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California court orders retraction of libelous statement

donal brown April 21, 2011

A Pasadena man who had made defamatory statements about the architectural firm hired to work on the renovation of his historic home was entitled to his opinions about the firm but had to correct false factual statements made to a historic restoration group and others. Writing for the court, Justice Steven  C. Suzukawa said the man could be required to set the record straight but not to provide a mea culpa. -db From the Metropolitan

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President considers new disclosure guidelines for contractor political contributions

donal brown April 21, 2011

The Obama administration has written a draft of a new executive order requiring government contractors to list their political contributions when bidding on a federal contract. The order is designed to shed light on contributions that could influence the award of the contract. In Federal Computer Week,  Matthew Weigelt quotes an administration official about the intent of the order, “The president is committed to bringing more accountability and transparency to a federal contracting system that

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Policeman fired for opinions has lawsuit reinstated in federal appeals court

donal brown April 21, 2011

A federal appeals court said a Pennsylvania police officer could pursue his claim that his town council had fired him in retaliation for critical online comments. After a fellow police officer was killed by a man with superior fire power, the policeman went online to attack the opinions of council members against supplying the police with better weapons. The appeals court ruled that the case could not be dismissed under the Supreme Court’s decision Garcetti

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California: St. Helena council accused of holding illegal ‘serial meeting’

donal brown April 21, 2011

The California Newspaper Publishers Association (CNPA) is claiming that the St. Helena City Council violated the Brown Act, California’s open meeting act, when a town administrator sent a memo to council members of instructions to its Housing Subcommittee. In a series of e-mails, council members suggested changes to the instructions and approved them. Jesse Duarte in the St. Helena Star quoted Jim Ewert of the CNPA, “This is exactly the kind of back-room discussion that

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Federal appeals court rules federal advisory committees can withhold ‘predecisional’ records

donal brown April 21, 2011

A federal appeals court held that the State Department could withhold records concerning the U.S. import policies on cultural artifacts from China, Italy and Cyprus. The State Department argued that the recommendations of an advisory committee were “predecisional” or “deliberative” and under the Freedom of Information Act qualify as exemptions. However, Christine Beckett quotes Sean Mouton of OMB Watch disputing the “predecisional” nature of the recommendations, “I don’t understand how [the recommendations] can be considered

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