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A&A: The author of requested emails assigned to fulfill PRA request

FAC August 5, 2011

Q: I requested information regarding communications of someone who works directly for our County and also is on our City Council. The County Administrator gave her the PRA request and is allowing her to fulfill it herself. Is this legal? I requested emails to a certain person from her. A: The Public Records Act does not, as far as I can tell, specify who at a particular agency is required to oversee the fulfillment of

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A&A: What’s meant by “electronic form” documents under the CPRA?

FAC August 5, 2011

Q: I requested a copy of the CA Jobs Bill Fund Report from my local school district. I received an oversimplified copy of the report so I asked for the website address for the complete report. I was told the website was password protected and therefore I was not granted access.  Would a document with restricted access be considered an “electronic form” if they printed it from a website that I cannot access and it

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Federal judge says receiving classified information a felony

donal brown August 4, 2011

A federal judge’s assertion that receiving classified information without authorization was a felony is “almost certainly a misunderstanding and a misrepresentation of the law,” writes Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News. The judge made the statement in a memorandum concerning an order limiting the scope of testimony of New York Times reporter James Risen in the Jeffrey Sterling espionage trial. Aftergood says one of the laws the judge cited to support her contention does not prohibit

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Guardian rises to the top with reporting on phone-hacking scandal

donal brown August 4, 2011

Los Angeles Times columnist James Rainey praises Britain’s  Guardian newspaper for pursuing the Rupert Murdock phone-hacking scandal that he says solidifies the newspaper as one of the world’s best. He credits editor Alan Rusbridger, reporter Nick Davies and “a rock-solid supporting cast.” At the same time, Rainey reports that the Guardian faces layoffs as ad revenues decline and no new sources of income emerge. -db From a commentary in the Los Angeles Times, August 3,

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Federal secrecy: Complaint to fight gratuitous classification

donal brown August 4, 2011

The former head of the Security Oversight Office, J.William Leonard, has filed a complaint against two federal agencies for classifying a document that has no secrets. The complaint asked that officials be punished for overclassification. Leonard said in his 34 years in government, he often saw documents unnecessarily classified as secret, and no one was ever punished for it. He said that since the government is indicting workers for leaking classified information, it is essential

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