Criminal Deportees Often Fly Solo on Commercial Airlines

Immigration and Customs Enforcement records and officials show illegal immigrants routinely fly on commercial airlines without an escort when being deported.  

The Houston Chronicle reports:

“This is an absolute risk to public safety,” said Chris Crane, ICE Council 118's vice president for Detention and Removal Operations.“And it's happening every day.”

Of the 27,899 illegal immigrants put on commercial airlines last year for deportation at a cost of nearly $44 million, more than 75 percent flew unescorted, according to ICE data.

Click here for more.

Clemson University Chopped Down 118 Acres of Trees; Conservation Groups Want to Know Why

A nature conservation group, Chattooga Conservancy, sent a FOI request to Clemson University on July 15 seeking records relating "to the past or future planned sale of timber on any properties owned or held by Clemson University."  According to a report from independentmail.com of Anderson, South Carolina, the University has not yet responded to the request.  Clemson attorneys say the request needs clarification as to the records sought and that the interest in the property "would seem to be beyond the published scope of the Conservancy's missions or goals."  Copies of the records will cost the organization $600.

The request came after Clemson clear cut 118 acres of timber on the Simpson Agricultural Research Farm.  Buzz Williams of the Chattooga Conservancy said the clear cutting included stands of trees 200 years old that protected animals and plants and prevented erosion.  Williams said the University did not properly evaluate the biological diversity of the land before chopping down the forest.  

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Open Records Advocates Seek to Remove Exemptions to FOIA

Tom Curley, president and chief executive of The Associated Press, testified on behalf of the Sunshine in Government Initiative at a hearing regarding the Office of Government Information Services.  He noted there is still a "secrecy reflex" in place at many federal agencies, despite the Obama's new standards for government openness.   

Curley cited more than 240 statutes that agencies may use for denying FOIA requests.

Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) have introduced legislation in the Senate that would require any such exemptions to be clearly stated, rather than be buried in the legislation.  The legislation has passed the Senate twice but has not yet been considered by the House.

Get more information here.  Read Curley's testimony here.

Connecticut Physicians Say FOI Undercuts the Peer Review Process

In a split decision, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that peer review privileges do not apply to public records requests filed by patients, stating the privilege only applies in the context of court actions.

The case stems from a former patient's request regarding a state hospital's decision not to renew a doctor's clinical privileges.  

Physicians say the ruling will have a chilling effect on the peer review process for state hospitals and could potentially have an adverse effect on private practices as well. 

In the decision, the majority court said the Legislature would need to fix any perceived flaws in the law.  

For more information, click this link from amednews.com.  

FOI Request Reveals Millions Spent on PR Campaign for Honolulu Rail

HonoluluAdvertiser.com reports $5.6 million have been spent on a public information campaign for a planned Honolulu rail project, with $3 million of the spending occurring since June 30, 2008.  Critics say the campaign went beyond public information to advocacy and lobbying efforts in advance of the November 2008 vote on the rail project.  The East Kapolei to Ala Moana rail project passed by a 51 percent to 46 percent margin.

The spending was disclosed in response to an August 27 FOI request by The Advertiser.   Get the full report here. 

EPA Database Reveals Tainted Water in Schools

The Charleston Daily Mail reports that an Associated Press investigation of water in schools revealed thousands of schools across the nation with unsafe levels of  lead, pesticides and dozens of other toxins.

"The AP analyzed an EPA database showing federal drinking water violations from 1998 to 2008 in schools with their own water supplies. The findings:

Water in about 100 school districts and 2,250 schools breached federal safety standards.

Those schools and districts racked up more than 5,550 separate violations. In 2008, the EPA recorded 577 violations, up from 59 in 1998 - an increase that officials attribute mainly to tougher rules.

California, which has the most schools of any state, also recorded the most violations with 612, followed by Ohio (451), Maine (417), Connecticut (318) and Indiana (289).

Nearly half the violators in California were repeat offenders. One elementary school in Tulare County, in the farm country of the Central Valley, broke safe-water laws 20 times.

The most frequently cited contaminant was coliform bacteria, followed by lead and copper, arsenic and nitrates."

Get the complete report here.

What Did the Austin School District Want in a New Superintendent?

Answers can be found in documents and notes produced pursuant to the Texas Public Information Act. While state law allows school districts to withhold superintendent candidate names, the Texas Attorney General said Austin could not withhold records by arguing that the documents would lead to a candidate's identification.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that, as of July 2009, the school district had spent $20,000 trying to keep the documents private, arguing that secrecy was necessary to preserve the district's ability to conduct superintendent searches that would "attract the maximum number of good candidates."

More here.

Recalcitrant Officials Stymie Public Records Requests in Massachusetts

The Boston Globe brings us this story of the frustrations of dealing with obfuscatory officials who evade public records laws by charging exorbitant fees or by unreasonable delay.

Here is an excerpt, showing how the state's laws make it easy it is for Massachusetts officials to evade the open records laws:

Jon Albano, a First Amendment lawyer with Bingham McCutchen who frequently represents the Globe in battles for public records, said the lack of an enforcement mechanism in Massachusetts allows officials to virtually ignore Galvin’s demands.

“They don’t have to comply with his orders, so they treat them like advisory opinions,’’ Albano said. “Across the state, government officials really and truly do not take the public records law as seriously as they take their other responsibilities.’’

Albano said enforcement of the law would be enhanced by a streamlined process for hearing public records disputes in the courts.

Indeed, with no power to fine or otherwise discipline uncooperative officials, Galvin must rely on the attorney general’s office, which is often reluctant to take action against state agencies in public records cases, perhaps because the office represents those same agencies in other legal matters.

And if the attorney general declines to act, those stymied in their request for public records must rely on the courts, where the cost of filing a lawsuit may be prohibitive and the time it takes to obtain a decision may render the value of the information moot.

Wisconsin One Step Closer to a Reporter's Shield Law

The Wisconsin Assembly passed the Whistleblower Protection Act, which is the state's first shield law for reporters.

From the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press:

The Wisconsin bill, which would offer a qualified privilege for reporters and their confidential sources, would be the 38th state-level shield law if enacted. But before the Wisconsin bill becomes law, it must also pass in the state senate and obtain the governor's signature. Gov. Jim Doyle is generally supportive of the idea but hasn't reviewed the bill yet, the Associated Press reported.

More here.

Holder Announces DOJ Policies re: State Secrets Privilege

Attorney General Eric Holder today released new policies and procedures for the Department of Justice regarding the invocation of the state secrets privilege in litigation. The policies go into effect on October 1.

The policies are designed to "strengthen public confidence that the U.S. Government will invoke the privilege in court only when genuine and significant harm to national defense or foreign relations is at stake and only to the extent necessary to safeguard those interests."

Under the new policies, the Justice Department will not defend an assertion of the privilege from a government department or agency without the personal approval of the Attorney General. It also establishes a State Secrets Review Committee comprised of senior DOJ officials designated by the Attorney General.

