracking, others are refusing to divulge the specifics of who’s getting what. Meanwhile, folks in the FOI community are doing our best—with reporting, blogging, and special projects—to follow the money. Join us for the lowdown on government spending and fiscal accountability.

Contact: Charles Davis, Executive Director, National Freedom of Information Coalition
Phone (573) 882-5736
E-mail daviscn@missouri.edu

More here on how to register early and save on rates for the conference and lodging.

Sun isn't shining brightly in Midwestern states

In honor of Sunshine Week, the Citizen Advocacy Center released a study on open-government laws in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The research shows that open-government laws are "sporadically enforced," training for state employees on these policies is poor, and citizens are not provided with opportunities to participate rather than just attend meetings. Reports are available for each of the five states on the Midwest Democracy Network Web site, linked below.

While every state in the nation has laws that require public access to government records and meetings, in five Midwestern states that were recently analyzed, documents are often kept secret and doors can remain tightly closed.

According to a study released Wednesday by the Citizen Advocacy Center in celebration of Sunshine Week (March 15-21), open government laws in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota have systemic barriers that chill public participation and access to government, which weakens our democratic system designed to be by, for and of the people.

More here.

More state coverage of online availability survey

Survey: 65 percent of Minnesota government records online, Associated Press

When it comes to online access to state government records in Minnesota, the state is, well, slightly above average.

A survey by journalists and others found that 65 percent of the records checked were available online, compared to the national average of about 60 percent.

More here.

Tennessee not putting some public records online, Associated Press

While more and more government records are available with a few mouse clicks, Tennessee still does not provide some important state records and reports for free online.

A nationwide survey of state government information online found Tennessee, like many states, has no comprehensive database for state spending and doesn't put a variety of inspection reports online, including those for hospitals, child care centers and school buses and buildings.

More here.

Many key records available online, free in Colo., Associated Press

Coloradans can get a wide range of public records online at no charge, ranging from school test results to hospital inspection reports. But some key information is harder to find.

There's no single online source for school bus safety inspection reports, for example. And although death certificates are available online, it costs $9 more than getting them by mail or in person.

More here.

Public records easy to get in Arizona, study says, azfamily.com

When it comes to providing public records online, Arizona is one of the best in the nation.

A study by several journalism organizations found Arizona to be among the top 15 states in the nation for posting records on the internet.

More here.

SC 22nd in nation for online public records, Associated Press

Many of South Carolina's agencies are providing online access to public records - part of what appears to be a nationwide push to draw attention to the public's right to know what's going on in government.

Still, a new study shows that South Carolina trails 21 others that post more records online.

More here.

Minn. county tries to ban cameras at meetings

The group We Are Watching may no longer be able to record and post audio and video of St. Louis County Board meetings, Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune reported. Commissioners say the recorder is distracting and that the tapes are edited and taken out of context.

A St. Louis County commissioner has asked for a legal opinion on whether the board can ban citizens from recording some County Board meetings.

Keith Nelson of Eveleth raised the issue Tuesday at the board’s meeting in Duluth, saying he was concerned that he and other commissioners had been recorded at their Jan. 20 board workshop in Pike Lake.

The group We Are Watching records many County Board meetings, including the workshops, and often posts that audio and sometimes video on the group’s Web site, www.northernmnnews.com.

More here.

Great use of FOI in college athletics coverage

The eligibility issues surrounding prized recruit MarQueis Gray typify the academic question marks associated with the first full recruiting class of Gophers football coach Tim Brewster, according to data obtained by the Star Tribune.

Gray was the centerpiece of a group of 31 February signees that was ranked among the nation's top 20 by several recruiting services. But high-ranking university officials admit it was also a class filled with academic concerns.

The Star Tribune requested college entrance scores for incoming freshman football players from every Big Ten school last summer under the nation's Freedom of Information Act.

Minnesota's freshman class had the lowest scores among the eight Big Ten programs that complied with the request, and the scores were significantly lower than for the recruiting classes in the final years of Glen Mason, who coached the Gophers from 1997 to 2006.

More here.