The Federal Bank has been sued under the freedom of information act to disclose the securities that the bank is accepting for loans made to banks as part of the federal government’s rescue plan for the financial system. The suit, brought by Bloomberg News Service, tests the government’s claims, made at the time the rescue plan was enacted by Congress, that loans and other transactions using tax dollars would be highly “transparent.” Nloomberg News Service

Maybe the bailout isn’t so transparent after all. Here’s a contract with a bank that has been retained by the Treasury Department to assist in implementing the federal rescue of the US financial system.

Fear of violence in public schools is fueling a clamp down on student expression. And the new restrictions are generally being upheld by the courts, according to this story in today’s New York Times: By DAN SLATER With the nation’s school systems roiled by campus shootings over the past decade, and on the lookout for conflict, students are being asked to check a broader array of free-speech rights at the door — raising questions about

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation sponsored by CNPA to shield high school and college journalism advisers from discipline or removal from their positions for refusing to censor stories published in student newspapers, reports the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the bill’s sponsor. SB 1370 by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), would specifically prohibit a school employer from dismissing, suspending, disciplining, reassigning, transferring, or otherwise retaliating against an employee solely for acting to protect a pupil