When seeking to invoke the privilege, the department or agency must make a sufficient showing that the privilege is necessary to protect information that could lead to significant harm to national defense or foreign relations.

The new policies announce that the Justice Department will not invoke the privilege to conceal violations of law, inefficiency, or administrative error; to prevent embarrassment; to restrain competition; or to delay the release of information undeserving of the state secrets privilege.

More from the Washington Post here and The Hill here.

Mississippi Ethics Commission to Clarify State Public Records Law

The eight-member Mississippi Ethics Commission intends to adopt a set of rules to clarify the state public records law, which the Commission's executive director describes as "skeletal." The Commission hopes the rules will provide guidance and consistency for how the laws are applied throughout the state.

Get the article here, and for the proposed public ethics rules, click here.

Tightening the EMS Information Laws in South Carolina

Four state legislators from South Carolina have vowed to support a change in state law that would open public access to local EMS data to help improve oversight of those departments. Last month, the S.C. Attorney General's Office said that information regarding EMS operations, including ambulance response times, cannot be made public, citing to patient privacy concerns.

IslandPacket.com reports:

The current law, which took effect five years ago, is "broader than it needs to be," said Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort. "We need to err on the side of transparency in oversight of government."

"There are some legitimate restrictions on data, such as patients' names and specific medical conditions, said Davis, who had not been elected when the law passed. "We have to protect those, but also be careful not to throw the baby out with bath water and provide no transparency. The law needs to be more narrowly drawn."

Get the full story here.

Trying to Keep Up with Technology

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum's trying to keep pace with technology. Following the scandal surrounding three members of the Florida Public Service Commission who gave their Blackberry PIN numbers to lobbyists, which could mean communications sent outside the state record-keeping channels, McCollum proposed a measure encouraging state agencies to begin capturing any state-related communications that staff or officials receive via text messages.

For more information, click here.

Green Bay Must Yield Redacted Legal Invoices to Newspaper

A Wisconsin judge ordered the city of Green Bay to turn over redacted legal invoices to the Green Bay Press-Gazette in response to an open records request by the paper. The newspaper had requested legal invoices paid by the city for all outside legal counsel worked in 2007 and 2008.

The city had initially provided only a summary of the work preformed by the city by outside law firms and the amounts paid to them and objected to producing the invoices saying they contained attorney-client privileged information.

Brown County Circuit Court Judge J.D. McKay ordered the city to produce the bills by October 2 with the confidential or attorney-client privileged information redacted.

For more, click here.

Computer Forensics Experts Investigate Whether Boston Mayor's Office Violated Public Records Laws

After a senior aide to Boston Mayor Thomas Menino produced only 18 emails in response to a Boston Globe request spawning a six-month period, an independent computer forensics specialist is examining the computer and software to help determine if the mayor's office violated public records laws.

For more information, click here.

U.S. Intelligence Costs Revealed

For the first time, the overall costs of U.S. government and military intelligence has been disclosed - $75 billion a year.

The Washington Post reports:

The $75 billion figure incorporated spending by the nation's 16 intelligence agencies, referred to collectively as the national intelligence program (NIP), as well as amounts spent by the Pentagon on so-called military intelligence program (MIP) activities in support of troops in the field in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, officials said.

Under pressure from Congress and advocacy groups, the U.S. government has taken some steps in recent years to open its books on some intelligence spending.

Get the article here.

Wisconsin Decides Whether Personal Emails Are Public Records

The Wisconsin Supreme Court will hear a case in November that decides whether personal emails of public employees are subject to the state's open records laws. The case stems from the request of a private citizen who wanted to know if public school teachers were violating school policy by using work email to discuss school board elections. When asked for email messages "from the computer [the teachers] use[d] during their school work day," teachers objected to providing emails of a purely personal nature. The Court must decide whether the public interest in disclosure trumps the privacy and "reputational" rights of Wisconsin citizens.

More here.

So What Exactly is "Systemic Risk"?

A recently-filed lawsuit seeks to an answer to this question. Plaintiff Vern McKinley is suing the FDIC and the Federal Reserve to get answers to his FOIA requests on last year's bailouts. The Wall Street Journal reports on McKinley's efforts:

Last December, Mr. McKinley sent a FOIA request to the Fed to find out what Fed governors meant when they said a Bear Stearns failure would cause a "contagion." This term was used in the publicly-released minutes of the Fed meeting at which the central bank discussed plans by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to finance Bear's sale to J.P. Morgan Chase. The minutes contained only the vague warning of doom, without any detail on how exactly the fall of Bear would destroy America. Mr. McKinley's request sought the supporting documents for this conclusion.

He also requested minutes of the autumn FDIC board meeting at which regulators approved financing for a Citigroup takeover of Wachovia. To provide this assistance, the board had to invoke the "systemic risk" exception in the Federal Deposit Insurance Act, and therefore had to assert that such assistance was necessary for the health of the financial system. Yet days later, Wachovia cut a better deal to sell itself to Wells Fargo, instead of Citi. So how necessary was the FDIC's offer of assistance?

After Mr. McKinley sued the agency this summer, the FDIC coughed up a previously undisclosed staff memo to the FDIC board. Again, the agency redacted the substance, providing roughly two pages of text from the nine-page original. The section of the memo titled "Systemic Risk" was entirely erased. As for the Fed, it blew off Mr. McKinely's initial request and has since responded mainly with some highly uninformative letters from the Fed staff to Congress.

More here.

Visiting Dignitaries Cost Floridians

The Miami Herald reports that Floridians picked up a $300,000 tab for security and protection costs of visiting dignitaries for the fiscal year ending June 30. Part of a reciprocal agreement with other states to guarantee the protection of high-profile leaders, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials say the state's costs are so high because it's a popular destination spot.

Floridians paid $10,664 for Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry to attend a family friend's wedding last summer and the BCS Championship football game in January. They also paid $6,300 for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford's four visits to the Sunshine State.

More here.

Open Records Victory in Kentucky

The Kentucky Open Government Blog reports on the victory of Kentucky New Era reporter Sarah Hogsed who had filed a records request for restaurant inspection reports with the Pennyrile District Health Department.

Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway said the health department subverted the intent of the Open Records Act and took the opportunity to clarify Kentucky law on open records, as reported by the blog:

The opinion said the district's excuse for the delay – absence of staff – was not sufficient. The opinion added “in the interest of absolute clarity,” that those who ask for public records cannot be required to submit their requests on preprinted forms, or sign forms in the presence of an agency employee; that receipt of records no longer requires on-site inspection; that agencies may recover only their actual costs of reproducing public records, not including staff time, if the records are to be used for a noncommercial purpose, including use by a newspaper or periodical. The department had indicated that it considered the paper a commercial interest. "We suppose the notion that the news media act in the public interest had escaped the health department," the opinion said.

