News & Opinion

AB 1978 AB 1978, a Bill that would have closed public access to ‘basemap’ data for Geographic Information Systems (GIS), put forth by Assemblymember Jose Solorio, was dropped after opposition from the GIS/GeoData and freedom of information communities. GIS “basemap” data is used to create the base layer for all local computer mapping. The bill sought to exempt from the Public Records Act, which requires all government data to be available to the public, “metadata,

A federal grand jury looking into government leaks to New York Times reporter James Risen have been shown phone records of their calls with the reporter. How did the Justice Department get its hands on those records without Risen or the newspaper knowing anything about it? Here’s the Times’ own story: April 12, 2008 Leak Inquiry Said to Focus on Calls With Times By PHILIP SHENON WASHINGTON — Former government officials have recently been called

Christopher Edley, Jr. , Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, has published a thoughtful statement explaining why, much as he deplores the legal “advice” law professor John Yoo gave to President Bush, Yoo’s tenure at the law school is protected by principles of freedom of speech and academic freedom. Yoo infamously opined that President Bush had authority, notwithstaning statutes and treaties to the contrary, to authorize torture of terrorist suspects. Here’s Edley’s statement: