A FOIA Request Yields a Cost Demand Figure with Two Commas in it!

Nearly $7 million dollars, with more than $3 million as a down payment.  That's the amount the Michigan Department of State Police is demanding in response to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's FOIA request for documents regarding the state's handling of federal security grant money from 2002 to the present.  

The Department of State Police says the records request for all spending reports regarding federal homeland security grants from 2002 to the present amounts to more than 2 million pages.  

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Defense Department's information systems remain unreliable

Journalists aren't the only ones struggling for accurate information from the Defense Department. According to a column on govexec.com, Air Force leaders have struggled to obtain up-to-date information reports needed to make crucial decisions on determining risks and assessing readiness. The column goes on to describe the Air Force's Transparency Integrated Product Team:

Like nearly all responsibilities of government, defending the nation's citizens and interests is driven by knowledge. National defense not only requires knowledge of an adversary's intent and capability, but also of the U.S. military's resources and readiness to deter, dissuade, disrupt or defeat the unwanted action by the enemy.

During the past six decades, the Defense Department has developed thousands of information systems to support decision-making. Interconnectivity at the machine-to-machine level of these systems is uneven. As a result, leaders at every level of the Air Force must often rely on manual, labor-intensive processes to obtain information that should be readily available.

At units worldwide, for example, commanders and directors routinely must know their "burn rates," or how quickly they are spending allocated funds, particularly compared with similar units. They must determine variables ranging from whether their people and equipment are ready for deployment to whether discrepancies noted in workplace and housing inspections have been resolved. Yet obtaining routine information reports can be challenging and time-consuming.

The root causes are many. In large organizations, critical data are scattered across components, time zones and information systems. As these pockets of data are connected machine to machine, meaningful information can be extracted across the entire organization. Otherwise, the data assist only a limited few.

More here.

Tight Security on the Report, Anyway...

nitial findings from an internal investigation into apparent security lapses the night of the Governor's Mansion fire may be kept under wraps, thanks to a state secrecy law, insiders familiar with the inquiry acknowledged Wednesday.

The Texas Public Safety Commission, which oversees the state Department of Public Safety that is in charge of Mansion security, is slated today to discuss the fire and the resulting investigations, including "possible action on deployment and implementation of security personnel or devices in the Capitol Complex," according to the meeting agenda filed with the Texas secretary of state.

Two sources familiar with the investigation said the commission probably will meet behind closed doors to discuss the mansion fire, citing exemptions in the Texas Open Meetings Act and Homeland Security laws that allow for such secrecy.

The rationale is that revealing details of mansion security might interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation of the fire and might compromise mansion security in the future. The two sources asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Commission Chairman Allan Polunsky declined to discuss specifics. Immediately after the fire, Polunsky ordered security fully reviewed at the mansion.

More here.