Is Obama's Open Government Initiative Technologically Feasible?

Obama's open government directive will include a schedule for data distribution in formats that are machine-readable, says the Federal Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra.

But some e-government interest groups say that's unrealistic because most agency data exists in PDF format, which is not machine-readable and from which data cannot be easily extracted.

That makes the transfer of legacy data difficult, but one e-government advocate says newly created data could be stored in a new PDF/A version that is more suitable for long-term preservation.

For more information, click here.

Oh Come On... From the You-Can't-Be-Serious Files Comes This Absurdity from Oregon

Check out this blog post -- It reports the absurdity of the Oregon attorney general's claim of copyright protection over a state-produced guide to using public records.

Let's see if the AG has the gall to go after Professor Bill Harbaugh of the University of Oregon, who has posted a copy of the guidebook on his website!

EMS Data Off Limits, According to South Carolina AG Opinion

Ambulance response times and other details on EMS operations can't be made available to the public because of patient privacy concerns, says a recent opinion from the South Carolina Attorney General interpreting a state statute.

The non-binding of the AG has already prompted one state senator, Sen. Harvey Peeler Jr. (R-Cherokee), to draft a new bill that would make much EMS data available to the public.

The AG opinion has also drawn the ire of freedom of information advocates who say ambulance response times is public information vital for oversight of the EMS's system performance.

Read the Island Packet article here.

September 22 - Terror Media Event at the International Spy Museum

On Tuesday, September 22, at 6:30 p.m., the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC presents "Terror Media: Free Speech or Dangerous Weapon?"

Terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, the PKK, and others have used their own media outlets to glorify suicide bombings, incite violence, recruit terrorists, and fundraise online. Should governments shut down terror media or shield it as "protected free speech?" And how can new media be used against violent extremists? The distinguished panel exploring these issues will include: Juan Zarate, former deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism and former assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes; Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who has helped shut down Hezbollah and other terrorist owned-media around the world; Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, who has spoken out in support of free speech regardless of viewpoint; and Todd Stein, legislative director for Senator Lieberman, and author of the congressional document exposing how terrorist organizations use online media.

Best of all, event sponsors are offering readers of the FOI Advocate blog a discounted ticket price! For more information and to purchase a ticket, click here. As a benefit of your readership, enter “007member” when purchasing your ticket to receive a discount.

Federal Reserve Ordered to Disclose Recipients of Emergency Loans

Bloomberg LP won a FOIA suit against the Federal Reserve System for disclosure of the financial firms it lent to or disclose the amounts or the assets put up as collateral under emergency lending programs.

In ordering the Fed Reserve to comply with the FOIA request, the court accepted Bloomberg's arguments that U.S. taxpayers need to know the terms of Fed lending because the public became an “involuntary investor” in the nation’s banks as the government began shoring up companies with capital injections and loans. The court rejected the central bank's argument that loan records aren’t covered by the law because their disclosure would harm borrowers’ competitive positions.

For more information, click here.

FOI at Work -- How Federal Funds Are Wasted in California

California Watch, a reporting unit of the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting, culled thousands of pages of documents and found a multitude of "wasteful spending, purchasing violations, error-prone accounting and shoddy oversight" at California agencies during the years immediately following 9/11. Critics say all the money didn't result in a safer California either.

The group fears the same shoddiness will plague state use of federal economic stimulus money if there isn't any proper oversight of the use of the funds.

Get the extensive report here.

A Kentucky Bill Would Make State Retirement Benefits Trigger Open Records Compliance

From the Kentucky Open Government Blog comes this report about Kentucky Rep. Arnold Simpson, D-Covington, who has pre-filed a bill that would make any organization whose employees get state retirement benefits subject to the Kentucky Open Records Act.

The bill stems from two organizations who claimed they were exempt from the open records act even though they receive more than 25 percent of their budgets from public funds, the law's threshold for public inspection.

An Update - Appealing the Decision Withholding the Names of Supporters for Referendum 71

Washington State says it will appeal the decision of a federal judge to block the release of the names of supporters for Referendum 71, which is described as an effort to overturn the state's "everything but marriage" same-sex domestic partner law.

Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna will ask for an expedited review by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. McKenna criticized the ruling as "a step away from open government."

For more information, see the seattlepi.com article here and the Seattle Times article here.

Here's another article from thestranger.com.

Birth Dates Battle at the Texas Supreme Court

The Texas Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding whether the birth dates of approximately 145,000 state workers are public records. The case stems from a 2005 request from The Dallas Morning News for an updated state payroll database. The Texas Comptroller refused to provide the birth dates for the state workers, arguing the release of birth dates could lead to identity theft. Open records advocates note that such information is available from other public records, including voter registration polls.

The case is Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts vs. Attorney General of Texas and The Dallas Morning News. For more information, click here.

Update - Florida Public Service Commission to Face Grand Jury Investigation

Following up with a story we told you about the potential PIN-to-PIN messaging being used by Florida utility executives and Public Service Commission (PSC) members to avoid a paper trail, the Miami Herald reports a PSC lobbyist resigned in the midst of the controversy and Commissioner Nancy Argenziano has called for a grand jury investigation into any influence on the PSC from utility companies.

Get the full scoop here.

In New Mexico, Emails About Public Business are Public Information Regardless of Account Used

Emails between the mayor and city councilors of Las Vegas have been released following a ruling by the New Mexico Attorney General. The attorney general 's office stated that emails regarding "public business" are "public information," even if the emails were sent by officials using a private computer, and thus, are subject to disclosure.

Click here for more information.

University of Iowa Faculty Not Subject to Open Meeting Law

After consulting with the University of Iowa General Counsel's Office and the Iowa Attorney General, a University of Iowa faculty leader said faculty government meetings are not subject to the Iowa Open Meeting law.

The question arose during an August state Board of Regents meeting when regents questioned the use of closed-door session by faculty government and whether the state open meeting statute applied.

Some professors disagree with the use of executive or closed sessions.

For more information, click here.

Open Meetings Law Stands in Fifth Circuit

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Dallas (Fifth Circuit) dismissed as moot a challenge to the Texas Open Meetings Act, holding that the plaintiff lacked proper standing to sue. In the case, former city council members had asserted the law violated their rights to exchange e-mail messages discussing city business in secret.

For more on the procedural history of the case and the dissenting opinion of judge James L. Dennis, please see the article from The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Information about Wisconsin Judges and District Attorneys Kept Secret

A change to a bill intended to increase government transparency does the opposite with regard to information about property owned by Wisconsin judges and district attorneys.

The Wisconsin Assembly's Committee on Judiciary and Ethics approved the change to the bill, which allows the state Government Accountability Board to post annual economic interest statements of public officials online.

But the property information of judges and district attorneys would be kept secret on grounds of safety concerns.

Members of the public seeking the annual economic interest statements must provide their names and addresses when making the request.

