News & Opinion

A study by a university professor shows that government information officers are routinely denying news to journalists who posted stories in the past that they found objectionable. This news comes at a time of charges that the federal government is restricting the flow of information to the media and public in multiple ways. (International Business Times, August 7, 2014, by David Sirota) Reporters face increasing numbers of powerful public relations officers as evidenced by the

A U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner caused a stir when he justified restrictions on First Amendment rights for students on the state of their brain development. Commissioner Michael Yaki also justified prohibitions on speech in some instances given distasteful and racist activities common on university campuses. (Campus Reform, August 5, 2014, by Kaitlyn Schallhorn) Greg Lukianoff of the Foundation for Individual Right in Education responded to Yaki by reminding the commission that 18-year-olds vote and fight

Citing viewpoint discrimination, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Los Angeles County Superior Court illegally barred filmmakers access to a courtroom to film scenes from of a documentary on judicial corruption. (Judicial Watch, August 4, 2014, press release) In the 3-0 finding, the court agreed that the Los Angeles Superior Court denied access because of the nature of the documentary, “The empty courtroom that the plaintiffs sought to access to film their

The Los Angeles County district attorney exonerated Cerritos Mayor Pro-Tem Carol Chen after a citizen contended that she and other council members held a private meeting with other local elected officials to plan ways to oppose an improvement bond by a local school district. The district attorney questioned the propriety of the meeting but found no Brown Act violation in that there were no majorities of any elected body at the meeting. (Los Cerritos News,

California newspaper interests are suing the state Senate to obtain calendar entries of two recently indicted senators. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is changed with a number of offenses including public corruption and weapons trafficking. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, has also been indicted for multiple offenses among them wire fraud, bribery and money laundering. (Contra Costa Times, July 31, 2014, by Matthias Gafni) Requests for the information were filed under the Legislative Open Records Act and rejected