Keeping Austin Weird…

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

From a great NYT profile on Austin-based anarchist (can an anarchist really have a base?) Scott Crow… Blogged here by Reason: Mr. Crow, a lanky Texas native who works at a recycling center, is one of several Austin activists who asked the F.B.I. for their files, citing the Freedom of Information Act. The 440 heavily-redacted [...]

Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 4. Finding records | Tagged: , , , | Leave a Comment »

A Gem For Your Conspiracy Theorist…

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

Arguing that the CIA has no right to withhold records that are more than 30 years old, a watchdog group filed a motion this week seeking a federal court to compel the spy agency to reveal what it knows about the conservative Catholic group that is the stuff of legend. Public Citizen is working on [...]

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Connecticut’s Governor Has A Bad Idea…

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

The Hartford Courant could have slugged this editorial simply as NOOOOOOO! Gov. Dannel P. Malloy wants to fold the FOI Commission into a new super-watchdog agency. Consolidations do save money, and The Courant has endorsed the merger of the state’s economic development agencies. But the watchdogs should be kept separate — especially the FOI Commission, which defends [...]

Filed under: 3. Access law, 4. Finding records, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

On Obama’s Decision Not to Release the Osama Photos…

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

I read, then re-read, then re-read that headline, to make sure I didn’t transpose the names like Fox… Anyway, Obama has made his call: he is not releasing the Bin Laden photos, not voluntarily, anyway. His reasoning is hard to argue with, at first blush. In explaining his choice not to release the photo, Mr. [...]

Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 3. Access law, 4. Finding records, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

A Record Year for Crazies…

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

A great FOI-driven story documenting the national outbreak of crazy…. Members of Congess reported a record-high number of threats to their safety in 2010, according to The Hill. According to documents obtained by The Hill through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the FBI investigated 26 threats of violence against lawmakers (and occasionally, their family members) in [...]

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Obama Visitor Logs: Riddled With Holes

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

The Obama administration talks up the importance of government transparency, but White House visitor logs are anything but. That’s according to a new investigation by iWatch News. The White House website proudly boasts of making available “over 1,000,000 records of everyone who’s come through the doors of the White House” via a searchable database. Yet our [...]

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Did Missouri’s Former Treasurer Break the Law? The Case of the Missing Entirety of an Administration…

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

This from the St. Louis Beacon, advancing its initial story, which was followed by Politico yesterday, on our state’s fascinating story of the week: The national Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee today accused former Missouri Treasurer Sarah Steelman of possibly breaking state law because she may have taken more than her personal effects when she left office in [...]

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Now Here Is A New Strategy: “Documents…What Documents?”

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

Right here in chilly, grey Missouri, we have a nice little FOI flap brewing. It seems that the state’s former treasurer can’t find pretty much any of the records worth looking at for, well…the entire four years she was in office! Here is Politico: Sarah Steelman’s political opponents aren’t finding much daylight in their Sunshine [...]

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The New York Times weighs in on the Wisconsin email issue…

Posted on March 26, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

Nothing here to advance the story, but love the quote from Bill Lueders of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council: “I’m pleased to see the Republicans making use of the open records law because they are as entitled to it as everyone else in the state,” said Bill Lueders, the president of theWisconsin Freedom of [...]

Filed under: 3. Access law, 4. Finding records, 5. Request strategies, 7. Electronic records | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

Austin Wrestles With E-Mail and FOI

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

The Austin American Statesman had an interesting piece on e-mail access: Worried that Austin City Council members may not have turned over all of their emails, officials are bringing in city technology experts as they make a new attempt at complying with the state’s open records law. Information technology workers are compiling the records — [...]

Filed under: 4. Finding records, 7. Electronic records | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

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