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Coalition News

Critic of Inglewood mayor defeats censorship-by-copyright

donal brown August 18, 2015

A few weeks ago we wrote about the thin-skinned mayor of Inglewood who, stung by criticism from a local citizen, went to court to silence him. Oblivious to first amendment protections for free speech, the mayor and his lawyers claimed the critic’s use of clips from videos of city council meetings infringed Inglewood’s copyright. Now a federal judge, having considered those claims, has given them, and the mayor, the back of the hand. Although cities

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Watch Now! FAC & KPCC’s Pulling Back the Blue Curtain: When should we have access to police records?

FAC July 22, 2015

You might want to put on welding goggles and spf 50 sunscreen because more than a few sparks fly when FAC’s Peter Scheer and KPCC’s Frank Stoltze ask the panel of law-enforcement-access experts: “How much access to police records is warranted; how much is too much?  KPCC’s crime and public safety correspondent Frank Stoltze moderated the lively, sometimes heated, discussion among the panel of law-enforcement access experts as they addressed the issues of privacy, transparency and access to police records. The event,

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FAC-backed bill, AB 521, would require disclosure of water usage by corporations

Peter Scheer June 29, 2015

The California Legislature will consider a FAC-backed bill to narrow the CPRA’s exemption for information on water usage by customers of government water districts. The bill, AB 1520, would reverse the outcome of an unsuccessful lawsuit filed by FAC against the Coachella Valley Water District in 2014. The CPRA for nearly 20 years has had a special exemption, Gov Code section 6254.16, for public utilities, including water districts, allowing them to withhold “usage data” for

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FAC amicus brief: agency can’t take back records mistakenly released

Peter Scheer January 23, 2015

FAC has filed an amicus brief in a case testing a local government agency’s power to take back records it has released to a requester under the CPRA. The Newark Unified School District, in releasing documents, mistakenly included records that were subject to the attorney-client privilege. The school district demanded return of the documents and the requester refused. The central issue is whether the inadvertent release of privileged documents causes a “waiver” of the attorney-client

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