Read the full story from the Journal Sentinel here.

FOIA Request Shows Gaps in ICE Detention Records

Based on records obtained by the Associated Press through FOIA requests, the Washington Post reports that think tank Migration Policy Institute has identified several gaps in the record-keeping of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

These gaps include:

* whether an immigrant must be detained;
* whether a detainee is dangerous;
* whether a detainee might have a claim to U.S. citizenship; and
* whether a immigrant has a special medical condition or mental health issues.

The think tank also says ICE's database should include answers to procedural questions that would ensure the federal government is not holding the immigrants indefinitely.

Open Government Directive Coming Soon...

Just another few weeks, says the government's first CTO, Aneesh Chopra, regarding a new open government directive.

The first step of the directive will be a mandate for federal agencies to enact structural changes so that open government principles become part of their "institutional fabric," reports internetnews.com.

Additionally, the directive will ask agencies t bring more data online and in a machine-readable format, as opposed to PDFs.

Get the full report here.

FOIA Request Reveals Contradictory Evidence to ODNI's Statement that Iran is Assisting the Taliban

From the Asia Times Online comes a report from Gareth Porter, an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy, that a statement made by the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Dennis Blair, may be incorrect.

The Federation of American Scientists released Blair's February 12, 2009 testimony responses to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence under the Freedom of Information Act on July 30. In support of the assertion that Iran is supporting the Taliban, Blair cited a statement by a Taliban commander attributing military success against NATO forces to Iran.

Gareth's reporting details how the evidence from the U.S. Department of Defense, Canadian forces in Afghanistan, and the Taliban contradicts the Taliban commander, instead suggesting that increased damage to NATO tanks stems from anti-tank mines provided by the U.S. to the jihadi movement against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Please read the full report for more information.

Two Different Approaches to Email Use During City Council Meetings

First, let's start with an example of what not to do, brought to us by Seattle's komonews.com:

A Kirkland City, Washington city council member has admitted to using city email for personal use, including lewd conversations with his girlfriend. Discovered during a records request from conservative watchdog group, Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Bob Sternoff's emails reveal he was having racy conversations with his girlfriend while city council was in session.

The Kirkland City council voted to have a law firm investigate the emails, but they could stand a lesson from South Haven in southwest Michigan.

South Haven City Clerk Amanda Morgan addressed the City Council regarding the need for a new policy regarding electronic communications during meetings, including emails between council members and city residents.

In an effort to comply with the spirit of the Michigan Open Meetings Act, the proposed new policy is to discourage email use during the meetings and to use an "office assistant" feature to direct incoming emails to the city clerk during city meetings. Others suggest the policy doesn't go far enough and that emailing during a public meeting should be outlawed.

2009 Secrecy Report Card

Hot off the presses -- OpenTheGovernment.org released its 2009 Secrecy Report Card today. It details slight decreases in secrecy across a variety of indicators during the last year of the Bush-Cheney administration. It also provides a six-month overview of the Obama administration's track record on openness issues as well as a section on financial transparency during the economy crisis.

Highlights include:

• Almost $200 Spent Creating and Securing Old Secrets for Every Tax Dollar Spent Declassifying
The government spent nearly $200 maintaining the secrets already on the books for every one
dollar the government spent declassifying documents in 2008, a 2% increase in one year. At
the same time, 16% fewer pages were declassified than in 2008.

• Reported Invocations of the "States Secrets" Privilege Continue to Rise
Invoked only 6 times between 1953 and 1976, the privilege has been used a reported 48
times—an average of 6 times per year in 8 years (through 2008)—more than double the aver-
age (2.46) in the previous 24 years.

• President Bush Surpassed All Presidents Since Kennedy in Assertions of Executive Privilege
President G.W. Bush asserted Executive Privilege 6 times in response to congressional re-
quests, as of August 21, 2008.

• 2,083 Orders of the Secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
The Department of Justice reported that, in 2008, the FISC approved 2,083 orders—rejecting
one and approving two left over from the previous year.

Get the complete report here.

PIN-to-PIN Communication to Skirt Sunshine Laws

Three aides to a Florida utility regulators repeatedly sent private PIN-to-PIN Blackberry codes to an utility executive, which could allow the utility to communicate with the regulators out of public view and without a paper trail.

A St. Petersburg Times blog states:

"State law prohibits PSC commissioners from discussing a pending rate case with utility officials but it specifically excludes PSC staff from the ban. A 1991 grand jury report recommended that the statute be changed to close that loophole but it was never amended.

PSC rules forbid staffers and commissioners from discussing certain types of commission business out of the public eye with those who appear before the regulatory panel. Under state law, a commissioner who engages in such discussions -- called 'ex parte communications' -- and who fail to report them could face a $5,000 fine and even removal."

For the full report, click here.

Three Articles Regarding the Obama Administration's Efforts Toward Transparency

During his campaign, Obama pledged to run the most transparent administration in history. Nextgov.com reports that open government advocates are criticizing the administration's efforts in fulfilling this campaign promise, saying the administration is placing too much emphasis on building websites rather than publishing information.

But, in a break with previous administrations, the Obama administration will release the names of visitors to the White House beginning in mid-September, reports USA Today.

The Secret Service will disclose electronic visitor logs, including the names of the visitors and who set up the meeting as well as where it was held and for how long within within three to four months of the visit. Information relating to cases of national security, extreme confidentiality or strictly personal visits to the first family would not be released.

"We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside," Obama said. "Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process."

Archon Fung, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, offers his views on how the administration should go about fulfilling the campaign promise.

Open Government Advocates Oppose Exempting Terrorist Identity Information from the Freedom of Information Act

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and nine other open government advocates are asking the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to strike a provision from the Intelligence Reauthorization Act of 2010 that would exempt all terrorist identity information (TII) from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The organizations say the provision is redundant of an existing Executive Order and is overbroad in its reach.

Read the full story here.

Oklahoma City Refuses to Release Employee Birth Dates, Citing Identity Theft Concerns

In what one open government expert calls "absurd" and a misinterpretation of a law designed to prevent the state Public Safety Department from releasing their driver's license records, Oklahoma City officials denied the request of The Oklahoman for a city employee's date of birth. In denying the request, the city cited two exceptions to the Oklahoma Open Records Act, which prevent the disclosure of "personal information within driver records" and records that "constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

Open records advocates criticize the city's refusal, saying there is no statistical or anecdotal evidence showing public records are a source for identity thieves. Experts also note that the information sought is not private because it can be located in other public records.

For the complete story, click here.

Criminals Denied Public Records Based on Motivation

Twice last week government agencies in Washington did not have to fill the public records requests of criminals or those accused, according to The Daily Weekly.

In the most recent instance, King County Jail nurses won a court order to prevent two men accused of murder from getting access to their full names and other personnel records that would normally be available to the public.

