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donal brown

California: Prison legal news publication sues to end censorship

donal brown April 7, 2011

Prison Legal News (PLN) has sued Sacramento County in federal court alleging that the county sheriff and other officials blocked distribution of its publication to inmates violating their First Amendment rights. PNL lawyer Sanford Jay Rosen said, “Jail officials do not have the right to censor books and magazines simply because they dislike the publisher. The actions of the jail officials are not only unconstitutional, but make it more difficult for prisoners to receive information

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Microblogging pushes new voices to news forefront

donal brown April 5, 2011

Writing in Benzinga, Laura Hlebasko assesses the role of microblogging on Twitter and Tumbir in creating news. She quotes observers who say traditional blogging is challenged by microblogging that makes news more personal and immediate. But traditional news outlets still have a vital role in synthesizing information and interpreting events. And primary sources are still key to news. Hlebasko quotes FOX Business Network anchor Brian Sullivan, “Ultimately, even with all this new technology, real honest

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New Jersey first grade teacher suspended for Facebook reference to students as ‘future criminals’

donal brown April 5, 2011

A first grade teacher from Paterson, New Jersey was relieved of her teaching duties after she posted on Facebook that she felt like a warden supervising future criminals. The teacher was suspended after parents complained. The teacher’s lawyer said the comments on Facebook were on her own time and to friends, “My feeling is that if you’re concerned about children, you’re concerned about what goes on in the classroom, not about policing your employee’s private

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Federal judge in Florida blocks bid for gag order in civil rights case

donal brown April 5, 2011

Attorneys for the Southern Poverty Law Center are allowed to discuss a civil rights case involving treatment of plaintiffs in a private Juvenile Detention Center. A federal judge found that a fair trial would not be compromised by statements from plaintiffs or their attorneys. The judge noted that while “Defendants are dismayed by the extrajudicial statements at issue in this case, since such statements challenge the Defendants’ business activities and actions…such dismay does not amount

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California: Portola Valley City Council calls closed session without adequate notice

donal brown April 5, 2011

In calling an urgent  closed session at the end of its regular meeting to discuss a real estate deal, the Portola Valley City Council failed to notify the public of the agenda and  time of the meeting 72 hours in advance thereby, according to one expert, violating the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, questioned that the council had to take “immediate action.” Ewert

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