Congressional data mining could be on its way

A provision that would Congress and its bodies to release data in raw form was slipped into a spending bill passed by the House of Representatives, Mother Jones reported. If the Senate doesn't edit out the three-sentence statement, the public will no longer have to rely on government Web sites, which filter the data they provide. Some Web sites already use remix raw data to create databases and charts, but they must "scrape" government sites to obtain this data -- a process that is cumbersome and not perfect.

By slipping a simple, three-sentence provision into the gargantuan spending bill passed by the House of Representatives last week, a congressman from Silicon Valley is trying to nudge Congress into the 21st Century. Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) placed a measure in the bill directing Congress and its affiliated organs—including the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office—to make its data available to the public in raw form. This will enable members of the public and watchdog groups to craft websites and databases showcasing government data that are more user-friendly than the government's own.

If the Senate passes the bill with the provision intact, citizens seeking information about Congress' activities—such as bill names and numbers, amendments, votes, and committee reports—won't have to rely on government websites, which often filter information, are incomplete, or are difficult to use. Instead, the underlying data will be available to anyone who wants to build a superior site or tool to sift through it. "The language is groundbreaking in that it supports providing unfiltered legislative information to the public," says Honda's online communications director, Rob Pierson. "Instead of silo-ing the information, and only allowing access through a limited web form, access to the raw data will make it easier for people to learn what their government is doing."

More here.

Troopers illegally shoot deer, try to win prize

FOI at Work!

The Traverse City Record-Eagle obtained investigative reports concerning a deer shot illegally by a Michigan State Police trooper from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources via an FOI request. The records show that Jeffrey Hadley and Donald Bolen shot the buck while on duty. They later loaded it into the back of the patrol vehicle, sawed off its head and antlers and discarded the rest of the animal. They claimed the blood and hair in the back of the patrol car stemmed from them transporting a road-kill deer to a needy family. Hadley later tried to enter the deer's rack in a troopers' big-buck contest.

A Michigan State Police trooper who illegally "shined" and shot a 10-point buck while on duty in a state patrol vehicle tried to enter the ill-gotten deer's antlers in a troopers' big-buck contest.

Troopers and patrol partners Jeffrey Hadley, 45, and Donald Bolen, 41, both of Cheboygan, illegally killed a buck sometime after midnight on Nov. 13 -- two days before the firearms deer season -- along Mograin Road in Cheboygan County's Benton Township.

The poaching incident kick-started the troopers' clumsy, six-week attempt to cover their tracks, though Hadley spent part of that time boasting of his monster buck and attempted to enter its rack in a contest.

More here.

W. Va. county clerk withholds names of petition signers

The Shepherdstown Observer is suing the Jefferson County Clerk after it refused to release the names of signatures on a petition related to a zoning change referendum, the West Virginia Record reported. The newspaper requested the documents after learning that about 18 percent of the signatures were deemed invalid.

The Shepherdstown Observer newspaper has filed a lawsuit against the Jefferson County Clerk over her refusal to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request.

The Observer says it wanted to see documents related to a petition gathered to spur a referendum on a zoning change passed by the county commission. The change was passed in Oct. 2008, according to the newspaper's complaint filed Feb. 11.

The petition is allowed by law to challenge the zoning change. Ten-percent of registered voters in the affected area have to sign the petition to prompt the referendum vote.

More here.

Ark. House supports concealed handgun bill

An Arkansas bill to exempt records regarding concealed-carry permits from the state FOIA cleared a House committee and will now advance to the full House, where support is widespread, Arkansas News reported.

A bill to prohibit the release of the names and other information of Arkansans who hold permits to carry concealed handguns cleared a House committee Thursday.

House Bill 1623 by Rep. Randy Stewart, D-Kirby, received a “do pass” from the House Judiciary Committee. The bill would make records regarding concealed-carry permits exempt from the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

Stewart, a former Olympic shooter, filed the bill after a weekly newspaper made a list of the names and addresses of permit holders in the state available on its Web site last month.