The first instance related to the records-requesting efforts of inmate Allan Parmalee, which King County Superior Court Judge Palmer Robinson ruled were "made to harass and intimidate the agencies to which the requests were submitted and the public employees who are the subjects of the requests." Robinson also said Parmalee's requests "would likely threaten the safety of public employees, officials, and their families."

The government's success in the Parmalee matter derives from a new state law allowing the agency to attempt to block the records request of a convicted criminal serving jail time if the requests appear to be made for the purpose of harassing or harming someone.

Tackling Open Records on the Gridiron

Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples is trying to collect the weekly ballots of the 51 public school coaches who vote in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Last spring, the American Football Coaches Association ruled to keep the poll private starting in 2010. The Birmingham News writes:

"The idea is to promote transparency in a poll that makes up one-third of the Bowl Championship Series formula. With help from transparent Harris Poll ballots and computer rankings, the BCS formula determines who plays for the national championship and helps place other teams in multi-million dollar bowl games."

Ge the story here.

Great column on New Jersey FOI reform effort

A nice look at New Jersey sunshine reforms by Ron Miskoff, president of the New Jersey Foundation for Open Government, here:

The latest, if not the last, episode of corruption in New Jersey's political class has politicians of all stripes scurrying for ways to demonstrate that they are not part of a problem.

They have statements on this, committees on that and postures on the other thing. But it's difficult to put much faith in reforms that start only when television lights go on.

There's a common link between black-market livers and cash sandwiches, between back-channel approvals and parking-lot deals. They all happen in the dark. A culture of corruption takes hold behind closed doors, during private meetings in back rooms.

Well before the current hubbub, state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Bergen) introduced legislation to update the state's Open Public Meetings Act, the Sunshine Law.

A Couple of E-Mail Stories to Pass Along...

E-mail continues to bedevil transparency, as these stories demonstrate.

In Wilmington, N.C., the city is making sweeping changes to its employee e-mail policies after a StarNews inquiry uncovered significant violations of state public records laws.

The StarNews found that city council members and many top-ranking city employees routinely shielded e-mails from a public server by marking “private” in subject lines. The e-mails included discussions about important and controversial city issues, such as the annexation of Monkey Junction, the downtown convention center, the police helicopter, lawsuits against the city and complaints about city services.

The story here, and the database of all 36,000 "private" city e-mails here.

And in Wisconsin, The state Senate will review its e-mail use and retention policies after a lawsuit uncovered how employees in one senator's office used personal accounts for state business, a spokeswoman said this week.

Carrie Lynch, spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, said some employees use private accounts when they work from home rather than logging into the state system because it is faster and more convenient.

Lynch said the practice would likely be allowed to continue, but a new policy could advise staff members how to make sure the records are maintained for public access.

"This has never really come up before," she said. "Now that it has, we'll definitely take a look at drafting a policy that would accommodate this to ensure that everyone knows the rules from here on out."

She said the review would also consider whether legislative offices must ask the Legislative Technology Services Bureau to check its backup system for records when served with an open records request.

Both issues have been highlighted by a lawsuit brought by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin that claims Sen. Dan Kapanke failed to turn over public records about two events in response to its request. Kapanke's chief of staff, Rose Smyrski, testified last week she routinely used a Yahoo account for work at nights and on weekends.

Story here.

Documents being withheld based on privilege

From the Tacoma News Tribune:

Washington’s open records law is far from absolute. Over the years, lawmakers have granted more than 300 exceptions to its broad mandate for public disclosure.

But the common theme among most of those exemptions is that they reside explicitly in state law. Government agencies and citizens may not always agree on whether an exemption should apply, but at least they are both reading from the same page.

Not so with the nebulous “privilege” invoked by the Legislature and governor. In at least three publicized instances this year – and perhaps more lesser-known ones – the legislative and executive branches have claimed an immunity that appears nowhere in statute.

More here.

Calif. bill seeks to include university foundations in FOI

California Sen. Leland Yee has introduced a bill that would open the records of auxiliaries, private foundations created to support public universities, The Los Angeles Times reported. The legislation proposes that foundations should be subject to the same disclosure requirements as universities. His bill does offer an exemption that would allow donors to give anonymously and allow foundations to withhold the names of donors as long as they didn't receive some benefit from the foundation.

As they stretch every dollar, California's public universities have understandably turned to novel ways of raising and spending money. Many have established private foundations, known as "auxiliaries," that solicit contributions from private donors and then hand that money out in the form of grants, scholarships and the like. Auxiliaries today supply the Cal State system with roughly 20% of its $6.7-billion annual operating budget.

The trouble arises when those foundations use their vague legal status -- they are private entities affiliated with public universities -- to shield themselves from scrutiny. And the public has ample reason to question how some of this money is being spent. A foundation affiliated with Sonoma State University lent money to a former member of its board, then got stuck with a bill when he could not pay the money back. A foundation affiliated with Cal State Fresno built an arena on campus and awarded some donors luxury boxes; when the Fresno Bee asked for the names of the donors and what they had contributed, it was denied, and a court held that the California Public Records Act did not cover the foundation. And a former chancellor of San Francisco City College has been indicted on charges that include allegedly diverting money from a foundation account to pay for a club membership, liquor and other expenses.

More here.

Idaho organization launches salary database

The Idaho Freedom Foundation created a database on OurIdaho.com in which people can search for the names and salaries of government employees, KTVB.com reported. The IFF obtained the data via FOIA requests, and its database contains nearly 40,000 employees.

Want to know how much money your child's teacher makes? How about the police officer who pulled you over last night?

Now you can.

A group that bills itself as a think tank dedicated to limited government has launched a salary database, that allows anyone to look up the names and pay rates for a range of government employees.

More here.

Ill. governor finally signs FOI bill

After a bill to overhaul the state's FOI law sat on his desk for months, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed it into law, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported. The law gives the public access counselor the power to issue binding opinions as well as allows fines of up to $5,000 for FOI violations.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill today overhauling the state’s freedom of information law.

The legislation has been sitting on Quinn’s desk for several months since squeaking out of the last legislative session at its very end.

The Chicago Sun Times reported that the new law plugs several loop holes in the current law, including giving the state's public access counselor the power to issue binding opinions in disputes over public records. Fines of up to $5,000 for violations of the law are also now possible, the newspaper said.

More here.

Some N.J. clerks 'playing keep-away' with public records.

The Government Records Council in New Jersey has ruled on 1,503 denial-of-access complaints since 2002, and many of the rulings favor those complaining, The Star-Ledger reported. In some cases, rulings are finally granting citizens access to records they requested two years ago, records that should have been released within a week of the request. "Most of the time, they just want to keep people from getting the records in time for the next meeting or the next election," says attorney Walter Luers, who has won OPRA lawsuits against several municipalities." The people on the inside don't want the people on the outside to get the information." Not only is OPRA flawed in how clerks are handing requests, but the GRC panel is also missing two members, which has caused it to cancel meetings and thereby increase its backlog.

