A Much More Supportive View of the Cronon FOI Response

Posted on April 3, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

The New Yorker weighs in with a laudatory post about the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s response to the FOI request. As I wrote in an earlier post, I think the response created some novel arguments not reflected by the state’s existing exemptions. The question now is whether the requester is satisfied with the response and the [...]

Filed under: 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, 5. Request strategies, 6. Overcoming denials | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

The UW-Madison Response: Absolutely Fascinating

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

Well, the UNiversity of Madison-Wisconsin complied with the request for a noted history professor’s e-mails — sort of, kind of. Here is the Chancellor’s message to the campus: And here is the official letter from counsel for the University of Wisconsin. The money graf: You should further note that the e-mails that we have reviewed [...]

Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 5. Request strategies, 7. Electronic records | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

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 »

Don’t Miss This Online Chat Opportunity!

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

Sunshine Review leads these really great weekly #FOIAchat discussions on Twitter on freedom of information act issues. Our turnout includes open government advocates, public officials, and professional journalists. Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ryan Gabrielson from California Watch will answer questions and speak on the topic “From Tip to Story: How to Write an Investigative Piece”  this [...]

Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 2. Doc state of mind, 3. Access law, 5. Request strategies | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

An Update to the Charlotte Observer request…

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

They dropped it, citing the uproar….I am glad. These non-journalistic flights of fancy promise more blowback to FOI than scrutiny of government.   cd

Filed under: 3. Access law, 5. Request strategies | Leave a Comment »

They Didn’t Ask for Paper….

Posted on January 25, 2011 by Charles N. Davis

The Anniston City Council today plans to discuss taking legal action to collect $1,855.40 from The Anniston Star for open records the newspaper requested, but never received in the form requested. “If the Council is playing games, we’ll take their pointed jab in good spirit,” Star publisher Brandt Ayers said. “However, on substance, there is [...]

Filed under: 5. Request strategies, 7. Electronic records | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Rav rave: Get copies of company complaints to FTC

Posted on August 16, 2010 by David Cuillier

I rave about Michael Ravnitzky (mikerav@verizon.net). He’s gathered thousands of federal records and knows his way around FOIA probably more than anyone else. He recently posted tips on the FOI Listserv on how to get copies of complaints against companies that have been filed with the Federal Trade Commission. This is how, in his words: [...]

Filed under: 1. Records that matter, 4. Finding records, 5. Request strategies | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Create ‘Doc Squad’ in your state

Posted on April 9, 2010 by David Cuillier

ProPublica is creating a cool “Reporting Network Doc Squad” to establish people around the country who can request records from state governments as needed. This is particularly important because five states don’t respond to out-of-state requests (Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, Georgia and Delaware). These rules that prohibit out-of-state requests are archaic and should be dropped. ProPublica [...]

Filed under: 3. Access law, 5. Request strategies | Leave a Comment »

Mississippi to shorten request response time

Posted on April 1, 2010 by David Cuillier

I see the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill to shorten the amount of time an agency has to respond to a records request, from 14 days to seven days (see story). “Right now it’s 14 days, two weeks; that’s about the longest in the country and frankly in most cases it’s too long to wait,” [...]

Filed under: 3. Access law, 5. Request strategies | Leave a Comment »

FOIA a bad search engine, but use tactics to speed it up

Posted on March 25, 2010 by David Cuillier

I ran across a funny graphic posted by blogger Edward Vielmetti on AnnArbor.com (See posting of his FOIA Friday blog) playing on “Google classic.”  Edward then lists great tips for getting public records, with my favorites (including some of my own input): 1. Get the information through other means if you can – FOIA is [...]

Filed under: 5. Request strategies, 6. Overcoming denials | 1 Comment »

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