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accountability

California: Judge dismisses open meeting lawsuit against Capistrano schools

donal brown August 29, 2011

Schools watchdog Jim Reardon lost his suit against the Capistrano Unified School District when a judge ruled the district properly dealt with an alleged viiolation of California’s Brown Act, the open meeting law. After Reardon challenged the district over a March closed door meeting to  partially restore pay cuts to employees, the district met again to vote a second time on the issue. Reardon claimed they should have also admitted to violating the Brown Act.

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California: Dispute about what Capistrano schools must do to rectify open meeting violation

donal brown August 25, 2011

Sam Capistrano resident Jim Reardon sued the Capistrano Unified School District  in March claiming the board held a closed door meeting to partially restore teacher salaries and failed to report their actions. Without acknowledging a violation of the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, the board subsequently held a public meeting to discuss teacher salaries, but Reardon’s lawyer said to rectify a violation, the board needed to admit they  erred. -db From the Rancho Santa

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Student Press Law Center files amicus in suit challenging secret admissions program at U. of Illinois

donal brown August 22, 2011

With media partners the Student Press Law Center has filed an amicus brief to a federal appeals court arguing that a lower court ruled correctly in granting the Chicago Tribune access to public records about a secret University of Illinois admissions program. The university argued that the records should be withheld on grounds of “student confidentiality.” The brief reads, “For far too long, colleges and schools have been hiding behind bogus claims of ‘student privacy’

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Federal agencies follow no standard in response to Freedom of Information Act requests

donal brown June 7, 2011

A study conducted by The Hill of government responses to the Freedom of Information Act requests revealed no uniform pattern of response. The Hill filed FOIA request for over 70 federal agency FOIA logs and experienced wide variations in compliance. Some agencies sent logs with names but no affiliations. A few agencies complied in days, most in months. The Hill listed the best and worst agencies for FOIA response. -db From an analysis and commentary

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Facebook to feds: Don’t make us disclose sources of political ads

FAC May 12, 2011

The social networking site Facebook is arguing that when it comes to disclosing the backers of political advertising, size matters. Federal regulations require political advertising to say who’s behind it and who the money came from. But there are exceptions. Some ads, such as bumper stickers, can be too small for disclosure statements. In a letter to the Federal Election Commission, Facebook makes a similar case for its “standard ads,” which allow 25 characters for

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