donal brown

Atherton: Open government advocate persists in suit after rebuff by district attorney

An open government advocate is suing the Sequoia Union High School District to force them to decide on a personnel policy item in open meeting. The local district attorney sided with the school district in holding that  the vote behind closed doors was legal. -db The Almanac March 17, 2010 By Dave Boyce The district attorney will not go to battle for Peter Carpenter, the open-government crusader and Atherton resident, who is trying to force

Read More »

Kern school district challenged on Brown Act violations in plan to lay off teachers

The Kern High School District wants to lay off ten teachers after cuts in federal funds, but the teachers claim the district has not disclosed the details of the layoffs and so is acting in violation of the Brown Act, the state’s open government law. -db Bakersfield Now March 17, 2010 By Eyewitness News staff BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The Kern High School District plans to lay off about ten more teachers because of cuts to

Read More »

Staffing at federal agencies inadequate to deliver on Recovery Act funding

OMB Watch says a report from the groups charged with Recover Act oversight reveals that federal agencies are drastically overworked and under pressure to spend stimulus funds rapidly. The report does not touch on how the agencies are doing to make their work transparent, but OMB Watch says the problem of understaffing should be addressed to avoid waste and fraud and enable the agencies to fulfill transparency requirements. -db OMB Watch Opinion March 15, 2010

Read More »

Study of FBI documents shows censorship withheld harmless information

The Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that in the face of Freedom of Information Act requests, federal agencies hide their activities in excessive secrecy in spite of Obama administration directives to the agencies to make a “presumption of openness” in implementing FOIA requests. -db Electronic Frontier Foundation Commentary March 15, 2010 By David L. Sobel As the transparency community celebrates Sunshine Week, we here at EFF are reminded that most of the federal agencies we seek

Read More »

Secret report says Wikileaks a security threat to army

A classified intelligence report published on Wikileaks calls the site a “threat to the U.S. Army” and says it publishes information gained from leakers in the Defense Department or government that could be used to target military personnel. The report recommends identifying the leakers to end the threat to U.S. forces. -db Wired March 15, 2010 By David Kravets Wikileaks presents a “threat to the U.S. Army” and publishes “potentially actionable information” for targeting military

Read More »