Search

Categories

Total Results

No Record Found

View All Results
DONATE

News & Opinion

Council of Europe criticizes U.S. ‘cult of secrecy’

donal brown September 8, 2011

The inter-parliamentary  Council of Europe has issued a draft resolution blasting the U.S. for its “cult of secrecy” and said whistleblowers played a vital tole in challenging government secrecy. The resolution pointed up the ill effects of secrecy, “In some countries, in particular the United States, the notion of state secrecy is used to shield agents of the executive from prosecution for serious criminal offenses such as abduction and torture, or to stop victims from

Read More »

A&A: UC keeps extending my records request without providing a reason

FAC September 8, 2011

Q: I have sent the university several PRA Requests in conjunction with my son’s recent death on campus.  The state university responded that they would respond to my request in 10 days. Ten days later I received a letter saying they  they would produce the requested documents on almost a month later.  When the appointed day came, I received no response. I sent an e-mail inquiry, the school responded saying they  they would respond 30

Read More »

Righthaven may have filed its last copyright infringement suit

donal brown September 7, 2011

The controversial copyright  troll, Righthaven, has not filed a lawsuit in two months after punishing court rulings against the company. The firm began over a year ago supposedly to buy copyrights from news media and file suits to stop copyright infringements. Although Righthaven is appealing the court decisions that held that it had no legal standing to file the suits, its operations are at a standstill as the appeal cases take months and years to

Read More »

A&A: Public comment time limit changed without notice

FAC September 7, 2011

Q: At a recent Planning Commission public hearing, we were told in the agenda and online that we would be given up to three minutes to speak. Right before public comments were heard, the chair said we’d be given only two minutes without any explanation. It says in the agenda he can change the time with no cause.  Is this a violation of the Brown Act and what is our remedy? A: As you know,

Read More »

Facebook bans no impediment to students

donal brown September 6, 2011

School administrators are no match for tech savvy students as students simply use proxy servers to get around Facebook bans. Schools are trying to limit social media sites to get students to concentrate on their educations, but a ban on sites are ineffective. Some students, though, have been known to stay at school to do homework aware that they will not be tempted to go on Facebook. -db From  The New York Times, September 2,

Read More »