FOIA at Work: ABC Spent $228 Million Filming "Lost"

The Honolulu Advertiser used a FOIA request to discover that the ABC series "Lost" spent $228 million filming in Hawaii from 2006 to 2009 and employed an average of 973 people for each of the four years.

For more information, click here.

Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council Opee Awards Announced

The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council announced its fourth annual Opee Awards to people and institutions that have had an impact on open government in the state.

The winners are:

Political Openness Advocate of the Year (the "Popee"): J.B. Van Hollen

Citizen Openness Advocate of the Year (the "Copee"): Daniel O. Wilson

Media Openness Advocate(s) of the Year (the "Mopee") (tie): The UWM Post and the Green Bay Press-Gazette

Open Records Scoop of the Year (the "Scoopee"): Tony Galli

No Friend of Openness Award (the "Nopee"): The Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA)

Dumbest Open Government Decision (the "Dopee"): Wisconsin Department of Corrections

Fore more about the winners, click here.

Mark Caramanica Named New FOI Director for Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press announced its new Freedom of Information Director is Mark R. Caramanica. Caramanica is a former trial attorney who is finishing his doctorate in Mass Communications at the University of Florida, where he also earned a bachelor's degree in economics and a law degree and master's degree in mass communication.

For more, click here.

Dash Cam Catches Police Excessive Force Incident

A Texan car dealer is suing the Carrollton police department after he was roughed up in a parking lot. The dealer, Shomari Staten, obtained the video through an open records request. The incident was caught on the squad dash cam.

Watch the video here.

Toyota's Not Sharing its "Black Box" Data

The Associated Press reviewed lawsuits nationwide and interviewed auto crash experts, and found that Toyota has blocked access to data stored in event data recorders, or EDRs. These EDRs are akin to airline "black boxes" and could help explain crashes blamed on sudden unintended acceleration.

The news organization found the information disclosed by the car maker has been inconsistent and sometimes contradictory. This "black box" information is emerging as a critical legal issue facing the company amid the recall of 8 million cars.

Toyota says it does share the EDR information with government regulators.

For more, read here.

New Jersey Toll-Takers Dole Out Insults with Change, Records Show

TheSmokingGun.com used the Freedom of Information Law to obtain more than 550 letters to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, complaining of mistreatment by toll collectors along the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike.

The site reports the following complaints:

One commuter claimed that a toll collector called him a "f---ing moron" for dropping a dime. Another said a toll-taker spit on his fingers before counting out the driver's change. A toll-taker even offered to flash a female driver to help her stay awake, the documents show.

The head of the toll collectors union insists that toll-takers are more often on the receiving end of abuse from drivers, though.

For more, click here.

Wyoming Coalition for Open Government Highlights Good and Bad Behavior

The Wyoming Coalition for Open Government handed out two awards to highlight good and bad behavior among state government officials.

The "First Amendment Hero" award went to Sweetwater County Attorney Brett Johnson for insisting that county commission meetings remain open when required by law.

The "Black Hole" award went to administrators of St. John's Medical Center in Jackson for withholding information about surgeries performed at the hospital.

For more about these award-winners, click here.

A Treasure Trove of Connecticut State Budget Information

The Yankee Institute, a libertarian Connecticut think tank, launched the website www.ctsunlight.org, which allows users to easily navigate through the state budget. The website was built with data from a massive FOI request to the state comptroller, and it includes information on individuals' salaries, pension payments, the amounts of checks to vendors, and more.

Read more here.

2009 Polk Award Winners

Long Island University announced its 13 George Polk Awards for 2009. A number of the recipients appear to have used FOIA and state open records laws in their reporting, including:

• The Bloomberg News team of Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry, Alison Fitzgerald and Craig Torres for their work to open the Federal Reserve Board's books on the bailout;
• Raquel Rutledge of The Journal Sentinel for investigating the fraud, waste, and criminal activity tied to the $350 million Wisconsin child-care system;
• George Pawlaczyk and Beth Hundsdorfer of The News-Democrat for an investigative series exposing cruel conditions in an Illinois "supermax" prison;
• A "60 Minutes" team of Steve Kroft and Leslie Cockburn for a segment detailing Wall Street's influence in speculative oil transactions;
• Kathy Chu of USA Today for a series showing how banks and credit-card issuers used unscrupulous practices and fees to gauge billions from customers;
• Charlie Reed, Kevin Baron and Leo Shane III of the independent military newspaper Stars and Strips for exposing the Pentagon's secret use of a PR company to steer reporters to "positive" coverage of the war in Afghanistan;
• David Grann of The New Yorker for an investigative report challenging the evidence against Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 after being convicted of setting a fire that killed his three young daughters;
• Abraham Lustgarten of ProPublica for investigating the potentially carcinogenic effects of hydraulic fracturing, a natural gas drilling process.

For more about the Polk Award winners, click here.

Records Show Who Wanted to be the New USF Football Coach

The Tampa Tribune filed a public records request to find out who applied for the University of South Florida head football coach position after the university dismissed former coach Jim Leavitt.

