Search Results for: Salaries of public employees – Page 180

Citing anonymous source stories, President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on “Face the Nation” that the president was sincere in blasting the press as the people’s enemy. Priebus named two problematic stories, the New York Times report that Trump aides had several contacts with Russian intelligence during last year’s election and a Wall Street Journal article about U.S. intelligence keeping sensitive information from the president to keep it from being leaked. (The

In a sudden reversal of policy, the Justice Department seized the phone and e-mail records of a New York Times reporter continuing an aggressive stance begun under the Obama administration. Prosecutors seized Ali Watkins’ records as part of an investigation of a former Senate Intelligence Committee aide, James A. Wolfe, arrested for lying to investigators in an investigation of the leak of classified documents. (The New York Times, June 10, 2018, by Michael M. Grynbaum)

The FBI closed its six year long investigation of an award-winning documentary filmmaker after failing to find any crime or threat to national security. During the six years, the government subjected Laura Poitras to numerous border searches and interrogations. Airport delays numbered over 50 from 2006 to 2012. Poitras and the EFF contend that she was singled out for her films about post-9-11 life in Yemen and Iraq that ran counter to the U.S. government

The 9th Circuit backed an injunction against anti-abortion proponents from releasing secret recordings of abortion providers. The anti-abortion group had signed an agreement not to distribute any information from the meeting without consent from the providers, the National Abortion Federation. The court ruled the information was obtained through fraud. The anti-abortion group said the information was newsworthy so they had a right to release the recordings since they contained evidence of crimes.  A federal district

The Justice Department would have to obtain federal court approval to seize telephone and e-mail records from journalist under a House of Representatives bill proposed by a bipartisan groups of legislators. (The Hill, May 22, 2013, by Jordy Yager) The Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) argues that the bill is only a partial fix and that in seeking permission for the records, the government should have to show probable cause under the Fourth Amendment. EFF also

The Colorado Supreme Court ruled against a professor who wanted to sue the University of Colorado for firing him. The school upheld the right of Ward Churchill, an American Indian studies professor, to make what many thought were outrageous statements about the victims of 9/11 but found multiple instances of academic misconduct including plagiarism and falsehoods in his academic writings. -db From the Courthouse News Service, September 12, 2012, by Jonny Bonner. Full story  

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-2 that a police officer could sue Paterson, New Jersey for an alleged violation of his First Amendment rights after he was demoted after he was wrongly believed to be involved in a political campaign. The officer had picked up a campaign sign for his mother and was not a part of any campaign. (The New York Times, April 26, 2016, by The Associated Press) In spite of the fact

The Seattle police announced they will abandon efforts to subpoena five local news groups to obtain unpublished videos and photos during a demonstration on May 30. They said they needed the videos to help them solve arson and theft cases. The department said it would take until next year to obtain the visual evidence and that they arrested a suspect in one of the cases. The media groups appealed to the state Supreme Court a

A legal battle has begun to fight Chevron’s subpoenas of years of private e-mails of activists, journalists and attorneys. Chevron claims that there was a conspiracy to defraud the company over alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Amazon. -db From a press release from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, October 22, 2012.   Full release      

The Monrovia city attorney denied that the city council violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, by discussing a loan to the city manager in closed session. -db From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, August 13, 2012, by Brenda Gazzar. Full story    

A bill to make police body-cam footage a matter of public record stalled again in the California state legislature, failing to make a September 1 deadline. The bill introduces a test that could be used by law enforcement to determine when to disclose body-cam footage in incidents such as fatal shootings.  As it stands now, police routinely block access by claiming the footage is part of an ongoing investigation.  (Courthouse News Service, September 6, 2017,