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Modesto City Council meeting cancelled to avoid open government violation

donal brown February 6, 2010

The Modesto City Council will still be eating lunch together at the annual Chamber of Commerce luncheon which costs $40 to attend. But they will no longer call it a city council meeting for the mayor’s annual speech since California’s Brown Act prohibits charging the public to attend council meetings. -db The Modesto Bee February 6, 2010 By Leslie Albrecht Modesto leaders sent mixed messages this week about the mayor’s State of the City address,

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Texas cities forced to withdraw from free speech case

donal brown February 6, 2010

Since government agencies cannot suffer First Amendment rights violations, the Texas attorney general said that they cannot particpate in a case against the state’s open meetings law. City council members are contesting the law saying their free speech rights are being denied as the law prohibits government officials from conducting business in secret. -db The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press February 3, 2010 By Miranda Fleschert Four Texas cities that filed a federal lawsuit

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Amador County: Water agency accused of open meeting violations

donal brown February 6, 2010

A citizens group is calling for an investigation of the Amador Water Agency board for possible Brown Act violations when they held private conferences on board elections. -db Ledger Dispatch February 5, 2010 By Matthew Hedger A local citizens group is asking the Amador Water Agency to seek legal counsel and investigate whether some directors violated provisions of the Brown Act by holding private discussions on board elections. A Jan. 13 letter signed by Vince DeStigter,

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Haiti Rewired: Wired.com tackles Haiti’s reconstruction with online collaboration

FAC February 5, 2010

Haiti Rewired launched by Wired.com following the January earthquake, is an innovative response to the problem of on-going disaster relief. Editor-in-Chief Evan Hansen, a member of FAC’s board, calls the project an online “collaboration of writers, editors, technologists, researchers, geographers, infrastructure specialists, aid groups and others” dedicated to rebooting Haiti’s future. Haiti Rewired’s Mission Statement Posted by Evan Hansen on January 22, 2010 at 7:30pm View Evan Hansen’s blog Quake-ravaged Haiti faces a long-term emergency,

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Charging online readers for news content ready for extensive trial

donal brown February 4, 2010

More news outlets are ready to charge for online content now that software has been developed to expedite the process. Newsday, The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times already charge online readers. -db The New York Times February 2, 2010 By Richard Pérez-Peña Extracting payment from online readers has been called everything from the next great folly of print journalism to its salvation, but to get a glimpse of how it really looks, head

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