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Must read FOI stories – 7/11/14

By David Schick | July 11th, 2014

Every week I do a roundup of the freedom of information stories around the Web. If you have an FOI story you want to share, send me an email or tweet me.

A CIA employee with the highest level of security clearance tried to get the agency to release info that was a decade old. They told him no, so he submitted a FOIA request and it “destroyed his entire career.”

Residents of Ann Arbor, Mich., submitted more FOIA requests than their own local news media.

How the FOIA Improvement Act of 2014 would help ordinary requesters.

California has a decades-old law that restricts public access to viewing records of water wells.

The Center for Investigative Reporting is collecting ideas on how to improve the FOIA request process. Have ideas? Fill out the form here.

Two local activist groups file suit against a Florida county claiming that the commission skirted state open-government laws in allowing a controversial business park to go forward.

Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council is reviewing each one of its 100 plus exemptions in its states FOI act to determine whether or not it is needed.

After FOIA suffers setback due to South Carolina Supreme Court ruling, editorial urges public officials not to use FOI ruling as a means to shut the public out of government affairs.

20-year-old Rwandan genocide documents withheld under B(5) FOIA exemption forces researchers to look abroad for transparency.

Illinois High School Association resists calls for greater transparency in its handling of extracurricular activities and the millions of dollars they generate each year.

North Carolina State University official claims the state’s open records law is costing them opportunities for research contracts.

An Oklahoma city, which was ordered to pay attorneys’ fees in an Open Records Act case last year, is again facing another lawsuit over its alleged failure to provide documents under the law.

U.S. federal judge orders the Internal Revenue Service to explain how it “lost” two years worth of a former IRS official Lois Lerner’s emails.

Why I love FOIA: Department of Homeland Security released hundreds of pages of documents not related to original request for “Operation Aurora attack on Google,” but instead provides info on the Aurora project run at Idaho National Lab years earlier in which engineers destroyed a generator with a cyber attack as a demonstration

Which U.S. agencies sprung for the extra legroom provided by first class? MuckRock obtained Agency Premium Travel Reports, which show how millions in upgrade fees were spent from 2009-2013.

In case you missed it, FBI released documents in May showing they had spied on Nelson Mandela during his first trip to the United States in 1990, four months after his release from 27 years in prison. Now, new documents show that Mandela’s release triggered FBI anti-communist paranoia.

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David Schick is the summer 2014 Pulliam/Kilgore Freedom of Information intern for SPJ, reporting and researching public records and FOI issues. Contact him at dschick@spj.org or interact on Twitter: @davidcschick

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Tags: Ann Arbor, Center for Investigative Reporting, Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, CIR, FOIA, FOIA lawsuit, Illinois High School Association, Virginia Freedom of Information
Posted in Freedom of Information, Must reads, Open government, open meetings, public disclosure | Comment »

Must read FOI stories – 6/27/14

By David Schick | June 27th, 2014

Every week I’ll be doing a round up of the freedom of information stories around the Web. If you have an FOI story you want to share, send me an email or tweet me.

Two senators are proposing the most significant reforms to the Freedom of Information Act in four decades

We’ve got a journalist at the adult table! Andrew Becker, reporter for the Center for Investigative Reporting, will be serving on the federal FOIA Modernization Advisory Committee to, let’s hope, make FOIA stronger for journalists and the public.

FOIA from the “budget” perspective answers the following questions: How much are we spending on FOIA oversight? How does that compare to the costs of litigation? How much does the government spend on FOIA administration overall.

The FBI’s 83-page guide to Twitter shorthand. FMTYEWTK (Far More Than You Ever Wanted To Know).

“Existence or Nonexistence” was written in a sky message over New York City to mock a CIA response to a FOIA request that said the agency can “neither confirm nor deny the existence or nonexistence” of records responsive to the request.

A federal judge ruled that the Freedom of Information Act trumps an Internal Revenue Service policy for handling data requests after an advocacy group, Public.Resource.Org, filed a lawsuit against the IRS to make Form 990 returns available in a format that can be read by computers so the public can more easily search them for critical information about non-profit finances, governance and programs.

An Oklahoma County judge ruled that Gov. Mary Fallin can lawfully withhold public documents — relating to a decision on Obamacare — which are covered by a “deliberative process” privilege.

The Florida Supreme Court will hear a case regarding the payment of attorney fees to a local activist who challenged the Jacksonville Police and Fire Pension Fund over public record laws and won (but not attorney’s fees).

A bill “rushed through” the Illinois General Assembly spring session is drawing the ire of a good-government group that contends it will restrict the ability of citizens to get information about their governments.

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy proposes new legislation to open up Vermont’s FOIA laws, but the governor wants no part in that.

In response to a long-running FOIA lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, U.S. releases “targeted killing” memo.

Tulsa World editorial calls for the legislature to strike down the “deliberative process” exemption. A judge recently ruled that Governor Mary Fallin was allowed to withhold 100 pages out of 51,000 concerning her state’s decision on the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.

North Carolina legislators are proposing legislation that will prevent the public from accessing mugshots.

Pennsylvania court backs the power of its state’s Open Records Office to order governments to surrender records for private review — to determine whether they should or shouldn’t be released to the public

The “FOIA Warriors” (Jason Leopold and Ryan Shapiro) are at it again and have filed a lawsuit against the CIA compelling the agency to release documents about its spying on Senate lawmakers who were tasked with investigating CIA torture.