Another FOI at Work moment: A national consumer group is alleging emails they obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal an “unnervingly close and direct” relationship between Gov. Martin O’Malley and an attorney for Perdue Farms Inc. The topics covered in 70 pages of emails between O’Malley and Herb Frerichs, general counsel for Perdue [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 7. Electronic records, FOI At Work | Tagged: e-mail, FOI at work, governors, Maryland | Leave a Comment »
This is one of FOI’s lowest hanging pieces of fruit — looking at overtime pay records. More often than not, they yield gold. Here is a beauty from Montgomery County, Maryland… Dozens of firefighters, correctional and police officers and transportation employees in Montgomery County are doubling or nearly doubling their salaries with overtime pay. More [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, FOI At Work | Tagged: FOI at work, Maryland, overtime | Leave a Comment »
Passing along this wonderful post from Sunlight on a fabulous new FOI classroom project! Love to see this kind of stuff! On April 11, 2012 ten University of Utah Honors students will launch a state-wide public initiative which, if successful, will forever change how Utah citizens interact with their local governments. The initiative, called the [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind | Tagged: FOI projects, studies, Utah | 1 Comment »
An interesting nugget, courtesy of FOI: The state medical school disciplined 20 doctors and fined 11 of them up to $4,000 for handing out sick notes to demonstrators at last year’s labor protests, newly released records show. The records, requested by the Journal Sentinel last year under the state’s open records law, show for the [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, FOI At Work | Tagged: doctors, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
Right here in my backyard, a really interesting look at the diplomacy, and lack thereof, in big-time college athletics: In November, Big 12 interim Commissioner Chuck Neinas steeled for battle as the conference that was temporarily placed in his hands continued to fracture. His secret weapon would be a legal document that he could “wave [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 4. Finding records, FOI At Work | Tagged: BIg 12, Colleges and Universities, email, SEC | Leave a Comment »
So Gov. Walker got FOIA’d a bunch . Really? Who would have thunk it? The firestorm of debate ignited by Gov. Scott Walker’s changes to collective bargaining rules last year also triggered an explosion of requests for public information from his office. The office received 214 written requests during 2011, some three times more than [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter | Tagged: Freedom of Information Act, Scott Walker, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
A really interesting piece from the AP on the hunt for bin Laden…and the hunt for bin Laden records… The hunt for Osama bin Laden took nearly a decade. It could take even longer to uncover U.S. government emails, planning reports, photographs and more that would shed light on how an elite team of Navy SEALs killed the world’s most [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind | Tagged: Joint Special Operations Command, Osama bin Laden, Pakistan, Pentagon | Leave a Comment »
The cost of gasoline may be gnawing a hole in many wallets, but the cost of going nowhere in the District cost people who failed to mind the parking meter a record $92.6 million last year. That amount for fiscal 2011 was more than $12 million higher than the previous year, according to data that the American Automobile Association obtained under a Freedom [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, FOI At Work | Tagged: American Automobile Association, Traffic ticket, Washington DC | Leave a Comment »
FOI at Work: The number of deportation cases filed by federal immigration officials dropped by nearly a third in the first three months of the fiscal year, according to a report by the Syracuse University Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The drop recorded in the last three months of 2011 may reflect the Obama administration’s plan to focus [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, FOI At Work | Tagged: deportation, ICE, immigration, TRAC | Leave a Comment »
Look no further than here. This, people, is why access to government information is no luxury, and can never, ever be taken for granted.
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 6. Overcoming denials, FOI At Work | Tagged: Ohio, public utilities | Leave a Comment »
