donal brown

A new Mill Valley social media policy on town council members’ use of personal web accounts to converse with fellow council members and the public has been sidelined pending a California Supreme Court ruling on a San Jose case. The town wants to open access for community members while adhering to the Brown Act prohibition on conversations between council members constituting “meetings.”  (Marin Independent Journal, August 9, 2015, by Adrian Rodriguez) Marin County supervisors are

A New York federal district judge cited free speech in ruling that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could not prevent a company from promoting a drug for unapproved uses. The court ruled that Amarin Pharma Inc. could provide doctors with studies showing the drug Vascepa reduced moderately high blood fats without FDA approval of that use so long as the claims were truthful. (Wall Street Journal, August 7, 2015, by Thomas Burton) The FDA

A California court of appeal ruled that confidential discovery documents by the Catholic Diocese of Monterey in a case of sexual abuse by a priest in 2004 and 2005 had to be released to a local newspaper. The Monterey County Weekly felt that given a settlement in the case and that no jury could be influenced, it was entitled to full disclosure of documents to determine how the Diocese handled the case. (Metropolitan News-Enterprise, August

The San Francisco Ethics Commission is seeking an unprecedented level of transparency in San Francisco politics by proposing a November ballot measure to require nonprofits, business interests and labor unions to reveal their lobbying activities. The measure is designed to reveal amounts spent on indirect lobbying including online petitions and advertising. (San Francisco Chronicle, August 3, 2015, by Emily Green) A grand jury report and a local watchdog group had called for greater transparency on

A federal district judge issued a restraining order against a group planning to release videos of abortion-rights meetings. In the order, Judge William Orrick cited privacy concerns and the history of violence against abortion doctors. The group, the Center for Medical Progress, said they were engaged in “investigative journalism” when they posed as members of a fetal research company and made videos that claimed to show Planned Parenthood was illegally selling fetal parts. (San Francisco