donal brown

Southern California: Orange County official says Joint Powers Agreement could resolve transparency issue in fairgrounds purchase

The Orange County treasurer is recommending a Joint Powers Agreement between the county and city of Costa Mesa to buy the Orange County Fairground as the best way to guarantee transparency under the Brown Act and satisfy community concerns. -DB Daily Pilot November 20, 2009 By Mona Shadia Orange County Treasurer Chriss Street is recommending that the county enter into a Joint Powers Agreement with the city of Costa Mesa to buy the Orange County Fairgrounds.

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Medicare payment data to go onto public Web site

The Center for Medicare is planning to put up information about Medicare payments onto a Web site so that the public can track where the money is going. Some are concerned that this way of ferreting out fraud may also result in invasions of privacy. -DB NextGov November 19, 2009 By Aliya Sternstein The Obama administration plans to launch a Web site in December that the public can use to monitor Medicare payments, but some health

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Alaska still freezing former Governor Sarah Palin’s e-mails

Anchorage Daily News editor Paul Jenkins says that the refusal to release the Palin’s administration’s e-mails in a timely fashion is only the most recent attempt by the Alaska state government to withhold records from the public in defiance of the state’s public records law. -DB Anchorage Daily News Opinion November 14, 2009 By Paul Jenkins Alaska state government is bruising, if not breaking, the law by failing to release in a timely fashion Palin

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Federal judge says school’s anti-gang policy raises First Amendment issues

After a high school student’s free speech arguments were rejected by a federal district judge, a federal appeals judge said that he could bring First Amendment claims against his school for punishing him for allegedly asking a question to another student about a gang. The student denies asking the question. -DB First Amendment Center November 18, 2009 By David L. Hudson Jr. A federal judge has ruled that a student can pursue a First Amendment claim

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Controversy simmers over university’s invitation to former 70’s radical to speak at colloquium

New York Times columnist Jack Hitt argues that while it is important to allow controversial speakers to mount the soapbox, the First Amendment is also honored by a public debate over exactly who should be invited to state their views. -DB The New York Times Opinion November 17, 2009 By Jack Hitt The Issue First, colloquium organizers at the University of Massachusetts invited Raymond Luc Levasseur — a founder of the United Freedom Front, a

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