In assessing Obama’s first 100 days in office, Wired rated him low in privacy and copyright, high in science and net neutrality and gave him a B- for transparency. -DB Wired April 29, 2009 By David Kravets As President Barack Obama marks his 100th day in office today, we’ve set out to grade the 44th president’s performance on the bread-and-butter issues near and dear to Wired.com: copyright, cyber security, science, net neutrality, transparency and privacy.

An San Francisco Examiner writer says that BART has reversed its practice of keeping committee meetings out of the public eye and is actively soliciting public input on a police oversight committee after a BART police officer shot and killed an unarmed man in January. -DB San Francisco Examiner April 30, 2009 By Melissa Griffin A few weeks ago, I wrote that the dates, times and locations of the BART Police Department Review Committee meetings

King County in Washington state has agreed to pay a blogger $225,000 to settle a public records lawsuit over the county’s failure to release documents in 2004. Some see the award as a cautionary tale for government officials slow to observe open government laws. –DB The Seattle Times April 24, 2009 SEATTLE — Conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky says King County has agreed to pay him $225,000 to settle a public records lawsuit over the county’s

The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that a lawsuit alleging torture brought by detainees under the “extraordinary rendition” program could proceed over government objections that state secrets would be revealed. -DB The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press April 29, 2009 By Rory Eastburg The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco (9th Cir.) yesterday reinstated a lawsuit brought by former detainees who claim they were tortured as part of the

A Berkeley Daily Planet writer says that the City Council is not allowing the public or the press enough notice of meetings on issues surrounding traffic concerns for a new building project. –DB The Berkeley Daily Planet Editorial April 30, 2009 By Becky O’Malley The long knives are starting to come out for West Berkeley, now that Downtown has been carved up. Two harbingers this week: There was a special meeting on Monday of the