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donal brown

Yale and ACLU campaign to stop schools’ censorship of web on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender content

donal brown February 15, 2011

The American Civil Liberties Union and Yale Law School are assessing public high school censorship of  LGBT web content by asking students to report instances of censorship. Reads the release: “Students may not realize that it actually is illegal for their schools to block educational and political content geared toward the LGBT community,” said Joshua Block, staff attorney with the ACLU LGBT Project. “With this initiative, we hope to inform students of their rights, and

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Hazelwood applied to college nursing student’s criticism of classroom practices

donal brown February 15, 2011

A federal judge applied Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier to a free speech case at the university level much to the dismay of First Amendment advocates. The judge upheld the dismissal of a nursing student at Auburn University at Montgomery for criticizing the nursing school’s disciplinary system. The judge later reconsidered her decision, modifying it to protect criticism of school curriculum and narrowing in on the disruption caused by directly talking back to an instructor during class.

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Parody not funny to conglomerate Koch Industries

donal brown February 15, 2011

The conglomerate Koch Industries is suing Youth for Climate Truth for publishing a fake press release in their name which stated that the company was supporting climate change advocacy. Koch enterprises are minerals, oil and fertilizers. Koch is seeking damages including the cost of correcting the record created by the fake release. Public Citizen, which is defending Youth for Climate Change, said the parody qualified as political speech and protected under the First Amendment. -db

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Congressional Research Service voices concerns about federal open government initiative

donal brown February 14, 2011

The Congressional Research Service has not been sold on the Obama administration’s Open Government Initiative. A recently updated report criticized the effort for offering more data to the public but not granting transparency about how the government functions. The report also noted that while increased public participation could help produce positive outcomes, it could also reduce the speed of government action and cause security and privacy concerns. -db From Secrecy News, February 14, 2011 by

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Social media the new revolutionary pamphlet

donal brown February 14, 2011

While conceding that the social media did not cause the Egyptian revolution, Sam Gustin in Wired writes that the social media made significant contributions to the revolution’s success, a development that offers hope to repressed peoples of the Middle East. Gustin quotes Sascha Meinrath of the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative: “In the same way that pamphlets didn’t cause the American Revolution, social media didn’t cause the Egyptian revolution. Social media have become the

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