transparency

California: District attorney finds Oxnard school board in violation of open meeting law

The Ventura County District Attorny warned the Oxnard School District that they had acted improperly in deciding not to renew its business manager’s contract. The assistant DA sent a letter saying it was appropriate to take action in closed session on some personnel issues, but once the decision was made, it should notify the public of their action in the ensuing open session with details about how each trustee voted. -db From the Ventura County

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California: Open meeting violation charged in San Juan Capistrano school’s rescinding pay cuts

A school district watchdog alleged that the San Juan Capistrano Unified School District violated California’s open meeting law in reversing pay cuts to all employees without public input. Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition, said the district trustees should redress the error by scheduling a hearing so the public can comment before taking a revote. While saying that he thought the trustees had not erred, the superintendent of schools said he would

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Texas governor tries to block selected members of media from his Twitter account

Texas Governor Rick Perry has blocked Dallas News’ Tom Benning from access to his Twitter account along with two other Texas journalists. In AllTwitter, Lauren Dugan notes that to get to the Twitter account, the blocked journalists can simply use someone else’s account. But Twitter users are upset that Perry is violating Twitter’s open spirit. -db From a commentary in AllTwitter, February 28, 2011, by Lauren Dugan. Full Story

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Supreme Court rules no FOIA privacy exemption for corporations

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations cannot use the person privacy exemption of the Freedom of Information Act. In an 8-0 decision, the court said that AT&T could not block the Federal Communications Commission from releasing government records pertaining to AT&T on grounds it would violate the corporation’s “personal privacy.” In his decision, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the word “personal” often means just the opposite of business-related, “We speak of personal expenses

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Opinion: Pentagon stonewalls secrecy reform

The Defense Department is out of step with the Obama administration’s efforts to modernize the national security classification system to prevent excessive classification writes Steven Aftergood in Secrecy News. Aftergood notes that Defense has failed to update regulations on information security in spite of a Presidential directive. -db From a commentary in Secrecy News, February 24th, 2011 by Steven Aftergood. Full Story

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