Search

Categories

Total Results

No Record Found

View All Results
DONATE

First Amendment News

Obama administration making headway in transparency efforts

donal brown August 18, 2009

While its efforts have been criticized, the Obama administration has launched promising initiatives to bring accountability and transparency to government and continues to work on improvements. -DB OMB Watch Commentary August 18, 2009 At the close of President Obama’s first 200 days in office, the administration has demonstrated a willingness to experiment with new technologies and their potential role in making government more participatory and accountable. New e-government tools have been deployed to keep track of

Read More »

Public oversight needed for juvenile justice

donal brown August 18, 2009

The juvenile justice system has improved from a paternalistic system with little regard for the Consitutional rights of the children, but, writes journalist Kathleen Cullinan, the children could benefit from opening juvenile courts to public scrutiny. -DB The News Media & The Law Commentary Summer 2009 By Kathleen Cullinan Compared with the rest of the American judicial system, juvenile courts operate under water, beneath varying layers of secrecy. It is that way largely because it always

Read More »

Court rules teacher can pursue suit over political speech

donal brown August 17, 2009

Ruling on a teacher’s claim that he was dismissed for criticizing the school administration, a federal judge said it is already established that public employees do not enjoy First Amendment protection while at work but that the teacher could pursue his suit against the school district on the basis of the teacher’s claim that he also was forced out for his off-campus political activities. -DB Metropolitan News-Enterprise August 17, 2009 By Kenneth Ofgang A former teacher

Read More »

Federal government: New ‘sharing’ agency no guarantee to transparency

donal brown August 17, 2009

Secrecy News’ Steven Atergood says that the newly appointed Senior Director for Information Sharing Policy does not have a mandate for transparency. Rather, Aftergood asserts, “information sharing” does not include the public. -DB Secrecy News Federation of American Scientists Analysis August 17, 2009 By Steven Aftergood The Obama Administration is giving increased attention to the continuing post-9/11 challenge of information sharing, with a newly appointed White House Senior Director of Information Sharing Policy tasked to

Read More »

Law proposed to shed light on state university foundations

donal brown August 17, 2009

University officials claim that a law forcing disclosure financial dealings of nonprofit university foundations serving state institutions would be too costly. Open government advocates say that recent expenditures, illegal or questionable, show the need for disclosure. -DB Capitol Weekly August 13, 2009 By Maryam Ali Free-speech groups are trying to force the state’s public universities to disclose financial relationships worth more than $6.25 billion. At issue are scores of nonprofit foundations linked to the schools. The

Read More »