FAC

Military families are discovering that the U.S. military medical system is closed to inquires about botched medical care. Attempts to find out what happened in such cases meet with stock letters of condolence, denials or silence. And workers in the system cannot speak out about problems without suffering penalties. The Pentagon’s chief health official, Dr. Jonathan Woodson, says he is trying to change the culture. If the public was routinely denied information, said Woodson, “that

The Virginia Supreme Court avoided a free speech finding in ruling that Yelp could not be forced to reveal the identities of users who posted negative reviews of a carpet-cleaning service. The court ruled narrowly that the carpet company could not subpoena documents from Yelp headquarters in California thus skirting the First Amendment issues in the case. RCFOP filed a brief in support of Yelp. (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, April 16, 2015,

Twitter chief lawyer Vijaya Gadde announced new steps to protect its users from the posting of non-consensual photos of compromising poses and abusive and threatening comments. “Freedom of expression means little as our underlying philosophy if we continue to allow voices to be silenced because they are afraid to speak up. We need to do a better job combating abuse without chilling or silencing speech,” wrote Gadde. (The Washington Post, April 16, 2015, by Vijaya

California state law protects the identities of many of the state’s water wasters according to a report by the Center for Investigative Reporting. Katharine Mieszkowski and Lance Williams report that a law passed in 1997 designed to protect high tech residents using excessive amounts of water. The top 100 water users in San Diego consumed over 3,000 gallons a day compared with the average household use of 349 gallons. Before 1997, public utilities had to