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donal brown

Uncertain outcome in fight over release of photos of the dead Osama bin Laden

donal brown May 17, 2011

In a fight over free press rights and national security, it is far from clear which side will prevail in the dispute over releasing photos of Osama bin Laden’s dead body. Reuters reporter Andrew Longstreth wrote that secrecy expert Steven Aftergood doesn’t think the courts will see a substantial  national security issue over the photos, but he also quotes free press attorney Floyd Abrams’ more skeptical opinion, “It [deciding for the release] requires a judge

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Techies strive to provide tools to circumvent Internet censorship

donal brown May 17, 2011

EFF’s Seth Schoen says that governments are constantly on the move to censor the web, recently forcing ISPs to censor sites from the DNS. They are counting on the users not realizing censorship is happening and that users will not know how to bypass the censors. Governments are also using the Internet to monitor the content of individual expression. The second edition of How to Bypass Internet Censorship, available online at no cost, provides tools

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Free speech: Flag-burning inspires violent reactions and inane statements

donal brown May 16, 2011

When a graduate student from Louisiana State University tried to burn an American flag to protest the arrest of another student for stealing and burning a flag from the war memorial, he was greeted with obscenities, thrown bottles and water balloons and needed a police escort to leave the area. The university administration choose to ignore the violence in their official statement, “This is what a flagship university, and Free Speech Alley, is all about

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California: Riverside County supervisors want union negotiations closed to public

donal brown May 16, 2011

Riverside County Supervisors are chafing at their  service employees union practice of  allowing any member to attend closed door negotiations. Labor negotiations are normally closed to the public to allow unfettered discussion of the issues. California’s Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, does not address the issue, and the union says the open door policy fosters transparency, a hallmark of their union. -db From The Press-Enterprise, May 15, 2011, by Duane W. Gang. Full

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California: Citizen alleges open meeting violation by Menlo Park school trustees

donal brown May 16, 2011

A local open meeting watchdog, Peter Carpenter, accused the Menlo Park School District of violating California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act, when it used secret ballots to rank candidates for the superintendent’s job. Carpenter demanded that the district nullify its choice of superintendent and allow the public to discuss its short list of candidates. The district denied violating the Brown Act and said that Carpenter had misread the act. In ranking candidates, the trustees

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