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donal brown

San Jose: Case of tragic shooting of mentally ill man shows need for prompt disclosure of police records

donal brown October 20, 2009

A San Jose Mercury News editorial argues that if the police want to build trust between themselves and the community, with reasonable exceptions they need to provide timely public access to records. Disclosure lagged in the case of the police shooting of a mentally ill man with the result that after six months, controversy continues. The editorial calls for new guidelines for releasing police reports and statistics and 911 tapes. -DB San Jose Mercury News Editorial October

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Secret Service denies access to 2009 White House visitor records

donal brown October 20, 2009

After the Obama administration agreed to start releasing visitor logs starting December 31,  the watchdog group Judicial Watch was denied access to White House visitor logs from January 20 through September 15 of this year and does not understand why only these records merit protection. The Secret Service just says the records do not come from a government agency and so are not subject to the Presidential Records Act. -DB The Reporters Committee for Freedom

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San Francisco resident sues over failure of city to enforce sunshine law

donal brown October 20, 2009

A retired lawyer is suing the San Francisco Ethics Commission for not enforcing open government laws. He claims that since 2004, the sunshine ordinance task force forwarded to the commission 14 cases in which the public has been denied public records but in every case the commission dismissed the claim in favor of the city. -DB San Francisco Chronicle City Insider October 20, 2009 By Heather Knight Retired lawyer and Seacliff resident Allen Grossman says

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Watchdog groups say that data from Recovery Board first posting of stimulus data inaccessible

donal brown October 19, 2009

A number of groups are saying that the first online posting of data on stimulus spending was not accessible to the public difficult to search and incomplete. Critics say the site can be improved by making it so that the public can mount a search by recipient. -DB NextGov October 15, 2009 By Aliya Sternstein Government officials in charge of tracking spending aimed at stimulating the economy released on Thursday unprecedented details of financial transactions, but

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Transparency advocates react to Lessig’s “Against Transparency” article in New Republic

donal brown October 19, 2009

So far transparency advocates are saying that Lawrence Lessig’s article “Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government,” does not signal he is against accountability and openness in government. -DB The FOIA Advocate Missouri School of Journalism October 17, 2009 By Charles N. Davis Responses keep coming to Lessig’s New Republic article, “Against Transparency: The perils of openness in government.” Carl Malamud urges caution and a measured response to the title of Lessig’s article. Malamud

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