News & Opinion

Federal judge upholds free speech rights of pro-life pregnancy centers

Invoking the First Amendment, a federal judge issued a temporary order barring New York City from enforcing a new law requiring crisis pregnancy centers to provide details including whether personnel was licensed and whether they performed abortions or provided emergency contraception. The law was intended to provide information about the operation of pro-life clinics after pro-choice advocates claimed that crisis centers were using deception and false claims to prevent women from having abortions. -db From

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Obama administration restricting access to unclassified information

The Pentagon is making it more difficult for the public to obtain unclassified information with a new policy imposing safeguard requirements on “prior designations indicating controlled access and dissemination (e.g., For Official Use Only, Sensitive But Unclassified, Limited Distribution, Proprietary, Originator Controlled, Law Enforcement Sensitive).” The policy also orders secrecy for any unclassified information not specifically approved for public release, in effect, making secrecy rather than  openness the default mode for most unclassified information. In

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Judge orders federal immigration officials to release information about ‘Secure Communties’ program

A federal judge has ordered federal immigration agencies to release what the court deemed “embarassing information’ regarding the ‘”Secure Communities” program. The National Day Labor Organizing Network and other groups filed a Freedom of Information Act request for records on the program and were denied access. Immigrations authorities have been accused of seeking biometric identity cards, which include fingerprints, hair color and height. Many think the cards would be vulnerable to hackers and risk identity

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Murdoch could face bribery charges in U.S.

After the phone-hacking scandal in Britain in which The News of the World allegedly paid bribes to police and other officials for news scoops, the Obama administration could conduct an investigation under the provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that “makes it a crime for any company with U.S. ties to bribe foreign officials to obtain or retain business.” It is unclear that the administration would want to use up its scarce resources

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California: Calaveras County school board accused of open meeting violation

The Grizzly of Big Bear is alleging that the Bear Valley Unified School district board of trustees violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law by inviting a citizen to a closed meeting. The district superintendent said the woman was asked to testify in closed session on a confidential matter that required secrecy. Jim Ewert of the California Newspaper Publishers Association said that it is only permissible for a member of the public to attend

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