There are 47 items on the agenda, and in a small meeting room in Trenton, on a Tuesday morning, the Government Records Council is slogging its way through the list of complaints from citizens who have been thwarted in their attempts to access public records.

An hour into the session, it's clear: New Jersey's Open Public Records Act is flawed.

Ruling after ruling by executive director Catherine Starghill goes against agencies that have denied -- wrongfully -- public access to their records. In the GRC's final orders, municipal clerks, board secretaries and other record custodians are found to be guilty of wide-ranging and unnecessary OPRA violations.

More here.

Site tracks banned books on Google map

A Google map on the Banned Books Week Web site shows more than 120 book challenges that have occurred across the country since 2007.

Are some parts of the United States more prone to censorship than others? Not according to a new map of book censorship incidents that has just been posted on the official Web site of Banned Books Week, www.bannedbooksweek.org. The Google map displays more than 120 book challenges--from Maine to Florida and from Long Island, New York, to San Francisco--that have occurred since the beginning of 2007, http://www.bannedbooksweeks.org.

The map is drawn from cases documented by the American Library Association and the Kids' Right to Read Project, which is sponsored by the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression and the National Coalition Against Censorship.

The Banned Books Week Web site was launched last year to highlight the displays and events that are mounted by hundreds of bookstores and libraries during Banned Books Week, the only national celebration of the freedom to read. It includes a state by state listing to help people find displays and events in their area. This year's Banned Books Week will be celebrated from Sept. 26 through Oct. 3.

More here.

Wash. coalition releases results of candidate questionnaire

The Washington Coalition for Open Government has published its database of questionnaires answered by candidates across the state. Each was asked for their stances on six government reform issues dealing with open government.

As the 2009 campaign season heads into its crucial last months, Washington voters have a new, easy-to-use tool to help them choose candidates that are committed to open, responsive and accountable government.

Earlier this month, the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) submitted an open government questionnaire to candidates around the state and asked for their position on 6 key government reform issues identified by WCOG. Candidates were asked to take a "yes" or "no" stance on topics including recording of executive sessions of public agencies and requirement of open government training for government employees and elected officials.

Each candidate's individual survey has been posted on the WCOG Web site at www.washingtoncog.org.

"The Washington Coalition for Open Government is happy to be able to provide this service to our members and to the people of Washington so they will know more about where the candidates stand on government openness, transparency, and accountability," said Toby Nixon,
president of the Coalition. "I hope they will make note of which candidates failed to respond to our survey, and ask those candidates pointed questions about where they really stand on the people's right to know what their government is doing."

The Washington Coalition for Open Government is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and defending the people's right to know in matters of public interest and in the conduct of the public's business. Members of the coalition represent a broad range of interests, including the news media, public affairs, law, current and retired public officials, business and labor.

More here.

State pays over $81,500 to newspapers

The Wisconsin Department of Administration paid the Journal Sentinel $51,256 and the Lakeland Times of Minocqua $30,278 for wrongly withholding names of state employees in 2005, the Journal Sentinel reported. The money covers the newspapers' costs of lawsuits. The state unsuccessfully argued that it couldn't release names because of labor agreements with its union employees. The state (and thereby taxpayers) might pay more. The Supreme Cour ruling sent the case back to circuit court to detemine if the state has to pay the papers' legal bills during appeals from the unions. The records probably won't be released until then. A Dane County Circuit judge has ruled that the county will have to pay in an open records lawsuit brought by the Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin State Journal, WTMJ-TV and WISC-TV.

The state paid two newspapers more than $81,500 this week after improperly refusing to release the names of state employees.

The payments - which could climb higher because they don't include appeal costs - came as the Capital Times of Madison sued the state for delaying the release of public records related to judicial appointments.

An attorney representing the Capital Times said it seemed as if Gov. Jim Doyle's office was deliberately slow in providing the records, in hopes they would lose their news value. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Doyle suggested the Capital Times was trying to "pose as open records champions and cost the taxpayers some money over it."

More here.

N.J. guidelines clarify what court documents are public

In September, a new rule adopted by New Jersey's highest court will define evidence admitted in courts as "open for public inspection," the Star-Ledger reported. Private records will include financial information in divorce proceedings and personal identifiers such as credit card and Social Security numbers. Thomas Cafferty, a lawyer for the New Jersey Press Association said, "It was less than clear before what would be accessible to the public. I think the Albin report makes it clear."

For decades, some residents could not get court documents they were entitled to see because the judiciary had limited guidelines on which records were available for public viewing.

That's expected to change next month when a new rule recently adopted by the state's highest court goes into effect.

Evidence admitted in New Jersey courts are just some of the records specifically defined as "open for public inspection" in the state's new guidelines.

More here.

Details of contract for transparency site not transparent

ProPublica and other organizations requested copies of the Obama administration's $18 million contract with Smartronix, a software company hired to build the Web site "where taxpayers could easily track billions in federal stimulus money." However, the contract and related documents are heavily redacted. The General Services Administration justified the redactions by saying they are allowed if material "involves substantial risk of competitive injury" to a contractor. Of the 59-page technical proposal, 25 pages were completely redacted, and 14 pages had half or more of their content blacked out.

Back in July, a software company named Smartronix landed an $18 million contract to build a Web site where taxpayers could easily track billions in federal stimulus money. It was just another part of the Obama administration’s ongoing effort to bring transparency to stimulus spending, we were told.

But it seems the drive for transparency doesn’t cover the contract itself.

After weeks of prodding by ProPublica and other organizations, the General Services Administration released copies of the contract and related documents that are so heavily blacked out they are virtually worthless.

More here.

Fla. city installs city open-records kiosk

The City of Alachua in Florida installed a kiosk at City Hall that allows residents to search for public records without having to file a request, Alachua Today reported. The computer's search engine contains thousands of public records, including e-mails, ordinances, etc. However, the system is limited in that some records haven't been uploaded or haven't been converted into a format that is readable by the search engine. Michael Canney, a resident, said all the city's records aren't on the kiosk, including the city manager's e-mails. “To get certain public records, you have to jump through a lot of hoops and pay large amounts of money,” he said.

The City of Alachua recently installed a kiosk at City Hall for residents to get public records without having to request them from the city clerk.

Alan Henderson, deputy city clerk, said the search engine at the kiosk will eventually give Alachua residents access to ordinances, resolutions and anything considered a city public record.

The engine contains thousands of documents, but the system is limited as city officials continue to reformat and add more records.

More here.

Mo. AG says department didn't violate Sunshine Law in E. coli case

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster says the Department of Natural Resources didn't violate open records law because no one filed a formal request for the testing results, which showed high levels of E. coli in Lake of the Ozarks, the News-Leader reported. Koster said he thinks former DNR Deputy Director Joe Bindbeutel made a "mistake" in delaying the release of the report for four weeks. Although internal DNR e-mails indicate that Bindbeutel requested a copy of the report to take to a meeting with the governor, the governor's office denies that the meeting was about E. coli. Although media requests were made for these reports, the DNR officials didn't view them as official Sunshine request.

