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FBI suffers setback in effort to bury file on 1960s informant

donal brown April 5, 2012

  The FBI lost another round Wednesday in its quest to withhold records detailing the late Memphis photographer Ernest Withers’ secret work as an informant in the 1960s. A federal judge held that the FBI made errors and lapses but also deliberate decisions that confirmed the fact that Withers was an informant, making his file eligible for release to the Memphis Commercial Appeal under the Freedom of Information Act.  -db From the Memphis Commercial Appeal,

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California state senator criticizes state university for beating down whistleblowers

donal brown April 5, 2012

California State Senator Leland Yee (D- San Francisco) has asked the California State University to stop retaliating against whistleblowers. A recent newspaper article revealed that CSU spent almost $9 million recently for lawyers and settlements in lawsuits brought by employees who claimed they were punished for reporting infractions under the California Whistleblower Protection Act. -db From the San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 2012, by Nanette Asimov. Full story    

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New California laws bring light to decisions on public officials’ compensation

donal brown April 2, 2012

To forestall future executive compensation abuse such as that of the City of Bell, the California legislature passed two laws in effect January 1 of this year affecting local governments. The laws provide for a number of safeguards and procedural changes to allow the public greater access to and awareness of the actions of local governments involving contracts and employee compensation. -db From a commentary by Hanson Brodgett, attorneys, March 28, 2012. Full story  

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California: Tulare County wants legal fees in failed lunch meeting lawsuit

donal brown April 2, 2012

Tulare County is asking to be reimbursed for court costs in a case brought by the Time-Delta/Advance-Register and the California Newspaper Publishers Association. The newspaper interests lost the case in 2010, and the County is claiming that the suit was “clearly frivolous and lacking in merit.” The lawsuit claimed that the Tulare County Board of Supervisors violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law, in holding closed door lunch meetings the supervisors claimed were

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Judge orders release of report on University of California Davis pepper-spraying without names of most officers

donal brown March 29, 2012

An Alameda County Superior Court judge ordered the release of most of the report on the November pepper-spraying of U. C. Davis students during an occupy protest. The judge wrote, “The court is not persuaded that either the Legislature or the California Supreme Court intended [the law protecting officer information] to apply whenever public entities investigated law enforcement policies, procedures or actions and to preclude all public entities from disclosing the results of those investigations

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