Hmmmm….I am intrigued by this system, but also kind of tickled by some of the details in the story of its launch: Gov. Rick Scott launched a new open records program Thursday dubbed “Project Sunburst,” designed to give the public — and the media — access to the emails to and from the governor and 11 top staff within [...]
Filed under: 4. Finding records, 7. Electronic records, 8. Officials' perspectives | Tagged: e-mail, Florida, governors, Project Sunburst | Leave a Comment »
No reason why every journalism program in the country can’t do this: On Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 29, the Spartan Online News Network, powered by Michigan State University journalism students, emailed most of the municipalities and school districts in Ingham County with a simple request. The students asked how many Freedom of Information Act requests these [...]
Filed under: 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, 4. Finding records, FOI At Work | Tagged: foi audits, Michigan State | 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 »
You can point them to stories such as this : Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance. The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of [...]
Filed under: 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, 4. Finding records | Tagged: High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, New York City Police Department, September 11 attacks, White House | Leave a Comment »
This one is a bit difficult for me, until I place the situation into abstract First Amendment doctrine: these sites are acquiring public records, legally, of photos made, then publishing them. Yes, there are ample grounds here to debate the ethics of such publications, and the take-down fees are another matter altogether. But trying to [...]
Filed under: 2. Doc state of mind, 4. Finding records | Tagged: mugshots, Photograph, Texas | Leave a Comment »
Here’s a riveting story on an outfit that uses public records to demonstrate how exposed you are, then charges you to remove the information….what a racket! Philip Cabibi, a 31-year-old applications administrator in Utah, sat at his computer one recent Sunday evening and performed one of the compulsive rituals of the Internet Age: the ego [...]
Filed under: 4. Finding records, 7. Electronic records | Tagged: arrest records, online data | Leave a Comment »
From a story in The Hill: Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) on Monday sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in an effort to “bring transparency” to what DeMint says was a partisan decision by the board to sue Boeing. “The public facts surrounding the complaint raise serious [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 4. Finding records, 8. Officials' perspectives | Tagged: federal FOIA, Jim DeMint, NLRB, request letters | Leave a Comment »
A great idea by The Hill: Government responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests vary widely, with some federal agencies refusing to release data that others provide in a timely fashion, according to an analysis by The Hill. More than six months ago, The Hill filed FOIA requests for over 70 federal agencies’ FOIA [...]
Filed under: 4. Finding records, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: federal FOIA, FOIA logs | Leave a Comment »
A CIA-produced documentary about a secret mission in China, never aired outside the agency’s headquarters, is coming to the Internet. The agency plans a public release of the film about two CIA officers captured during a secret mission in 1952 and held for years. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the film under the [...]
Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 4. Finding records | Tagged: CIA | Leave a Comment »