Attorney General Chris Koster says the Department of Natural Resources didn't violate the state's open records law in delaying the release of a report showing high levels of E. coli in Lake of the Ozarks.

Koster's office has been investigating allegations that DNR violated the Sunshine Law, which is meant to give citizens and the media access to public documents upon request.

But since no one filed a formal Sunshine Law request for the monthly testing results, Koster's investigator concluded there's no evidence a law was broken.

More here.

See the full PDF of the AG's report here.

View the letter DPS sent the News-Leader requesting seven more business days to review its request for video footage from the governor's office here.

Also, AG Chris Koster: No Sunshine Law violation in E. coli-gate, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Delayed data on E. coli at lake was wrong, not illegal, Koster says, Kansas City Star: "A DNR e-mail obtained by The Kansas City Star shows that the agency understood it had received numerous requests for test results. According to the e-mail by a DNR employee: 'In a nutshell, I have had email inquires from four reporters since May 26 and phone calls from those four plus a couple others … for information, interviews or data.'”

Koster has more work to do on E-coli scare at Lake of the Ozarks, Kansas City Star: "Specifically, Koster didn't have all the facts he needed before concluding that the DNR did not violate the Sunshine Law regarding pollution reports about the Lake of the Ozarks. Koster told a Kansas City Star reporter on Thursday that he did not know of a DNR e-mail that detailed requests for the information about E-coli levels in the lake back in late May. He said he would look into the new information, and he should."

Data reveals summer spike in NYC homicides

FOI at Work!
Two University of Missouri graduates Jo Craven McGinty and Brian Hamman, are working on the New York Times' analysis of murder rates. The information was compiled from open records requests from the New York Police Department, and a searchable database is now available to readers.

There were more homicides in September than in any other month last year: 52. Next highest was August, with 51. Variations, of course, exist. There were 48 homicides last March, for instance.

Still, the prime time for murder is clear: summertime. Indeed, it is close to a constant, one hammered home painfully from June to September across the decades. And the breakdown of deadly brutality can get even more specific. September Saturdays around 10 p.m. were the most likely moments for a murder in the city.

More here.

Ala. lawmakes can use private e-mail as Palin did, judge rules

A Superior Court judge ruled that Alaska state law doesn't prohibit the use of private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, the AP reported.

This is why states must look hard at outlawing the use of private e-mail by elected officials to conduct public business. This is a fairly straightforward legislative fix, no? No g-mail to discuss public business! Note that the court here is all but calling for the legislature to fix this.

A judge ruled Wednesday the Alaska governor's office can use private e-mail accounts to conduct state business, as former Gov. Sarah Palin did.

Superior Court Judge Jack W. Smith said in his ruling there is no provision in Alaska state law that prohibits the use of private e-mail accounts when conducting state business.

The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Anchorage resident Andree McLeod, who contended such use of private e-mails denies citizens the right to inspect public records.

More here.
Also, Court: Palin's e-mail practices not a violation of open records law, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Footage of governor's office entrance denied in Sunshine request

Missouri Capitol Police have denied the News-Leader's request for video footage from cameras aimed at public entrances to the governor's office in the state Capitol. They cited an exemption passed after the 2001 terrorist attacks. "More specifically, showing areas which are covered by our cameras would reveal areas, (if any) which may be blind spots, thus compromising security at the Missouri Capitol," Capitol Police Capt. Paul Minze wrote in a July 31 response letter. The News-Leader submitted a formal appeal, which is pending. The newspaper is trying to verify whether a meeting between DNR Deputy Director Joe Bindbeutel and the governor took place. E-mails indicate it did, but the governor's office denied that such a meeting -- to discuss the high levels of E. coli in Lake of the Ozarks -- took place.

Missouri Capitol Police have cited a post-Sept. 11, 2001, terrorism exemption in the state's open records law in denying the News-Leader access to surveillance tape footage of the entrances of the governor's office.

Under a Sunshine Law request for public records, the newspaper sought to inspect archived video footage during various dates in June from cameras aimed at two public entrances in the governor's second floor office in the state Capitol in Jefferson City.

The News-Leader is seeking access to the video as part of its ongoing investigation into what role -- if any -- Nixon's office played in the Department of Natural Resources withholding a report for four weeks in June showing dangerously high levels of E. coli in Lake of the Ozarks.

More here.

Prison corporation subject to public records laws

The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that prisons run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America must adhere to public records laws, The Tennessean reported. Alex Friedmann, associate editor of Prison Legal News, sued for access to the CCA's government contracts and other records. "With all due respect to CCA, this court is at a loss as to how operating a prison could be considered anything less than a governmental function," Judge D. Michael Swiney wrote in the opinion. However, the court ruled that the Private Prison Contracting Act limits the records that the corporation must make public.

Prisons run by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America perform a government function and must follow public records laws, the Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled.

The prison giant appealed the ruling issued last year by Davidson County Chancellor Claudia Bonnyman, who ruled that the corporation was the functional equivalent of government and that its administrators must turn over all records requested by prison reform advocate Alex Friedmann.

Friedmann, the associate editor of the monthly publication Prison Legal News, sued for access to several types of records, including CCA's government contracts, legal settlements and cases where CCA was sanctioned or fined.

More here.

Calif. bill to relieve losing FOIA plaintiffs

A California bill recently signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will relieve losing FOIA plaintiffs from having to pay attorneys' fees, the Reporters' Committee for Freedom of the Press reported. Fees could only be awarded if the court decides that the lawsuit was frivolous and without merit. The bill was passed in an effort to "curb the chilling effect that can accompany the assignment of extensive fees to plaintiffs who unsuccessfully sue the government to enforce the California Public Records Act." The law takes effect Jan. 1.

A California bill that will relieve losing plaintiffs in Freedom of Information Act lawsuits of having to pay attorney's fees passed the state's legislature last month. It is now awaiting a signature from the governor.

Under the proposed law, governments that prevail on an "anti-SLAPP" motion in FOIA cases will not be able to collect attorney's fees for claims brought against them in good faith. Fees could only be awarded in limited situations, such as when the court decides the action is frivolous and without merit. The state anti-SLAPP law allows defendants to have frivolous suits dismissed early.

More here.
Also, New Calif. law limits cost in public records fight, San Jose Mercury News.

Wash. organization asks governor's office to reconsider records denial

The Evergreen Freedom Foundation of Washington is asking Gov. Gregoire to reconsider the decision to deny releasing documents related to the governor's executive order concerning climate change. The EFF requested all documents related to the executive order's drafting and implementation, but the governor's office is withholding 48 documents and citing "executive privilege" and "deliberative process" as reasons. However, the EFF says there's no "executive privilege" exemption in the Public Records Act, and because the executive order has already been published the "deliberative" exemption doesn't apply.