Although Skip Holtz got the job, records show that the university received materials from coaches all over the country who were interested in the position, but not from Holtz.

Click here to find out who applied for the spot.

Testing Illinois Localities on FOIA Compliance

The Herald-News did an interesting test of state and local government response times to new Illinois FOIA laws, which took effect January 1. The news organization sent FOIA requests to more than 100 local towns, school districts and counties, seeking information on where taxpayer money is being spent.

Check out the results here and an interactive feature here.

Illinois Police Officer Fell Asleep, Crashing Car Into Home's Foyer

Records released pursuant to a FOIA request reveal that a Wheaton, Illinois police officer fell asleep at the wheel of her squad car in September, causing her to crash the car through the front door of a house at 4 a.m.

Although no one was injured in the accident, the records show the officer said she fell asleep, but woke upon impact and believed she hit the gas pedal, accelerating through the front door.

The unnamed officer faces a possible suspension and disciplinary hearing after the city determines how much it will cost to repair the home. The officer's identity was redacted from records because of a clause in the contract between the union and the department.

Read more here.

CREW Files Suit to Obtain SEC Reform Documents

The legal watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington ("CREW"), filed a lawsuit seeking a court order that would require the SEC to provide documents the organization sought under FOIA on October 6. The group seeks records showing that the agency has implemented promised reforms in the wake of the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme.

The SEC says it has not yet provided the records because of the voluminous requests, but a spokesperson says they expect to release documents regarding the reforms later in January.

Get more information here.

New Vick Dogfighting Docs Released

The United States Department of Agriculture, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by WSBTV.COM, has released hundreds of pages of new evidence in its high-profile investigation of NFL quarterback Michael Vick.The newly released documents include summaries of interrogations conducted by federal investigators with member of Vick's dogfighting ring and with confidential informants in the case.

Story here.

The Robert Jackson Steering Committee Seeks Bush-Era Legal Memoranda Regarding Torture

On Thursday, January 7, an organization of attorneys, journalists and advocates filed a FOIA request for the DOJ's Office of Professional Responsibility's report regarding the conduct of President Bush's top lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel who authored memoranda purporting to authorize torture and aggressive war. The request also seeks a 10-page rebuttal of the 2008 report by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

See the request and transmittal letter here.

Contracts Obtained by FOIA Requests Show Football Coaches Rewarded for Performance, Not Academic, Successes

No surprise here. The San Francisco Chronicle obtained contracts from 70 public universities playing big-time football to see how "performance-based" bonuses compared to bonuses given to coaches for their players' academic achievement. On the whole, the paper found that the contracts are quite specific in the monetary rewards of winning on the field, but are much more vague when it comes to academic achievement bonuses.

For specifics on the contracts, including the coaches of University of Florida and UCLA, click here.

High Speed Chase Video Obtained by FOIA Request

Watch this video obtained by 24 Hour News 8 through a FOIA request of a high-speed crash involving a Michigan State Police trooper on September 19 when the trooper was trying to pull over a speeding motorcyclist.

FOIA Request Reveals How a School Lunch Program Ordered Recalled Tainted Beef

The USA Today obtained through FOIA that raises questions regarding whether the government took adequate steps to ensure meat purchased for schoolchildren is safe. During a recall of ground beef products made at Beef Packers Inc. from June 5 to June 23, four orders were produced for the National School Lunch Program.

Get the full report here.

Open Records Advocate Says He Knows How to Save the Government Billions

Open records advocate Carl Malamud obtained information through a FOIA request showing that the Department of Justice paid more than $4 million in 2009 and the IRS paid nearly $1 million in 2008 for access to the federal court's electronic filing system, which is composed entirely of documents in the public domain. Malamud says an open source repository of U.S. legal materials could save the government billions of dollars.

Malamud has filed 34 requests with federal agencies and is preparing to file another 100 to offices in the executive branch as part of his campaign to make court records available in bulk.

The federal courts search system known as Public Access to Court Electronic Records, or PACER, charges $.08 per page to look at federal court filings (excluding tax courts and the Supreme Court) and pulled in nearly $50 million in 2006. The system does not allow for bulk download.

For more information about Malamud's campaign, click here.

FOIA Suits Filed to Gain Information About Federal Bailout Programs

Public interest investigation group Judicial Watch has filed two new FOIA lawsuits against the Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve for their respective failures to provide information about the federal government's bailout programs.

The group filed a request with the Treasury Department on June 19, 2009 relating to a congressional briefing on the financial crisis held on September 18, 2008. The Treasury Department acknowledged receipt of the FOIA request on June 22, but has not yet produced any documents or indicated when documents will be provided.

Similarly, Judicial Watch made a FOIA request with the Federal Reserve on September 2, 2009, seeking access to visitor logs for meetings with Chairman Ben Bernanke and advisor Kevin Warsh from August 2007 to the present. The Federal Reserve acknowledged the request, but has not yet produced any records.

For more information, click here.