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Missouri Roundtable for Life says Carnahan never responded to requests

Missouri Roundtable for Life says it filed three separate Sunshine Law requests and did not receive any response from Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, KMBC-TV (Kansas City) reported. Carnahan's office, however, says it responded to two requests it received from the group, which has filed a Sunshine Law complaint against Carnahan.

Missouri Roundtable for Life (MRFL) filed a Sunshine Law complaint against Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan.

The group said the complaint was filed because Carnahan failed to respond to the three separate Sunshine Law requests made by MRFL that accompanied three new initiative petitions on Feb. 19, 2009.

Under the Sunshine Law, Carnahan is required to notify a party within three working days of how it is going about handling the Sunshine Law request.

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Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas names new executive director

Keith Elkins, a veteran TV news journalist will lead the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, which has relocated to Austin and seeks to have a more active advocacy role, the "News McNabb" blog reported.

The Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas (FOIFT) is pleased to announce that Keith Elkins has been selected as the organization’s Executive Director. FOIFT recently relocated to Austin, after 30 years in Dallas, and is now embarking on a new mission to assume a more active and more visible role in advocating for, and preserving, open government.

“We are very pleased to have FOIFT’s office relocated to Texas’ Capital city where we believe we can make a more significant difference for the citizens of Texas. We are also very excited to announce the selection of a new Executive Director. After a lengthy search process our search committee unanimously recommended Keith Elkins as the best candidate to lead our organization in a new direction,” said President Laura Prather of Austin. “Keith has a deep understanding of and passion for the Public Information laws in Texas and draws from experience on both sides of the aisle on the issues of open government.”

More here.

Text messages are public records, Mich. judge rules

The Detroit Free Press anticipates previewing some 1,400 previously unreleased text messages from former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former aide Christine Beatty on Monday. The messages were requested by the newspaper after prosecutors used them for Beatty's perjury case. Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny denied Kilpatrick and Beatty's right to assert a marital privilege, attorney-client privilege or deliberative-process privilege since the text messages were sent on city-issued pagers.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny has ruled that former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former aide Christine Beatty have no right to assert a legal privilege that would allow them to keep previously undisclosed text messages secret.

Kenny is giving lawyers for Kilpatrick and Beatty until Monday to appeal.

"This court does not see the existence of a valid privilege that can be asserted by Ms. Beatty or Mr. Kilpatrick at this juncture," said Kenny, in ordering the release of some 1,400 text messages held by prosecutors and previously under seal.

More here.

Details of bailout loans remain a secret

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York provides select members of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors the daily reports on bailout loans that journalists have been asking for, Bloomberg reported. Bloomberg has suited for records which mostly exist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which claims it isn't subject to FOIA. The Board of Governors now has 231 pages of these documents; however, it is using a trade secret exemption to prevent releasing the data to the public.

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors receives daily reports on bailout loans to financial institutions and won’t make the information public, the central bank said in a reply to a Bloomberg News lawsuit.

The Fed refused yesterday to disclose the names of the borrowers and the loans, alleging that it would cast “a stigma” on recipients of more than $1.9 trillion of emergency credit from U.S. taxpayers and the assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.

Fed secrecy was the focus of a Senate Banking Committee hearing today in which the panel’s top two members said the central bank’s reluctance to identify companies benefiting from the American International Group Inc. bailout risks undermining public confidence in the government.

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W. Va. chemical plant halts briefing on fatal accident

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board planned to brief the public on a 2008 explosion at a chemical plant run by Bayer CropScience; however, those plans changed when plant operators argued that information related to the investigation is considered "sensitive security information," Secrecy News reported. Bayer refers to the Maritime Transportation Security Act, but Secrecy News points out that this act only says certain facility security data "is not required to be disclosed to the public," NOT that disclosure is prohibited. Coast Guard regulations that protect plant information don't apply to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

Government safety investigators canceled a public briefing about an August 28, 2008 explosion that killed two persons at a chemical plant in Institute, West Virginia after operators of the plant said that public discussion of the accident could jeopardize "sensitive security information."

Bayer CropScience, which runs the plant, told the U.S. Chemical Safety Board that relevant information about the plant is protected from public disclosure under the terms of the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002, as interpreted by U.S. Coast Guard regulations.