Does the governor's executive privilege exempt her from the state's Public Records Act? Looks like we'll find out.

Climate change was a hot topic during the 2009 legislative session. Gov. Gregoire had requested legislation that ultimately died in the Senate. Not to be stopped, the governor issued Executive Order 09-05 to address climate change. Curious to see the backstory, EFF filed a request for documents related to the executive order's drafting and implementation. We've received many records, but the governor's office has refused to release 48 documents. The denial cites several reasons, including "executive privilege" and "deliberative process."

There's a problem with this denial. There is no "executive privilege" exemption in the Public Records Act. And once the executive order was published the "deliberation" exemption no longer applies. (This isn't the first time Gov. Gregoire has claimed the phantom "executive privilege" exemption.)

More here.

Police car camera reveals cover-up

Video from a dashboard police camera revealed that Hollywood, Fla., police officer Dewey Pressley wrote a fake police report to cover up for another officer, the AP reported. Officer Joel Francisco rammed into the back of Alexandra Torrens-Vilas' car. Torrens-Vilas was charged with a DUI and traffic violation, but "the state attorney's office dropped the charges, saying the video raised questions about the officers' account of the crash." "I'm gonna tell you exactly how to word this so we can get him off the hook," Pressley says on the video. Later he remarks: "I don't like making things up ever because it's wrong but if I have to bend it a little to protect a cop I'm gonna."

Veteran Hollywood Police Officer Dewey Pressley said he hated lying. But if bending the truth a little would keep a fellow officer out of trouble, well, he was all for it.

A dashboard police camera video that surfaced recently showed Pressley chuckling as he wrote a fake police report, calling his creativity "a little Walt Disney" so another officer wouldn't get in trouble for rear-ending a 23-year-old woman's car in February.

Pressley and four others have been suspended with pay pending an investigation after video of the accident and the officers' attempt to cover it up became public last week, the latest Internet sensation in a line of unsettling police dashcam videos.

More here.

Staffers say S.C. governor used private e-mail for public business

Will Folks, former spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, says he checked his private e-mail at least 10 times a day when working for the governor, McClatchy-Tribune News Service reported. Of the 3900 pages of Sanford's messages provided to The State newspaper, 174 e-mails were from his private account. But those didn't contain much discussion of state business. Current Sanford spokesman Joe Sawyer says the office doesn't use private e-mail to get around open records laws. Regardless, Ashley Landess, president of the South Carolina Policy Council, said her group will now ask other state government leaders to turn over private e-mails concerning public matters.

Former staffers for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford said they routinely used private e-mail accounts to discuss sensitive political and policy decisions with Sanford.

The governor's office denies the practice was used to shield those communications from the public.

The state's Freedom of Information Act makes any discussion of state business on state computers a public document.

More here.

Fox loses bailout-related Federal Reserve suit

A U.S. District Court judge ruled that the Federal Reserve Board had the right to withhold bailout-related documents from Fox News, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reported. Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the records fell under the exemption that protects trade secrets and confidential information and that the 12 regional Federal Reserve banks are not government agencies (therefore, the board doesn't have to search the banks' records in response to Fox's request). Fox is likely to appeal and has another pending FOIA suit against the Treasury Department for other bailout records. Bloomberg News and The New York Times have simliar pending requests.

A federal judge ruled against Fox News Thursday in a key Freedom of Information Act case involving bailout-related documents held by the Federal Reserve Board.

Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan ruled that the Federal Reserve Board in Washington had properly withheld more than 6,000 pages of documents from Fox because the records fell under the FOIA exemption protecting trade secrets and confidential information.

Fox sought information about the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program, known as the discount window.

More here.

Air Force One flyover photos released

In response to an FOIA request, the Department of Defense released 146 photos of the controversial Air Force One flyover on April 27.

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department of Defense has released 146 photographs that were taken during the photo-op involving Air Force One and the Statue of Liberty on April 27. President Obama was not on the plane when the photos were taken.

The low-flying plane caused panic among New Yorkers because it was a reminder of the September 11, 2001 attacks. The controversial flight resulted in the May resignation of White House Military Office Director Louis Caldera.

More here.

Nev. AG rules governor's personal e-mails aren't public

The Nevada attorney general's office decided that personal e-mails on Gov. Jim Gibbons' state computer are not pubic records, the AP reported. Reno Newspapers Inc. is seeking all e-mails Gibbons sent on his state computer and asked for a log of recipients, senders, subject matters and reasons public access was denied. The brief from the AG's office said the state has "no pre-litigation duty" to create the requested index.

The Nevada attorney general's office says personal e-mails on Gov. Jim Gibbons' state computer are not public records.

In a Nevada Supreme Court brief, the AG's office says personal messages or those not concerning public business are not subject to a public records request.

The filing is in response to an appeal by Reno Newspapers Inc., which is seeking all e-mails sent by Gibbons on his state computer from January to June 2008.

More here.

More transparency equals more customer satisfaction

ForSee Results conducted survey research that concluded that "perceptions of federal government Web sites' transparency online is an important driver of online satisfaction, which in turn drives trust, future participation and future collaboration," Nextgov reported. ForSee, which issues reports on public opinion about federal Web sites, plans to start using a transparency metric into the satisfaction index as early as next quarter.

Agencies can fulfill the president's vision of open government by posting large amounts of data online quickly and making it easy to find, a group that tracks the public's satisfaction with government Web sites reported on Tuesday.

By boosting the "thoroughness and accessibility of information made available online," or what is described as "online transparency," agencies can achieve the open government principles that President Obama outlined on his first full day in office, according to a report released by ForeSee Results, a market research firm that, in conjunction with the American Customer Satisfaction Index, issues quarterly reports on public opinion about federal Web sites.

More here.

Most states fail to use Web to inform about stimulus spending

Good Jobs First, a non-profit research center based in Washington, D.C., studied state Web sites to determine the quality and quantity of disclosure related to how stimulus funding is being divided up among communities, organizations and individuals. Each state was graded twice on a scale of 0 to 100. Only six states scored 50 or better for their main American Recovery and Reinvestment Act site. Thirteen scored 50 or better for their highway reporting. Illinois scored a zero in both categories because it only provides national figures.

While some states have created impressive websites to disseminate information about their share of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), most are failing to make effective use of online technology to educate taxpayers about the impact of economic stimulus spending. This is the finding of Show Us the Stimulus, a report released today by Good Jobs First, a non-profit research center based in Washington, DC.

“Many states are failing to support President Obama’s vow that the Recovery Act will be carried out with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability,” said Good Jobs First executive director Greg LeRoy. “By failing to use broadly available web tools, they are making it more difficult to measure the success of ARRA in mitigating the effects of the recession.”

Read the full report here.