Peter Scheer

If you were trying to sabotage California’s open records law, you couldn’t do much better than SB 1300, a bill that has been approved by the Legislature and is now on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk, awaiting his signature. Tell him that if he cares at all about the Public Records Act and making government transparent and accountable, he should veto SB 1300. Ostensibly a bill to strengthen safety regulation of oil refineries, SB 1300, introduced

To its credit, the Obama administration was quick and forceful in its condemnation of the Afghan government’s expulsion of New York Times reporter Matthew Rosenberg, who had angered the Karzai government by reporting that high-level Afghan officials were considering bypassing electoral procedures to establish an interim government—in effect, to stage a coup. But the United States’ full-throated support of journalistic independence abroad may be unconvincing to at least one journalist at home. I’m referring to

The Justice Department on Friday released to the First Amendment Coalition a newly declassified legal memo advising the CIA on the legality of a proposed “lethal operation” against Anwar al-Awlaki, the American citizen who joined forces with Al-Qaida and was killed in a US drone strike in Yemen in September 2010. The memo is posted below. The newly released memo, dated February 19, 2010, was provided to FAC in connection with our ongoing FOIA lawsuit

I recently wrote that Edward Snowden should return to the US and face trial for his revelations about NSA surveillance. (“Snowden Go Home”). The longer Snowden is a fugitive (particularly in Vladimir Putin’s Russia), the harder it is to characterize his conduct–obtaining and disclosing classified records by the gigabyte–as an act of conscience. In the venerable tradition of civil disobedience, he should submit to American legal processes. Not surprisingly, these views triggered some critical comments. Several

The public has grown accustomed to “pay to play” scandals and other misconduct at CalPERS, the nation’s largest public employee pension plan with over $300 million in investments. Still, the former CEO’s guilty plea entered in federal court last week was shocking even by CalPERS’ standards. Frederico Buenrostro, CalPERS’ top official from 2002 to 2008, acknowledged in his plea agreement with the government that he had taken $200,000 in cash bribes, delivered in paper bags