The Board, which is an independent federal agency that investigates industrial accidents, canceled the March 19 public meeting while it seeks to evaluate the Bayer secrecy claims. See "Board Cancels Hearing Under Bayer Pressure" by Ken Ward, Jr., The Charleston Gazette, February 25, 2009.

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New FOI blog created by Conn. attorney

Attorney Mark Dumas has created a new blog on Connecticut Freedom of Information and open-government laws. So far, his posts have offered insight on hidden costs associated with FOI requests and provided links to great resources and state coverage of open-government issues.

Visit the Connecticut Freedom of Information Law Blog here.

N. M. House approves bill to okay requests via e-mail

Should it really matter whether an FOI request is filed via e-mail or paper? The New Mexico House doesn't think so, the New Mexico Independent reported.

The New Mexico House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would make an e-mail the legal equivalent of a paper request for public documents.

The legislation is needed because some state agencies in the past have not accepted e-mails as a legally acceptable way to request documents.

A similar bill that would accomplish much the same thing, and shorten the period a public agency has to respond to a request for information, has been delayed. That bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants, was larded with exemptions to the state’s public records act.

More here.

Children of Central Arkansas trustees get tuition breaks

FOI at work!

As a result of an FOI request, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette learned that five current or former trustees of the University of Central Arkansas received tuition discounts for their children. This could present a conflict of interest, and officials are asking that this practice as least be made transparent and put in writing.

The children of trustees of the University of Central Arkansas have received up to 80-percent discounts on their tuition and fees, the Associated Press reports. Although the tuition breaks appear to be legal, according to a lawyer cited by the AP, trustees do not typically benefit from their board positions.

The discounts could be perceived as gifts, said Jim Purcell, the Arkansas higher-education director, according to the AP. They could also present a conflict of interest for trustees, who set policy for the institutions they serve.

In response to Freedom of Information Act requests from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, which first reported the discounts, the university named five current or former trustees who received discounts for their children’s tuition and fees.

More here.

Former Gov. Matt Blunt will not face criminal charges

Investigators concluded that former Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt's office "did not have adequate policies regarding record retention and state open-records law," the Kansas City Star reported. However, the violations are not considered criminal. Blunt's lawyers said the investigators' report contained “flawed factual assumptions and conclusions.” It's still unknown whether anyone in his administration ordered e-mail backup tapes to be destroyed or not.

A 16-month investigation concluded that former Gov. Matt Blunt’s office did not follow all laws on retaining public records, but investigators decided the violations were not criminal.

The report is the latest word, but likely not the last, on the issue that surrounded Blunt from late 2007 until he left office in January.

A defamation and wrongful termination lawsuit is pending brought by fired administration attorney Scott Eckersley, who contends he was terminated after challenging his superiors’ position on open records.

More here.

Records show Ill. governor is 'thrifty'

Illinois Gov Pat Quinn's travel records show he personally paid for most of his overseas trips (to visit the troops) and didn't accept a meal allowance when he was lieutenant governor, the AP reported.

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn's penny-pinching reputation was bolstered his first day in office when he flashed a cut-rate hotel's preferred customer card.

An Associated Press review of state travel records backs him up.

Quinn never accepted the $32 daily meal allowance for state travelers during six years as lieutenant governor. He often pays his own lodging, too.

More here.

More Texans drinking away their worries at home these days

FOI at Work!

Figures obtained through an FOI request indicate that more Texas establishments are late in paying their alcohol suppliers, the Dallas Morning News reported. Some of the 23,000 late payers last year obviously struggled with dwindling sales due to the economy. Others say the state law that requires alcohol payments to be made by the 10th or 25th of the month offers a short window to settle their debts, which raises bookkeeping problems.

Hundreds of Texas restaurants and bars have begun running up stout bar tabs with their alcohol suppliers as cash-poor consumers drown their sorrows at home.

For 2008, the number of restaurants, bars and liquor stores behind in their payments to alcohol suppliers leaped more than 18 percent over the 2007 total. That's according to figures from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The commission counted nearly 23,000 late payers last year. The growth rate was more than double the 7 percent rise between 2006 and 2007.

More here.

