Berkeley Daily Planet under siege from pro-Israel critics

The Berkeley Daily Planet June 4, 2009 By Richard Brenneman A small group of East Bay residents are waging a campaign against the Berkeley Daily Planet for publishing what they call anti-Semitic criticisms of Israel’s policies and actions. The Planet itself has not assumed an editorial stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but occasionally runs letters and commentaries from Berkeley residents, most of which are critical of Israel. In an investigatory report on the activities of

Read More »

Prisoner’s vulgar note not protected speech

A prison who wrote a vulgar note to a prosecutor on a piece of toilet paper found that the federal appeals court did not consider it within the bounds of protected speech under the First Amendment. -DB Houston Chronicle June 8, 2009 By Michael Graczyk HOUSTON (AP) — A vulgar note written on a piece of toilet paper by a Texas inmate and sent to a prosecutor is not constitutionally protected free speech, a federal

Read More »

Open government may exceed prudent boundaries

Security experts warn that as Obama makes government data more accessible, it is imperative to improve data classification and information management so that sensitive but unclassified documents will not get into the wrong hands. -DB Computerworld Analysis June 8, 2009 By Jaikumar Vijayan The Obama Administration’s push to make government data more open and easily accessible is elevating the need for standardized data classification and information management approaches across federal agencies, security experts say. Without

Read More »

Obama administration to expand online statistical data base

When the federal government adds more federal stats to its online data base, it will come with clickable tags that will allow citizens to search related content. -DB NextGov June 4 2009 By Aliya Sternstein A comprehensive online warehouse of downloadable federal statistics is expected soon to add clickable tags that allow users to search and catalog related content, the White House chief information officer said on Thursday. “We want to be able to get

Read More »

Judge allows advocate to post Social Security numbers of government officials

A federal judge struck a compromise to allow a Virginia woman to post the Social Security numbers of public officials but not those of private citizens, all of which can be easily obtained through legal means. In posting the numbers of public officials, the woman is trying to get them to pass laws to protect privacy and curtail identity theft. -DB Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press June 4, 2009 By Kathleen Cullinan A

Read More »