donal brown

San Luis Obispo: Change in charter school admissions policy prompts challenge

Parents thought their children had been admitted to kindergarten at the Bellevue-Santa Fe Charter School only to learn that they were bumped to the back of the waiting list. One couple is filing a grievance on the grounds that the school district changed the admissions policy, possibly in violation of open government laws. -DB New Times July 22, 2008 By Colin Rigley When the new kindergartners at the Bellevue-Santa Fe Charter School take their seats this

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New laws proposed to save newspaper industry

In the face of the shrinking revenues for print journalism, some are suggesting new laws, including ones that would restrict linking and that would create a federal law enshrining the “hot news” doctrine. -DB MediaShift July 21, 2009 By Jeffrey D. Neuburger As newsroom staffs continue to shrink and newspapers go out of business at an alarming rate, the difficulty newspapers have experienced in gaining economic traction online has been blamed on blogs and websites

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White House releases logs showing visits by medical industry executives

Under pressure, the Obama administration released logs of White House visits of medical industry executives just after the inauguration, fueling speculation that the industry gained concessions in the private meetings. -DB First Amendment Center July 23, 2009 By The Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C. — Administration officials began talking privately to major players in the health care industry within a few weeks of President Barack Obama’s inauguration, a newly released list of White House visitors shows. During

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Homeland Security first government agency to harness social media

The Homeland Security Department is the first cabinet-level agency to implement Obama directives on social media, offering a YouTube channel and formulating plans to use Twitter in event of disasters. -DB NextGov July 22, 2009 Associated Press WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Homeland Security Department relaunched its Web site Wednesday and became the first Cabinet-level agency to follow the tech-savvy White House directives on social media. President Barack Obama’s aides have been urging agencies to add interactive components

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Judge says government pension records subject to disclosure

The California Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that names and salaries of government employees are public record but did not specifically mention retirees. A Contra Costa judge has now ruled that that records of county’s pension funds must be disclosed. -DB Metropolitan News-Enterprise July 15, 2009 By Sherrim M. Okamoto A county’s pension records are not exempt from disclosure pursuant to the Public Records Act, a Contra Costa Superior Court judge has ruled in what is

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