Newspaper under fire for story based on police report

Although newspapers have a "fair report privilege" ensuring their liable for printing potentially false information they obtained from police reports, a Houston lawyer says an Arkansas newspaper did not proceed responsibly in this case, the AP reported. The article in question centers around a woman who reported that she had been raped at Ryan Whiteside's house. Whiteside had been connected with the high-profile murder case of an Arkansas beauty queen in 2005. The Arkansas Supreme Court will hear his case against The Courier newspaper, which ran a front-page story on the rape accusation, which was later dismissed.

The slaying of an Arkansas beauty queen still dominated talk around Russellville when an 18-year-old woman told police she had been raped at the home of one of the men who discovered the murder victim's body.

The woman said she didn't remember everything that happened at Ryan Whiteside's house, but was sure she awoke next to Kevin Jones, who later was acquitted in Nona Dirksmeyer's death.

Arkansas State Police troopers investigated and dismissed the woman's allegations — a fact not disclosed until after the local newspaper ran a Page One story detailing the accusations against two men already involved in the high-profile murder case.

More here.

Calif. considers limiting Internet mapping sites

Clearly, maps such as Google Earth and Microsoft's Virtual Earth aren't the only places one can find photos of schools, hospitals, churches and government buildings. But a California lawmaker is concerned that the ready availability of these images may assist terrorists and has proposed that restrictions be placed on certain images.

A California lawmaker wants to force Internet mapping services to blur detailed images of schools, hospitals, churches and all government buildings, reviving a debate over whether such images can assist terrorists.

Assemblyman Joel Anderson, a San Diego-area Republican, said he decided to introduce his bill after reading that terrorists who plotted attacks in Israel and India used popular services such as Google Earth and Microsoft 's Virtual Earth.

But even if his bill becomes law, it might be difficult to prohibit Google Inc., Microsoft Corp. and other mapping companies from posting such photographs. That's because those images already are public and often are posted on the institution's own Web site.

More here.

Campaign to rid universities of Coca-Cola makes use of FOI

Ingenious use of FOI:

The Texas Campaign to Stop Killer Coke’s University Open Records Project is an endeavor to obtain all of the Coca-Cola contracts between Texas state universities and colleges through the use of the Texas Open Records Act, a.k.a. Public Information Act, Chapter 552 of the Government Code. This project was undertaken with an eye towards organizing around the greater Killer Coke movement in Texas. The goal of the Campaign is to kick Coke out of our schools, businesses and governmental agencies for it’s worldwide labor, human rights and environmental abuses. See killercoke.org for more information.

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New Penn. law coming in handy

Media outlets and citizens in Pennsylvania are realizing that the state's new Right to Know Law is providing more records than the last version, The Morning Call reported. The previous law didn't assume that most records are public. The state open records office has 100 pending appeals to review. So far it has overturned three of six appeals.

Early evidence shows Pennsylvania's new Right to Know Law is doing what it's designed to, giving the public more access to records that show how governments are behaving and spending tax money.

Last week, the state open records office posted rulings on its first six appeals. In three cases, one in Quakertown, it ruled governments must provide information they initially refused to release.

Governments could have kept the information secret under the old Right to Know law in two of those cases, said Barry Fox, deputy director of open records.

More here.

Transparency portal proposed but unpopular in Ill.

Illinois state Rep. Michael Tryon is urging the government "to create a Web site with a searchable database containing information about contracts, expenditures and employee salaries," The State (Ill.) Journal-Register reported. However, the legislative director for Council 31 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said some lower paid employees feel "sort of like their laundry's being aired." In other Illinois ethics news, the executive inspector general for agencies under the governor's office wants the law changed so that he and other inspectors won't have to wait for complaints to be filed in order to investigate anonymous tips.

Spurred by the Dec. 9 arrest of then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, officials inside and outside of state government are studying ways to battle government corruption.

GateHouse Media’s State Capitol Bureau is tracking their work and examining the issues that arise at public hearings of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government Reform. The idea is to help readers understand attempts to fix state government and make it run in a way that better serves the public.

Last Tuesday, the legislative committee focused for a second time on the topic of “open government.”

More here.